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File transfer with SMB

3 min read

There are many ways to transfer between devices on the same network. Either by hosting a web server or copy directly if the tool support it. However, we might face some limitations due to policy or firewall. In this case, we can use SMB to transfer files between devices.

SMB

SMB (Server Message Block) is a network file sharing protocol that allows applications to read and write to files and request services from server programs in a computer network. It is primarily used for providing shared access to files, printers, and serial ports between nodes on a network.

SMB server

To transfer files using SMB, we need to set up an SMB server on the host machine. This can be done using the impacket-smbserver tool, which is part of the Impacket suite. Impacket is a collection of Python classes for working with network protocols, and it provides a convenient way to create an SMB server.

Using impacket-smbserver to host a share folder. This will allow us to transfer files to the target machine.

impacket-smbserver -smb2support smbshare /path/to/share
  • -smb2support: This option is used to enable SMB2 support. SMB2 is a newer version of the SMB protocol that offers improved performance and security features compared to the older SMB1 protocol. By enabling this option, you ensure that the SMB server can communicate with clients that support SMB2, which is important for compatibility with modern operating systems and applications.
  • smbshare: This is the name of the SMB share that will be created. You can choose any name you like, but it should be a valid SMB share name.
  • /path/to/share: This is the path to the directory that you want to share. You can specify any directory on your host machine that you want to make accessible to clients over the SMB protocol.

SMB client

  • Windows machine
net use \\<host_ip>\smbshare
 
# Easier interaction but worse opsec
net use p: \\<host_ip>\smbshare
  • Linux machine
smbclient //host_ip/smbshare -U <username>
  • -U <username>: This option specifies the username to use when connecting to the SMB share. If you don’t specify a username, the command will prompt you for one. You can also use the -N option to connect without a password if the share is configured to allow anonymous access.
  • //host_ip/smbshare: This is the path to the SMB share you want to connect to. Replace <host_ip> with the IP address of the host machine where the SMB server is running, and smbshare with the name of the share you created.

Transfer files

  • Windows machine
copy <file> \\<host_ip>\smbshare
  • Linux machine
# To download a file
get <file>
 
# To upload a file
put <file>

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