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Windows NT Filing System and Security 

Introduction to Windows NT Security 

Key Topics 

Windows Explorer 

Partitioning The Drive 

Windows NT FAT Partition 

File Systems 

File Allocation Table (FAT) 

NTFS File System Features 

NTFS Searching 

NTFS Fault Tolerance 

NTFS Logging Of Files 

Converting to NTFS 

File Compression in Windows NT 

Folder and File Permissions 

NTFS Security 

NTFS Security Permissions 

Domains and Workgroups 

Windows Workgroups 

Domains Centralized Database 

SAM Environment 

Computer Account 

Groups and User Accounts 

Users In The Database 

What is a Groups 

Least Restrictive Permission 

Types of Groups 

Sharing Permissions 

Hidden Folders 

Automatically Hidden Folder 

Sharing Permissions 

Combined Permission 

NTFS And Sharing 

Levels Of Restriction 

User Manager 

Windows NT Security Policy 

Volume Disk Types 

Simple Volume 

Spanned Volume 

Spanned Volumes Fault Tolerance 

Stripe Set with Parity 

Striped Set With Parity Performance 

Windows and Fault Tolerance 

Questions 

Windows NT  Filing  System and Security

Introduction to Windows NT  Security

  • The advanced features of NTFS  include security, fault tolerance, advanced searching , file compression, etc.

  • Windows NT  provides both NTFS  and sharing  permissions  on files  and folders  for all users and groups within its SAM .

  • You can create volumes on disks within windows NT4 that allow you to generate simple volumes, spanned volumes, mirrored volumes, and stripped set with parity.

Key Topics

  • Basic Disk

  • Partitioning  the drive

  • File Allocation Table (FAT)

  • NTFS  File Systems Features

  • NTFS  Searching

  • Converting to NTFS

  • NTFS  Security

  • Domains and Workgroups

  • SAM  Environments

  • Sharing  permissions

  • NTFS  and Sharing

  • Volume Disk  Types

  • Windows and Fault Tolerance

 

Windows Explorer

  • The Main tool that could be used to view and manipulate files  and folders  is Windows Explorer . The main function of Windows Explorer is to manipulate files and folders by copying, deleting moving, viewing, renaming the files and folders on the hard drive .

  • Lets run windows explorer and view some of its menu options and features. You will also notice the tool bar and the alternate mouse  click options.

Partitioning  The Drive

  • A Hard drive, which contains partitions, is a basic disk . FDISK.EXE  is a DOS  or Windows 9x utility that can be used to partition your hard drive .

  • There are two main partitions in a basic disk , the primary partition  and extended partition that contain logical drives.

  • Basis disks are ideal for dual booting drives booting in more then one operating system . 

Windows NT  FAT Partition

  • Windows NT  supports partitions and installs itself on the partition with a FAT filing system if the partitions exist prior to the installation  of Windows NT.

  • Windows NT  can also be installed on a unused region of the disk and convert  that region to a FAT or NTFS  region before installation  can proceed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


File Systems

  • Windows NT  supports only FAT16 , and NTFS  filing systems.

  • Some of the filing features of Windows NT  can only be attained on the NTFS  filing system.

File Allocation Table (FAT)

  • FAT is the simplest way of organizing the storage space on the hard drive  when dealing with files  and folders .

  • FAT contains a table of content listing the cluster location of all files  recorded on the storage medium .

  • FAT 16 was developed for DOS  version 3 and above supporting partition sizes of 2GB and a hard drive  size of 4GB 

NTFS  File System Features

  • NTFS  stands for New Technology File System.

  • NTFS  supports File, Folder and Volume compression

  • If something goes wrong during compression, individual files  are effected rather regions on the disk since NTFS  compression is based on individual file compressions.

  • NTFS  can support partition sizes up to 16 exabytes  (264 ) which uses uniform cluster sizes of 4KB .

  • The backup of the boot sector performed on NTFS  is kept at the end of the volume.

  • NTFS  ensures file recovery  and volume consistency using a new transaction logging and recovery technique.

NTFS  Searching

  • Can set individual user and group  permissions  on files , folders  and shares on the volume.

  • NTFS  uses a B-Tree  directory  structure, which improves search performance  since it is the directory structure used in most databases .

NTFS  Fault Tolerance

  • NTFS  has a hot fix feature, which means that on every write  process Windows NT  verifies the file correctness by reading the file again.

  • If the file has become corrupted Windows NT  will mark that region on the disk as bad and rewrites the data in another data block.

 

NTFS  Logging Of Files

  • Since NTFS  logs all filing system changes, if a power loss occurs while changes are being made and a read  or write  task is not completed, the task will be completed once power is restored.

  • NTFS  reduces the need for defragmentation because it always attempts to write  data in contiguous  blocks. 

Converting to NTFS

  • Windows NT  provides a disk management utility to convert  FAT to NTFS , which can ultimately results in the data on those partitions being lost during the conversion from FAT to NTFS or vise versa.

  • You can convert  FAT to NTFS  without reformatting and loss of data on the partition by using the following command in command prompt .

  • Convert x: /FS: NTFS  /v , x=drive, v=verbose mode displaying messaging during the conversion.

  • The conversion from FAT to NTFS  is one way, and the filing system cannot be reconverted back to FAT without data loss.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


File Compression  in Windows NT

  • Windows NT  supports the compression of files  and folders  on NTFS  partitions only.

  • Any compression causes performance  degradation, because the compression filter  needs to be activated on the files  of interest every time the file is required before the file can be used.

  • The filter is also activated when copying files  in to compressed  folders  or copying files from a compressed folder.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Folder and File Permissions

  • NTFS  has security built-in as part of the filing system. When you format  your hard drive  with NTFS, its permissions  can be assigned to the users and groups defined on the SAM , which are list , read , write , read and execute , modify , full control .

  • Folders need to be shared if they are to be accessed from the network . Sharing  permissions  can also be applied to users and groups defined on the SAM  which are Read , Change  and Full control .

  • It is recommended that you implement the most restrictive permission  for NTFS  and least restrictive  permission for sharing  within the Windows NT  environment.

NTFS  Security

  • NTFS  has security built in as part of the filing system. When you format  your hard drive  with NTFS, its permissions  can be utilized which are list , read , write , read and execute , modify , full control .

NTFS  Security  Permissions

 

 

 

Domains and Workgroups

  • Windows NT4 supports joining a workgroup  or a domain environment.

  • If you are installing windows NT4 and are unsure if you can join a domain, you must first either create a workgroup  or join an existing workgroup and join the domain later after the installation  has been completed.

  • The domain contains a centralized  security database called the Security  accounts Manager (SAM ) inside the Primary Domain  Controller (PDC ) server.

Windows Workgroups

  • A windows NT workgroup  is a logical grouping of computers within a peer-to-peer network  that share files  and resources  within a small networking environment.

  • All the computers within the workgroup  must have there individual security permissions  configured in the SAM .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Domains Centralized Database

  • Within a domain there exists a centralized  user and resource accounts database called the SAM  stored on the PDC , which can be accessed by all the computers on the domain.

SAM  Environment

  • This Security  Accounts Manager (SAM ) database is stored on the PDC  and BDC  within a Windows NT  domain environment and locally on each machine within a Windows NT workgroup  environment.

Computer Account

  • The computer account must be created for all the computers joining the domain prior to them attempting to join by the domain administrator .

  • Computers can join the domain during their installation  without having a prior account on the domain only if the domain administrator  is installing that particular computer.

Groups and User Accounts

  • A user account  defines the current user with the user name and password  etc, the groups they belong to, and finally their permissions  in accessing folders  and resources  within the users database.

Users In The Database

  • Users and groups defined within a workgroup  exist with in each machines respective local SAM .

  • Users and groups defined in a centralized  domain structure exist with in the PDC  and BDC  SAM .

  • Windows NT  provides the administrator  with a specialized tool called User Manager , which allows users/groups to be added, modified and associated with other groups.

 What is a Groups

  • A collection of users, computers, contacts and other groups can be defined as a group .

  • When users are added to a group , all of the permissions  assigned to the group are then assigned to the user added.

Least Restrictive Permission

  • If a user has been previously assigned certain permissions  or belongs to several groups then the users effective rights are the least restrictive  combination of all the permissions assigned accept the no access permission, which takes the highest priority .

Types of Groups

  • There exist two types of groups, distribution groups  (which are used only for sending email) and security groups  (used for granting access to folders  and resources  and as distribution groups).

Sharing  Permissions

  • Folders need to be shared if they are to be accessed from the network . Sharing  permissions  include Read , Change  and Full control .

Hidden Folders

  • You can administratively share a folder by placing a $ sign in front of the share which means that this particular share is hidden  and cannot be seen in when searching  the network  shares by using the browser .

Automatically Hidden Folder

  • All Windows NT  and windows 2000 systems have the root of all the volumes and the printer driver ’s folder automatically administratively hidden  shared by default.

Sharing  Permissions

 

 

Combined Permission

  • For users accessing data from the network , the user must by pass both sharing  and NTFS  permissions  since NTFS provides security locally and sharing provides security on the network.

NTFS  And Sharing

  • When setting the security permissions  for folder to be access from the network  you must combine both sharing  and NTFS  permissions.

Levels Of Restriction

  • It is recommended that you implement the most restrictive permission  for NTFS  and least restrictive  permission for sharing .

  • The NTFS  security permissions  have greater variety of permissions and apply to both local and networked users. 

User Manager

  • You can use User Manager  or user Manager for domains to add individual users and assign their permissions  on the system or domain. You can also add groups, assign group  permissions and add users to groups using user manager .

Windows NT  Security  Policy

  • The security policy inside Windows NT  includes account policy, user rights policy, advanced user rights, Audit policy , and network  policy.

  • These policies  enforce certain rules defined by the administrator  applying to all the system users throughout the network  improving the system and network security.

Volume Disk  Types

  • There are four main types of Windows NT  volumes, Simple volume , Spanned Volume , mirrored sets , Striped set with parity

Simple Volume

  • Simple volumes contain disk space on a single disk.

  • It can be one or more region on a single disk, which may be linked together.

  • Simple volumes can be formatted in FAT, NTFS .

  • Only simple volumes formatted in NTFS  can be extended.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Spanned Volume

  • A single volume extended over multiple drives is a spanned volume.

  • The spanned volume cannot include the system or boot volume.

  • Spanned volumes can be as small as 2 disks and as large as 32 disks.

Spanned Volumes Fault Tolerance  

  • Spanned volumes are not fault tolerant, which means they cannot be mirrored or striped.

  • If one of the disks in a spanned volume fails the whole volume is lost.

 

Stripe Set with Parity

  • Striped Set With Parity  or Raid Level 5  offer fault tolerance by duplicating every peace of data and distributing the information  among all the drives in an organized  pattern.

  • Data is written to the stripped volumes distributed evenly in 64KB sizes.

  • If a drive fails within the stripe set, the information  within it can be recovered from the rest of the drives within the stripe set.

Striped Set With Parity  Performance

  • Stripped set with parity yields the best performance  of all storage sets because all the disks in the set act collectively as a single disk improving read  and write  performance.

  • The performance  of a stripped set with parity increases with the number of disks used in the set

  • There is the requirement of a minimum of three hard drives and a maximum of 32 disks within the Stripe set with parity.

Windows and Fault Tolerance

  • Windows NT  and windows 2000 both offer fault tolerance using RAID level 1  (Mirror Set) and RAID Level 5 (Stripe Set with Parity ).

  • RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks

  • Window NT offers fault tolerance on volumes on a basic disk .

Questions

 

  1. What are the filing systems supported by Windows NT? (Choose all that apply)

    1. Fat16

    2. Fat32

    3. NTFS

    4. NTFS5

    5. HPFS

  2. What are the features of NTFS  in Windows NT? (Choose all that apply)

    1. Folder compression

    2. Supports partitions of up to16 exabytes

    3. Supports disk quotas

    4. Backup  the boot sector

    5. Supports EFS

  3. What are the features of NTFS  in Windows NT? (Choose all that apply)

    1. Uses B-tree directory  structure

    2. Use dynamic disk

    3. Has built in hot fix feature

    4. Logs filing system changes

    5. Supported on CDROM  drives

  4. What are the NTFS  security permissions  supported by Windows NT? (Choose all that apply)

    1. Read

    2. Edit

    3. Change

    4. Delete

    5. Full Control

  5.  What are the NTFS  security permissions  supported by Windows NT? (Choose all that apply)

    1. Modify

    2. Control

    3. Read  and execute

    4. Take ownership

    5. Write

  6. What are the NTFS  sharing  permissions  supported by Windows NT? (Choose all that apply)

    1. Read

    2. Edit

    3. Change

    4. Delete

    5. Full Control

  7. What are the different types of groups? (Choose all that apply)

    1. Security  groups

    2. Distribution groups

    3. Special group

    4. User group

    5. SAM  group

  8. What is the difference between the SAM  on the PDC  and the BDC? (Choose all that apply)

    1. The SAM  on the PCD is changeable

    2. The SAM  on the BDC  is changeable

    3. The SAM  on the BDC  in non-changeable

    4. The SAM  on the PDC  is non-changeable

    5. There is no SAM  on the BDC

  9. What character is placed in front of a hidden  folder

    1. %

    2. #

    3. ^

    4. $

    5. *

  10. What are the different volumes supported by Windows NT? (Choose all that apply)

    1. Simple volume

    2. Square volume

    3. Expanded volume

    4. Spanned volume

    5. Stripped set with parity

Answers

  1. A,C

  2. A,B,D

  3. A,C,D

  4. A,E

  5. A,C,E

  6. A,C,E

  7. A,B

  8. A,C

  9. D

  10. A,D,E

 

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