| PureVPN software forcing File & Printer sharing on Windows 7 Hi,
I was wondering if anyone else was able to re-produce this potential security issue using PureVPN software please?
A few days ago I was infected with a Virus. (well a drive was but was not live on my PC) I was connected to a Holland PureVPN connection.
I'd recently shared a drive on my PC with my network.
To find that Kaspersky Anti-Virus had detected a virus had infected that drive.
It was the only drive infected. So by this, it's clear that the infection was spread to my PC by an infected PC already
on that VPN connection. Makes sense since VPN connections emulate network connections. And to infect other drives on
my PC, the virus would have needed to be actively run.
I compared settings with PureVPN and also HideMyAss since I still had a 2 month membership with HMA still active.
To discover the issue. When using PureVPNs software it will force the enabling of...
File and Printer Sharing on the PureVPN Network Connections Adapter Networking tab.
If I remove the tick and Click OK (also tried a reboot). As soon as I reconnect to a VPN and reopen the PureVPN Network Connections Adapter Networking tab
it will reapply the tick when it connects.
With HideMyAss VPN service. Both File and Printer sharing AND Client for Microsoft networks are unticked before and after the connection is live.
My concern and my finding has been that if you enable folder or drive sharing without a password. This could be a problem. Specially since there are allot of tutorials on the
internet where it's been suggested to add "everyone" username on Windows 7 to enable root drive sharing.
The problem we have here is that. PureVPNs software forces these to be enabled when CONNECTED to a VPN through their software.
It's worth mentioning if I set up the same PureVPN Network Connections Adapter manually, but with a different name. And manually connect to a VPN. I don't experience
File and Printer sharing being enabled when connected.
Also, I have a laptop running windows 7. The laptop is not networked in any way to the home network.
I decided to install PureVPN software onto the laptop. And sure enough, the exact same thing happened.
I've contacted PureVPN and they can't re-produce this issue. Which leaves me to ask for someone to please try this and let me know their findings.
Below are screen shots of what I am referring to on the PureVPN network adapter.
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| Hi,
Anyone got any thoughts on this?
Does it seem good practice for VPN providers to force File and Printer sharing that could effect any potential home network that might have been mis configured for example.
Surely any VPN provider would limit home network damage at all costs. |
