A penetration tester has identified open TCP ports 139 and 445 on a target Windows server. To identify potentially exposed file shares, including hidden ones, which of the following enumeration techniques would be the most direct and effective?
Launch a web directory brute-forcing tool against the target's IP address.
Initiate a passive network capture to wait for share announcements in broadcast traffic.
Establish a remote shell and parse environment variables for directory paths.
Use a specialized tool or script to query the SMB service for a list of available shares.
The most direct and effective method for enumerating file shares is to actively query the Server Message Block (SMB) service running on TCP ports 139 and 445. Specialized tools and scripts, such as smbclient, enum4linux-ng, or Nmap's smb-enum-shares.nse script, are designed for this purpose. Attempting to brute-force web directories targets the wrong service. Establishing a remote shell requires a level of access not yet obtained during this enumeration phase. Passively capturing broadcast traffic is unreliable and may not reveal all available shares from the specific target.
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Why are environment variables not effective for folder enumeration?