Are my files/ data safe on WinGate?

[billl]

Hello everyone.

I am working in an office where the internet access is possible through a WinGate keeper software 4.42. My firewalls are activated and I regularly scan my laptop to keep it spam and trojans/viruses free. Today, however, a guy said to me that its possible for the server people to access my laptop and all its files through win gate and I would not even know it. I have disabled file and printer sharing.

So is it possible for someone to access my harddrive like this? A quick response would be most helpful.

- A simple guy.

[adrien]

Hi

It's not clear to me what sort of "attack" this guy is proposing.

I also presume WinGate's not running on your laptop, but instead is running on some computer which is the gateway for your network. So your files aren't on the WinGate computer.

So is he talking about some internet-based user accessing your laptop from the internet back through WinGate? If so, the answer is no, unless you have WinGate services available from the internet (e.g. if WinGate accepts connections and requests from the internet, then yes, someone on the internet can reverse-proxy to a computer on your LAN). If you have a firewall running on your laptop though, this is unlikely to get anywhere.

If the attacker is on your LAN, then WinGate isn't even in play, and it's up to your LAN security / firewall to deal with that.

By default WinGate services are not available from the internet, but 4.4.2 is an extremely old version now. The least we'd recommend is to install WinGate 6.6.4 over it. You can keep using your existing key (or update it and get some more features).

Adrien

[billl]

Hi Adrien. Thank you for the quick reply.

The attack this guy is proposing is that the IT personnel incharge of the WinGate server can access the local files on my laptop via LAN, because I am using it to access the internet. I told him that I don't share any files on the LAN, he said its still possible for them to access any and all files (even if they are unshared) on my laptop via WinGate, which raised concerns for me. Is this possible, Adrien?

You are right, my files are not the WinGate computer.

"If the attacker is on your LAN, then WinGate isn't even in play, and it's up to your LAN security / firewall to deal with that." So if I have a firewall running on my laptop (Lenovo T60, windows 7 SP1), is that enough?

"By default WinGate services are not available from the internet, but 4.4.2 is an extremely old version now. The least we'd recommend is to install WinGate 6.6.4 over it. You can keep using your existing key (or update it and get some more features)." I have asked them to update it, and they said its in the pipe line.

I hope you are having a good day, and hopefully, your reply will help me do the same. :)

[adrien]

Hi

In this scenario, whether or not your laptop files are accessible from a computer on your LAN (whether that's running WinGate or not) is irrespective of WinGate. What I mean is that if your laptop files are accessible from the WinGate computer, then they'll be accessible from any other computer on the LAN you're connected to.

Locking your laptop down to make files on it inaccessible to other LAN computers therefore is something that is done on your laptop, it's nothing to do with WinGate - the presence of WinGate on another computer doesn't make your laptop any more or less accessible to your LAN.

Having a firewall on your laptop should prevent connections to it. It depends on your firewall. Turning off file and print sharing should prevent anyone using the server service to access your laptop resources.

So we're not really in a position to advise on securing your laptop sorry.

[adrien]

p.s. if this guy has any more specific information about how having WinGate installed on your gateway makes your laptop insecure, please get him to explain a bit more.

[rboynton]

It would also be helpful to know if you are part of a domain (or basic peer sharing), and if on a domain, the individual rattling his sabre is a member of the "domain admin" group.

[ivmay]

I think that you are talking about any computer connected in a network here. Regardless of whether there is wingate on your computer or accessing what you could call a cloud wingate to each workstation. If I may, the attack he is talking about can be done on any computer even without an installed wingate. As a general rule, you should protect your machine, especially when you are connected in a network you are not really particular with. So in this case, what you did, is already enough.