Shared file store (NAS): what it is and how it is attacked
A box on the network that holds shared files.
Also known as
- NAS
- network attached storage
Typing any of them into the editor finds this object.
Why it matters on a security diagram
Frequently bought by a department rather than IT, and frequently never patched.
How it gets attacked, and what reduces it
How it gets attacked
- Management pages reachable from the internet
- Known flaws in consumer models, targeted at scale
What reduces it
- Keep snapshot schedules and retention under different credentials from the live data
- Take management pages off the internet
- Inventory units bought by departments, which is where the unpatched ones are
Where it sits
- Group
- Storage · Where data sits still.
- Whose side, by default
- Ours · Belongs to the organisation the diagram is about.
- Catalogue identifier
- shared-file-store
Reviewed . CC BY 4.0.
Others in storage
- Storage networkSAN · storage area networkA high-speed network whose only job is connecting servers to disks.
- Cloud storageS3 · blob storage · bucket · object storage · cloud file storageA pool of files kept in a cloud platform, each one labelled and fetched by name rather than filed in folders.
- Backup vaultimmutable backup · offline backup · air-gapped copyA copy of your data held so that it cannot be changed or deleted for a set period, including by an administrator, for as long as the retention lock is genuinely in force.
The storage group lists all 4 of them side by side.
Shared file store on your own diagram
Open the editor, press N, and type NAS. The object is placed and connected to whatever was selected, and Tab adds the next one already joined to it. Nothing is uploaded: the page is served with a Content Security Policy that forbids the browser from making any outbound request at all.
Open the diagram maker