We have briefly discussed SMB in earlier sections, and have also seen relevant filters. Just to refresh, SMB is a protocol that is used for browsing directories, copying files, accessing services such as printers, and several other operations over the network. Common Internet File System (CIFS) is a form, or flavor, of SMB.
SMB runs on top of the session layer protocols such as NetBIOS as originally designed or can also run directly over TCP port 445. SMB 2.0 was introduced by Microsoft in 2006 in Windows Vista, with the intention of reducing the commands and subcommands required in the SMB 1.0 protocol. Even though SMB 2.0 came out as a proprietary protocol, Microsoft published the standard to allow other systems to interoperate with their operating systems.
SMB 2.1 was released with Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 with performance improvements compared...