windows 2000 and tagged dirs

[Kain]

Originally posted by El Diablo
alright I will give you guys some more info.

I have ownership of these files now, I claimed it as Admin. I removed the everyone group from having access, and of course granted myself full control over it and forced inheritence on all child objects. Also, the first thing I checked was the attrib on those files/dirs and removed the +a +s that was put there... but that still didn't help.

One thing that HAS helped was simply connecting through FTP and deleting them that way... but there are still some dirs that I can't get rid of, like the Com1, AUX directories.

petemcevoy has given the best link so far, as that is EXACTLY what my problem is. I am rooting around for a copy of the NT resource kit, but I seem to have misplaced my CD... personally I think someone at my last job "borrowed" it without telling me. I need to get the POSIX subsystem from it so I can start using some real commands to get rid of these dirs. I HAVE removed all of the files from the dirs though, and have reclaimed all of the space they were taking up... 6.2GB...

I had found the rm.exe and rmdir.exe on another website, but didn't install the POSIX subsystem, so that may be why they didn't work for me. I'm going to do just like the guy in the link from petemcevoy did.


Of course now my email server still isn't working because a dll is corrupted. If anyone has a copy of it let me know, it's abv_dg.dll it's used by Exchange 2000. It's located on the Exchange install disks, but wouldn't you know that disk is missing from work too and they haven't seen it in quite some time.


El Diablo
kicks some hackers, and upper management in the ass over this

Ok as far as your missing Exchange 2000 file, I know there used to be a site on the web http://ftpsearch.ntnu.no/ftpsearch that had the ability to find ANY dll file you were missing as long as it was on the internet somewhere. I don't know what they did with the server, but if you can find it, that might help with your missing file problems, as long as you have the filename.

[wAxWaReZ]

El Diablo

Removing COM1 dirs etc. is actually quite easy.
I do it all the time for people ........

Set me up with ftp access to the server with those dirs
and i'll have them cleaned off in a matter of seconds.

Best way to contact me is via ICQ #2595277

[petemcevoy]

How about posting some details on how to do it.

[wAxWaReZ]

Posting details on how to get rid of those dirs. would be a redundancy .... it's been done ... which is why there are so many servers with those dirs. on them. The info has gotten into the hands of people that don't really know what to do with it and generally make a mess of things and don't know how to clean things up when they are done ... kinda like nuclear energy ...

The knowledge should be kept to those that are trusted, are willing to follow certain rules, and have the maturity to do "the right thing" with said knowledge. If I were to just barf up the details here, on a non-password protected forum, then any tom, dick, or newbie could find it with a google search and my post would be doing more harm than good.

Someone needs a few com1 dirs cleaned off their NT box and I posess the knowledge to do such cleaning. No more really needs to be said. I don't want any of you to think I have a "holier than thou" attitude, I'm just trying to protect some valuable information. Keep it out of the heads of those that would abuse it as opposed to do good with it.

[tflynn]

I have had the same problem with an NT 4 machine. I found that if I used a Hex editor like WinHex. I was able to view the folders that were created using the devices, e.g. nul or com1. This helped give me an idea of which folders I needed to rename. I also used it to delete all the apps off the machine.

[drifter]

This topic has been discussed many times on
netknowledgebase . com and this topic is covered on the Microsoft site as well.



[quote from ms]


SUMMARY
Because applications control the policy for creating files in Windows, files sometimes are created with illegal or reserved names, such as LPT1 or PRN. This article explains how to delete such files using the standard user interface.



MORE INFORMATION
NOTE: You must be logged on locally to the Windows computer to delete these files.

If the file was created on a file allocation table (FAT) partition, you may be able to delete it under MS-DOS using standard command line utilities (such as DEL) with wildcards. For example:

DEL PR?.*

-or-


DEL LPT?.*


These commands do not work on an NTFS partition as NTFS supports the POSIX subsystem and filenames such as PRN are legal under this subsystem. However, the operating system assumes the application that created them can also delete them; therefore, you can use commands native to the POSIX subsystem.

You can delete (unlink) these files using a simple, native POSIX application. For example, the Windows Resource Kit includes such a tool, Rm.exe.

NOTE: POSIX commands are case sensitive. Drives and folders are referenced differently than in MS-DOS. Windows 2000 and later POSIX commands must use the following usage syntax:
posix /c <path\command> [<args>] IE: posix /c c:\rm.exe -d AUX.

Usage assumes Rm.exe is either in the path, or the current folder:
rm -d //driveletter/path using forward slashes/filename
For example, to remove a file or folder named COM1 (located at C:\Program Files\Subdir in this example), type the following command:
rm -d "//C/Program Files/Subdir/COM1"
To remove a folder and its entire contents (C:\Program Files\BadFolder in this example), type the following command:
rm -r "//C/Program Files/BadFolder"
Another option is to use a syntax that bypasses the normal reserve-word checks altogether. For example, you can possibly delete any file with a command such as:
DEL \\.\driveletter:\path\filename
For example:

DEL \\.\c:\somedir\aux



[/quote]


To test the effect of such names, in NT/Win2000, right-click your desktop and make a 'New Text Document', and name it CON. You should get an error message telling you that the name you chose is 'invalid' and for you to choose another name for that text file.


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hawk