Guest Account Allows FTP Users Access Without Authentication

This article was previously published under Q137853

If a Windows NT FTP server has the guest account enabled with no password assigned, anyone can log on to the server using FTP without knowing a username or password. This situation occurs even if the FTP Server Service is configured for "Allow Anonymous Connections" using a username and password.

To prevent unauthorized connections to the FTP server, do one of the following:

• Disable the guest account.
• Place a password on the guest account.
• Configure the FTP Service to Allow Only Anonymous Connections by placing a username and password on the account.

For more information on configuring the FTP Server Service, see Chapter 7, "Using the Microsoft FTP Server Service," in the Windows NT Server "TCP/IP" manual.