Security issues with rights to Network Service account

Question

hi,

i have a page where the user can upload files on the server. Due to some problem related to account rights it was not working.

Then i gave full rights to the Network Service account. I just wanted to know if there are any security breaching related issues with this solution, because i will be publishing the same to the client.

If there are problems with this then kindly help with proper solution.

any help will be appreciated... thank you.

Answer 1

Yes, there are.

If you have other applications running on the same server with NETWORK SERVICE, if those applications are compromised, they can access whatever resources you've allowed for YOUR app running under NETWORK SERVICE.

This is not a problem when you have single-purpose machines, which run your application and ONLY your application.

But say you have another app on there written by a junior programmer, which also runs NETWORK SERVICE. It's not important what it does... If that other application gets compromised in some way, an attacker could get to YOUR resource though that other application because you're running as the same user (NETWORK SERVICE).