Entering Credentials to Access Router Attached Storage

[gfd52]

Greetings,

While I have used this resource in the past, I am new to this community. I would like to thank you for accepting me as a member and I hope you can help me with an issue regarding router attached storage.

I have an Asus RT-AX82U, connected by ethernet to a desktop computer running Windows 11. I do not have the insiders build. Rather I have the fully patched main stream build. The router is not supported by Merlin at the moment, but does have the latest Asus firmware installed. A Samsung 2TB SSD is attached to the router.

I have set the storage up in both the USB Application (aiDisk) and also activated Cloud Disk in aiCloud. Cloud Disk was activated as it was not possible to access the storage from a router using FTP in any of the browsers I have installed. I can access the storage from the browser using HTTPS://<host>.asuscomm.com. This behaves as a cloud storage medium rather than a regular drive. That is OK, as I only want to up/download files from devices other than my desktop.

I want to use the storage as a secondary backup location for my desktop computer to guard against malware. In order to do that, I want to lock down the storage when accessed from the LAN. When I first entered the LAN address for the storage (\\192.168.xx.x) I had to enter the router username and password to gain access. That's exactly what I want. However, after navigating away from the network share and/or closing File Explorer; I wasn't asked for credentials again. That is not the behaviour I want.

Every time I access the router attached storage from the LAN, I want to have to enter the router username and password. I can set up my imaging software to enter the required information when required. It was suggested that the lack of a challenge each time for access was a setting in the router. I contacted Asus support and they didn't know what to do. They asked me to change some settings to values that were already set in the router, and finally sent me a link to a page with suggestions on how to secure the router. I disabled Enable FTP in USB Application > FTP Share tab. That didn't change anything. I was still able to access the storage using \\192.168.xx.x. In the Network Place (Samba) tab, Enable Share is ON.

On the Windows side, I went into network properties > Advanced sharing settings, and unchecked the option to automatically set up network connected devices. All that did was remove the icon to double click for access to the storage. I went into Group Policy Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options > and reduced cached passwords (if domain controller is not available) from 10 to 0, and enabled Do not allow storage of passwords and credentials for network authentication. Neither of those changes made a difference. I don't know if it is Windows or the Asus firmware that is only asking for credentials to access the storage after a restart.

That's all I've got. I would really like to control access to the storage each time I attempt access for security reasons. If anyone has a solution, I would be most grateful.

Thanks,
Graham

 

[Tech9]

The router is not supported by Merlin at the moment

It’s supported by @GNUton with his official Asuswrt-Merlin fork.

 

[gfd52]

Hi Tech (no pun intended),

Thanks for the reply! I'll download and install.

Graham

 

[Tech Junky]

Did you save the credentials on Windows? Remove them from credential manager and it should prompt you until you save them again.

 

[gfd52]

No. I didn't save the credentials. Checked Credential Manager and there was nothing there related to my post today. Just some SSO_POP related items and my Microsoft account using my email address.

 

[Tech Junky]

Try rebooting the PC then and see if it still remembers the session. Explorer don't e some funky things.

 

[gfd52]

Hey TJ,

Funky is right. I rebooted, and as suspected, I was asked for credentials. After closing/reopening, I just clicked my way in. That defeats the purpose. Is there any way to always control LAN access to a storage device attached to an Asus router?

 

[Tech Junky]

It's an issue with Windows

It caches the info until you reboot as you just saw. To my knowledge there's not a way to "fix" that Asus or not. The only way around it would be using something other than SMB/CIFS/NFS connections from Windows. IIRC it will also do it if you use FTP from Explorer.

I haven't tried from Linux but do run Linux on my server which hosts as a NAS as well. With Linux there's a timer function on elevated / credential processes though that once it times out it will prompt for credentials again unless you bypass it or switch the usergroup settings to allow sudo privileges.

 

[gfd52]

Thanks for your help guys. I came up with a half a---d solution which sort of works. I created 2 batch files. One creates a mapped driver z: using 'net use' with credentials for access. The other deletes all mapped drives using 'net use' delete with the asterisk. I then typed \\192.168.xx.x, and I was asked for credentials. Cool. So I think I can run the create batch pre-backup and the delete batch post-backup and there will be no evidence of the share. We'll see.

Cheers,
Graham