SMB sharing disable whole HDD sharing

[etaleb]

Guys - My Mac automatically is sharing the whole internal & also external HDD and not just folders that show up under Settings - File Sharing. How do I disable this?

Thanks

 

[chabig]

Pardon my question, but how do you know this? Are you saying that when you log in from another machine you see everything, even files outside of the shared folders? May we see a screenshot of your Sharing preferences, and another screenshot of what you see from the other Mac?

 

[etaleb]

Tried SMB from windows machine and see everything and it seems that's default behavior per the Help section on the sharing section when I pressed ?

By default, any user set up on your Mac in Users & Groups settings can connect to your Mac over the network. A user with an administrator account can access your entire Mac.

 

[Slartibart]

That is the documented default, but there is hope 🤓:

To give only specific users or groups access to a folder, select the folder in the Shared Folders list, click the Add button

at the bottom of the Users list, then do one of the following:

• Add users or groups from all users of your Mac: Select Users & Groups in the list on the left, select one or more names in the list on the right, then click Select.
• Add users or groups from everyone on your network: Select Network Users or Network Groups in the list on the left, select one or more names in the list on the right, then click Select.
• Add someone from your contacts and create a sharing-only account for them:Select Contacts in the list on the left, select a name in the list on the right, click Select, create a password, then click Create Account.

Besides reading that guide provided by Apple, additionally you can restrict the access e.g. via the Finder using the Information panel.

 

[etaleb]

I did a right click on HDD, then Get Info and see Sharing & Permissions at the bottom. Are these permissions only meant for SMB file shares or also apply to local access? If it's the latter, I would be disabling my own local access

Thanks

 

[elgato2024]

I've just recently played with this myself and found that it does not work as documented, as anyone working in IT would expect, and as it should.
when i define a share, anybody has full access, by adding groups or users the full access remains.
i had to remove all groups & users that were there by default (e.g. admin) and add them again to make it work properly.
it's a mess.

generally, the entire functionality seems broken:

https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/10k7070