When breaking out of windows restrictions it is important to be aware that navigating through the file directory is not always going to be possible. This may mean that it is not possible to use the file explorer to trigger the executables that we want to access.

When this happens, we can explore how Windows uses shortcuts.

Standard shortcuts can be created in a number of places in Windows, with areas like a user Desktop being a pretty common location to find/create them. When creating a shortcut, it may be possible to navigate through the computer’s folder structure in a way that the file explorer was restricting.

Should the breakout assessment occur on a device/account where information is limited, it is possible to enumerate information through this shortcut process and identify files belonging to the current user and also identify potential other user accounts that could be targeted as part of a further attack.

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