Remote Desktop Protocol is a widely used protocol for remote access. Remote Desktop Protocol is a protocol used by almost every systems administrator and is widely used.
While a Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is a great way for non-technical users to access remote servers. When you use RDP, a technical user can connect to your remote server from a remote location and use your remote server to do their work.
Even though RDP is a powerful tool it can introduce some vulnerabilities for the server. In this blog, we will look at how to secure RDP on your server.
Sessions over Remote Desktop are encrypted so no one can listen on the network and see your session. But, the RDP’s earlier versions are vulnerable to a bug in the way sessions were encrypted.
Here, a man-in-the-middle attack using this vulnerability can allow other users to access your session.
Secure RDP
The remote desktop protocol works great in ideal and controlled environments. Basic encryption and security settings are only provided by default in RDP.
The way these settings are used creates a level of risk that is unacceptable for most organizations when they are only relied upon for security and used as-is.
However, in all the Windows versions the Remote Desktop can be secured using SSL/TLS. There are risks whenever administrator access to a system is granted remotely, even with Remote Desktop which is more secure than remote admin tools like the VNC, a tool that does not encrypt the session entirely.
A local area network (LAN) is the only network that RDP can be used in. In addition to supporting a listening port, RDP hosts can also be profiled according to the version of Windows running.
Once this is known, threat actors can get inappropriate access via RDP by executing the following types of attacks:-
- Social engineering
- Missing security patches
- Zero-day exploits
- Credentials on the dark web
- Insecure password management
However, below we have mentioned all the security measures that should be taken to secure your RDP:-
- Always use complex passwords.
- Always use Two-factor authentication.
- Always keep your software and system updated.
- Make sure to restrict access using firewalls.
- Make sure to enable Network Level Authentication.
- Make sure to limit users who can log in using Remote Desktop.
- Always make sure to set an account lockout policy.
- Make sure to restrict direct RDP access to clients or servers.
- Always use RDP Gateways.
- For Remote Desktop make sure to change the listening port.
- Through IPSec or SSH, tunnel the Remote Desktop connections.
- For RDP logging and configuration, make sure to use existing management tools.
- Always make sure to restrict the Access to RDP with Microsoft Windows Firewall.
- Always use VNC (Virtual Network Computing).
- Always use a robust AV tool.
In this article, we’ve covered some of the best practices for securing your RDP sessions. These include setting up strong passwords, using two-factor authentication, and enforcing strong security settings.
We hope you enjoyed reading this article and that it helps you keep your network secure. However, if you want to know more about any of these, please feel free to contact us.