security of remote desktop

[Mike Downey]

I can't find any information about the relative security of Remote Desktop
in WinXP Pro. I understand that opening up port 3389 on my router and
having my computer accessible via a login from the internet is of some
concern. However, assuming that I use a good password, once connected, is
the session secure? I guess I'm concerned about the data stream. Does
anyone know if there is some type of encryption and how good it is?

Thanks,
Mike

 

[CZ]

I can't find any information about the relative security of Remote Desktop
in WinXP Pro. I understand that opening up port 3389 on my router and
having my computer accessible via a login from the internet is of some
concern. However, assuming that I use a good password, once connected, is
the session secure? I guess I'm concerned about the data stream. Does
anyone know if there is some type of encryption and how good it is?

Mike:

It is encrypted per MS, and I cannot read the packets when packet sniffing.

Things to do re: security:
Have only one non-admim RD user acct in RD Users gp (with a strong password)
Only use that user acct for RD work
Rename Admin user acct, as it can always use RDesktop
Give Admin user acct a strong pword
Enable user acct lockout for bad password attempts
Use a firewall to toggle port 3389 to blocked it when you will not be using
RDesktop
Review your firewall logs periodically
You can run RD over VPN.


In several years of watch my router WAN port logs, I have only seen a few
hits on port 3389.