Remote Desktop Protocol

Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is a multi-channel protocol that allows a user to connect to a computer running Microsoft Terminal Services.

Clients exist for most versions of Windows, and other operating systems such as Linux, FreeBSD, and Mac OS X.

The server listens by default on TCP port 3389. Based on the ITU T.share protocol (also known as T.128), the first

version of RDP (called version 4.0) was introduced with Terminal Services in Windows NT 4.0 Server, Terminal Server Edition.

Version 5.0, introduced with Windows 2000 Server, added support for a number of features, including printing to local printers, and aimed to improve network bandwidth usage.

Version 5.1, introduced with Windows XP Professional, included support for 24-bit color and sound.

Version 5.2, introduced with Windows Server 2003, included support for console mode connections, a session directory, and local resource mapping.

Version 6.0, which will be introduced with Windows Vista and Windows Server "Longhorn", will include a significant number of new features.

Features

24-bit color support, giving a palette of 16.7 million colors. (8-, 15-, and 16-bit color are also supported.)

128-bit encryption, using the RC4 encryption algorithm. (This is the default security; older clients may use encryption of lesser strength.)

Audio allows users to run an audio program on the remote desktop and have the sound redirected to their local computer.

File System Redirection allows users to use their local files on a remote desktop within the terminal session.

Printer Redirection allows users to use their local printer within the terminal session as they would with a locally or network shared printer.

Port Redirection allows applications running within the terminal session to access local serial and parallel ports directly.

The clipboard can be shared between the remote computer and the local computer.

Upcoming features in RDP 6.0

Remote Programs: Application publishing with client-side file type associations.

Seamless Windows: Remote applications can run on a client machine that are served by a Remote Desktop connection.

Terminal Server Gateway: Enables the ability to use a front-end IIS server to accept

connections for back-end Terminal Services servers via an HTTPS connection, similar to how RPC over HTTPS allows Outlook clients to connect to a back-end Exchange 2003 server.

Support for remoting of Avalon/WinFX applications: Clients that have Avalon/WinFX support will be able to display full

Avalon effects on a local machine. Rewrite of device redirection to be more general-purpose,

allowing a greater variety of devices to be remoted. All of Terminal Services will be fully configurable and scriptable

via WMI. Bandwidth tuning for RDP clients.

Other products

Provision Networks Citrix MetaFrame Independent Computing Architecture Virtual Network Computing (VNC) NX technology rdesktop - free open source client for

Unix platforms

Third-party products

Thinstuff Touch Linux RDP and terminalserver solution - World's first commercial RDP server for Linux

iShadow Desktop - Multi-monitor, multi-protocol, multi-session tool for ICA, RDP and VNC connectivity.

2X SecureRDP - Free tool to filter incoming RDP connections on terminal services

Microsoft RDP Man in the Middle Vulnerability - Article detailing Man in the middle attacks against Remote Desktop Protocol

properJavaRDP - free open source client in Java xrdp - free open source prototype RDP server for Unix

platforms, based on the VNC libraries