# securing RDP to windows server 2008r2



## PK-her0 (Sep 17, 2007)

hi guys,

how safe is it really to rdp from windows 10 into server 2008?

im using default port 3389 for the connection...which im sure is not the best practice
do i just need to change the port number? whats the best practice

regards


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## Rockn (Jul 29, 2001)

Not secure at all. If you are doing it on a LAN or VPN it is fine, but never expose that port over the interwebs.


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## PK-her0 (Sep 17, 2007)

hey rockn is RDP straight into the server just a bad idea full stop...am i better off teamviewing into a client and remoting in from there?


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## Triple6 (Dec 26, 2002)

Better doing a VPN session into a firewall/router and then doing RDP to the server.


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## PK-her0 (Sep 17, 2007)

ok thanks guys


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## PK-her0 (Sep 17, 2007)

hey guys,

i have a VPN Firewall FVS338 as a gateway router to my network...i have 2 questions

1) will i be able to implement rdp over a secure connection to this device then my server?
2) can i use a third party vpn client software to connect to this...or would i have to get the netgear vpn client
which i think is a problem to obtain.

thanks


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## zx10guy (Mar 30, 2008)

1) No.
2) I used to use the same firewall, FVS338. The ProSafe VPN client (SafeNet) is supposed to come free with the FVS338 for one client. You may want to contact Netgear support or ask on the Netgear ProSafe support forums. I don't remember how I got mine as I got it a quite a few years ago. There's also the option to use the built in VPN client in Windows. Not sure if Win7/8/10 is any different than XP. But I did configure the built in VPN client on XP and got it working with both my FVS318 and FVS338. I stopped using it when I got the ProSafe VPN client working.

And to add some more to the responses about why it's not a good idea to expose the RDP service to the Internet. Just do a search on "windows remote desktop vulnerabilities" https://www.google.com/webhp?source...TF-8#q=windows remote desktop vulnerabilities and you'll get a smorgasbord of hits. With the latest vulnerability being this: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/security/ms15-067.aspx allowing remote code execution.


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