One of the most common remote access technologies in Windows
is the Windows RDP, or Remote Desktop Protocol.
This allows you to view and interact
with someone else's desktop while you're
sitting at your own desk using the network
as the communications medium.
There are remote desktop services
available in many different versions of Windows,
making this a very common way to share Windows
desktops and other information.
RDP allows you to connect And view an entire desktop or you
can simply connect to a single application on that desktop.
You can connect to remote desktop devices from Windows.
But there are also clients available in MacOS, Linux,
iPhone, and many other operating systems as well.
Another type of remote access technology that you probably
won't run into very often is Telnet.
The stands for Telecommunication Network and it
gives you this console based view
into another device running over TCP port 23.
Telnet is focused on providing this console access so you'll
be working at the command line, if you
connect to another device through Telnet.
Unfortunately, though, Telnet does not
provide any type of encryption of this information
as it's going across the network.
So anyone who is able to gather these packets
will be able to see the usernames, passwords,
and anything else we type into this Telnet console.
Most IT professionals instead use a different form
of connecting to a command line through this terminal view,
using SSH, which stands for Secure Shell.
And the secure part of this is an encrypted console
communication using TCP22.
It looks and feels exactly like a Telnet session,
but all of the traffic going back and forth over the network
is encrypted.
There are also many third party tools for remote desktop
or remote control of another computer.
One very common form is VNC.
That stands for Virtual Network computing.
VNC uses the RFB protocol, or Remote Frame Buffer,
to be able to view a remote desktop on another system.
The VNC is very popular and you can
find both servers and clients available for many different
operating systems.
There are also many commercial versions
of these remote control programs.
There is some popular ones, such as TeamViewer or LogMeIn
that you can install on many different operating systems,
as well.
These remote control programs can certainly
show you the remote screen and allow
you to interact with that remote desktop,
but there may be other functions available,
such as transferring files or printing
to or from a remote device.
If you work in a corporate help desk,
you rely on this remote desktop functionality
to be able to do your job.
But there are also a number of security concerns associated
with this remote desktop functionality,
especially since it gives someone
full access to your desktop.
If someone performs a port scan of a network
and they see that TCP port 3389 is open on a device,
then they know that machine must be running Remote Desktop.
All they need is the correct credentials
to be able to get into that device,
and it's very common to see a brute force attack occur
to try to find the right combination of username
and password.
Many third party commercial solutions
are designed to make it easy to access
your system from outside.
And this can have significant security concerns,
especially if you reuse your username and password.
The attackers may already have a list of usernames and passwords
that were used on another website.
And they'll simply use those same credentials
on your computer, hoping that you've reused exactly
the same username and password.
Once they have access through this remote desktop
functionality, they can perform the same functions
that you perform on your desktop.
They can gather your personal information.
They can log into your bank, because your bank trusts
the browser that's on your computer.
And they can try to purchase things
using your browser credentials on your local desktop.