Port Authority Database
You must log in or register to see images
Port 3389
Name:
You must log in or register to see images
msrdp
You must log in or register to see images
Purpose:
You must log in or register to see images
Microsoft Remote Display Protocol
You must log in or register to see images
Description:
You must log in or register to see images
This port is used by Microsoft's "Terminal Server" or "Terminal Services" which were renamed to "Remote Desktop" for their appearance in Windows XP.
You must log in or register to see images
Related Ports:
You must log in or register to see images
-
You must log in or register to see images
You must log in or register to see images
You must log in or register to see images
Background and Additional Information:
You must log in or register to see images
With their introduction of Windows XP, Microsoft renamed their original Terminal Server technology, which they purchased from Citrix years before, to the more user friendly "Remote Desktop". Terminal Server / Remote Desktop allows a remote client to remotely logon to a properly equipped and enabled machine and to then display a fully graphical desktop from that remote machine.
It's all very cool and it works surprisingly well (for a remotely connected graphical user interface), but you can imagine the security implications. Since everyone knows that Remote Desktop runs over TCP port 3389, world wide Internet scans for port 3389 are becoming more common. From a strict security standpoint, regardless of the user name and strength of the passwords available on the hosting machine, anyone who is deliberately leaving port 3389 wide open and available to the entire Internet is courting extreme danger.
You must not forget that ALL open ports — like 3389 — have Internet servers and services running behind them, even if it's on a machine in your home. The same risk and exploitation of Internet vulnerabilities that you hear and read about daily becomes YOUR liability when you deliberately open and expose ports to the Internet.
While it could be argued that no one would be able to guess a sufficiently bizarre user name and password, and while choosing strange names and secure passwords for publicly exposed services is always important, that's NOT the only security risk. Microsoft's track record of publicly exposed, remotely exploitable server vulnerabilities is so bad that it's probably true that they have never offered a server or service in which multiple security vulnerabilities were NOT eventually discovered (and often exploited). That being the case, you do NOT want to be running an exposed "Remote Desktop" server on the day when the community of malicious Internet hackers discovers a means to overflow an "unchecked buffer" or otherwise circumvent your security and exploit the faith you have implicitly placed in Microsoft's security.