Brute Force RDP Attacks Depend on Your Mistakes

ZDNet, By Larry Selzter

Kaspersky Lab has added generic protection for an attack form they say is on the rise: brute force RDP attacks.

RDP stands for Remote Desktop Protocol and is the protocol for Windows Remote Desktop and Terminal Server. It is sometimes used for remote user access to servers, but very commonly used for remote administrator access. RDP "remotes" the Windows UI, allowing a remote user with an RDP client to log into Windows and use it as if local.

A brute force RDP attack would scan IP ranges and TCP port ranges (the default being 3389) for RDP servers, which could be either client or server systems. Once an attacker finds an RDP server, he would attempt to log on, particularly as Administrator. The IDS in Kaspersky products will now detect this type of attack as Bruteforce.Generic.RDP. Read more.