| 1 | <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
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| 2 | <!DOCTYPE topic PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Topic//EN" "topic.dtd">
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| 3 | <topic xml:lang="en-us" id="vbox-auth">
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| 4 | <title>RDP Authentication</title>
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| 5 |
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| 6 | <body>
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| 7 | <p>
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| 8 | For each virtual machine that is remotely accessible using RDP,
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| 9 | you can individually determine if and how client connections are
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| 10 | authenticated. For this, use the <userinput>VBoxManage
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| 11 | modifyvm</userinput> command with the
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| 12 | <codeph>--vrde-auth-type</codeph> option. See
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| 13 | <xref href="man_VBoxManage-modifyvm.dita">VBoxManage modifyvm</xref>. The following methods of
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| 14 | authentication are available:
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| 15 | </p>
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| 16 | <ul>
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| 17 | <li>
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| 18 | <p>
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| 19 | The <b outputclass="bold">null</b> method means that
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| 20 | there is no authentication at all. Any client can connect to
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| 21 | the VRDP server and thus the virtual machine. This is very
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| 22 | insecure and only to be recommended for private networks.
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| 23 | </p>
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| 24 | </li>
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| 25 | <li>
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| 26 | <p>
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| 27 | The <b outputclass="bold">external</b> method
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| 28 | provides external authentication through a special
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| 29 | authentication library. Oracle VM VirtualBox ships with two
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| 30 | special authentication libraries:
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| 31 | </p>
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| 32 | <ol>
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| 33 | <li>
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| 34 | <p>
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| 35 | The default authentication library,
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| 36 | <userinput>VBoxAuth</userinput>, authenticates against user
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| 37 | credentials of the hosts. Depending on the host
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| 38 | platform, this means the following:
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| 39 | </p>
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| 40 | <ul>
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| 41 | <li>
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| 42 | <p>
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| 43 | On Linux hosts, <userinput>VBoxAuth.so</userinput>
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| 44 | authenticates users against the host's PAM system.
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| 45 | </p>
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| 46 | </li>
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| 47 | <li>
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| 48 | <p>
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| 49 | On Windows hosts, <userinput>VBoxAuth.dll</userinput>
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| 50 | authenticates users against the host's WinLogon
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| 51 | system.
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| 52 | </p>
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| 53 | </li>
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| 54 | <li>
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| 55 | <p>
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| 56 | On macOS hosts, <userinput>VBoxAuth.dylib</userinput>
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| 57 | authenticates users against the host's directory
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| 58 | service.
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| 59 | </p>
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| 60 | </li>
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| 61 | </ul>
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| 62 | <p>
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| 63 | In other words, the external method by default performs
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| 64 | authentication with the user accounts that exist on the
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| 65 | host system. Any user with valid authentication
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| 66 | credentials is accepted. For example, the username does
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| 67 | not have to correspond to the user running the VM.
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| 68 | </p>
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| 69 | </li>
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| 70 | <li>
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| 71 | <p>
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| 72 | An additional library called
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| 73 | <userinput>VBoxAuthSimple</userinput> performs
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| 74 | authentication against credentials configured in the
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| 75 | <codeph>extradata</codeph> section of a virtual
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| 76 | machine's XML settings file. This is probably the
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| 77 | simplest way to get authentication that does not depend
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| 78 | on a running and supported guest. The following steps
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| 79 | are required:
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| 80 | </p>
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| 81 | <ol>
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| 82 | <li>
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| 83 | <p>
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| 84 | Enable <userinput>VBoxAuthSimple</userinput> with the
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| 85 | following command:
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| 86 | </p>
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| 87 | <pre xml:space="preserve">VBoxManage setproperty vrdeauthlibrary "VBoxAuthSimple"</pre>
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| 88 | </li>
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| 89 | <li>
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| 90 | <p>
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| 91 | To enable the library for a particular VM, you must
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| 92 | switch authentication to external, as follows:
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| 93 | </p>
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| 94 | <pre xml:space="preserve">VBoxManage modifyvm <varname>VM-name</varname> --vrde-auth-type external</pre>
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| 95 | <p>
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| 96 | Replace <varname>VM-name</varname> with the
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| 97 | VM name or UUID.
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| 98 | </p>
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| 99 | </li>
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| 100 | <li>
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| 101 | <p>
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| 102 | You then need to configure users and passwords by
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| 103 | writing items into the machine's extradata. Since
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| 104 | the XML machine settings file, into whose
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| 105 | <codeph>extradata</codeph> section the password
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| 106 | needs to be written, is a plain text file,
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| 107 | Oracle VM VirtualBox uses hashes to encrypt passwords. The
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| 108 | following command must be used:
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| 109 | </p>
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| 110 | <pre xml:space="preserve">VBoxManage setextradata <varname>VM-name</varname> "VBoxAuthSimple/users/<varname>user</varname>" <varname>hash</varname>
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| 111 | </pre>
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| 112 | <p>
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| 113 | Replace <varname>VM-name</varname> with the
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| 114 | VM name or UUID, <varname>user</varname>
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| 115 | with the user name who should be allowed to log in
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| 116 | and <varname>hash</varname> with the
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| 117 | encrypted password. The following command example
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| 118 | obtains the hash value for the password
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| 119 | <codeph>secret</codeph>:
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| 120 | </p>
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| 121 | <pre xml:space="preserve">$ VBoxManage internalcommands passwordhash "secret"
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| 122 | 2bb80d537b1da3e38bd30361aa855686bde0eacd7162fef6a25fe97bf527a25b</pre>
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| 123 | <p>
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| 124 | You then use <userinput>VBoxManage
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| 125 | setextradata</userinput> to store this value in the
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| 126 | machine's <codeph>extradata</codeph> section.
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| 127 | </p>
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| 128 | <p>
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| 129 | As a combined example, to set the password for the
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| 130 | user <codeph>john</codeph> and the machine
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| 131 | <codeph>My VM</codeph> to
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| 132 | <codeph>secret</codeph>, use this command:
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| 133 | </p>
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| 134 | <pre xml:space="preserve">VBoxManage setextradata "My VM" "VBoxAuthSimple/users/john"
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| 135 | 2bb80d537b1da3e38bd30361aa855686bde0eacd7162fef6a25fe97bf527a25b</pre>
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| 136 | </li>
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| 137 | </ol>
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| 138 | </li>
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| 139 | </ol>
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| 140 | </li>
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| 141 | <li>
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| 142 | <p>
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| 143 | The <b outputclass="bold">guest</b> authentication
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| 144 | method performs authentication with a special component that
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| 145 | comes with the Guest Additions. As a result, authentication
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| 146 | is not performed on the host, but with the guest user
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| 147 | accounts.
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| 148 | </p>
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| 149 | <p>
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| 150 | This method is currently still in testing and not yet
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| 151 | supported.
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| 152 | </p>
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| 153 | </li>
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| 154 | </ul>
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| 155 | <p>
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| 156 | In addition to the methods described above, you can replace the
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| 157 | default external authentication module with any other module.
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| 158 | For this, Oracle VM VirtualBox provides a well-defined interface that
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| 159 | enables you to write your own authentication module. This is
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| 160 | described in detail in the Oracle VM VirtualBox Software Development
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| 161 | Kit (SDK) reference. See <xref href="VirtualBoxAPI.dita#VirtualBoxAPI"/>.
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| 162 | </p>
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| 163 | </body>
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| 164 |
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| 165 | </topic>
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