Remote into a VNC Server security?

Finsfree · 11-08-2018, 04:18 PM

Hi,

I would like to VNC into my VNC Server (Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia) from outside of my network SECURITY.

Everything is working meaning I can remote in with VNC viewer to my VNC server, but how do I know it is secure?

I followed this YouTube video but nothing indicates that the connection is secure. How do I know that the connection is secure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrE_Q7f2naA

lougavulin · 11-08-2018, 06:39 PM

I did not watch the video, but usually the default VNC port is not reachable. Otherwise it is pretty meaningless to connect over ssh but everybody is still able to connect without ssh.

So if you can connect over ssh and can not on the default VNC port that would seem to be OK.

Finsfree · 11-09-2018, 08:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lougavulin

I did not watch the video, but usually the default VNC port is not reachable. Otherwise it is pretty meaningless to connect over ssh but everybody is still able to connect without ssh.

So if you can connect over ssh and can not on the default VNC port that would seem to be OK.

I'm not feeling very confident in this answer.

How do I know my VNC session is secure?

michaelk · 11-09-2018, 09:30 AM

If you are using ssh as shown in the youtube video then your connection is secure. By logging into your server using ssh all communication between the server and client is encrypted regardless of how it is being used.

The process in the video is called tunneling. Despite VNC not being encrypted all its communication between the client and server is being passed through ssh which is encrypted. As stated the firewall should be blocking the VNC port so connecting without the tunnel is not possible.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunneling_protocol

However, there are additional steps you can do to further secure ssh. Use keys and disable password authentication.