A web-based RDP client built with Go WebAssembly and grdp(github.com)
59 pointsby mariuz6 hours ago6 comments
  • the_data_nerdan hour ago
    clipboard is the boring nightmare of browser-RDP. the wire protocol negotiates fine. the browser side has the clipboard API gated behind permissions plus a user-gesture requirement for writes. on the read side most browsers prompt the user every single time. so you either rebuild a custom in-page clipboard buffer (loses OS integration, defeats the point) or accept that paste-INTO-RDP works smoothly while paste-OUT-of-RDP needs a click each time. neither matches what people expect when they hear "web RDP client." worth checking the project's behavior on chrome vs firefox before assuming feature-parity with native mstsc.
    • maxloh18 minutes ago
      > ...on the read side most browsers prompt the user every single time.

      I don't think that is the case. Google Docs, Office 365, and Notion all function without requiring repeated user permissions.

  • solarkraft5 hours ago
    Looks very interesting, but i’m a bit surprised the most important feature isn’t mentioned: How well does clipboard sharing work?
    • wcrossbow4 hours ago
      Im not a big fan of Windows but copy pasting a file across 3 nested RDP sessions feels magical every time
      • debarshrian hour ago
        I am not sure if you have tried broadcasting feature in terminals, thats magical too.
      • ktpsns3 hours ago
        To be honest, three nested RDPs sound like a terrible hack. In an ideal world, this would be two port forwardings and one RDP (thinking about ssh, which is still underrepresented in windows world). In an even more ideal world, this would be an IPv6 direct access ;-)
        • everforward2 hours ago
          There are legit reasons, at least for two nested sessions. A production network that’s airgapped except for a bastion host that acts as a gateway. It’s better than port forwarding because you have to auth to the bastion host before the RDP chaining, and it often takes separate credentials for the second RDP session.

          It’s a semi-common setup for higher security environments, and when you have a network of stuff that has known vulnerabilities you can’t patch for whatever reason. Traffic in and out is super carefully firewalled. It’s not great, but it’s better than a 25 year old MySQL with a direct public IP.

          • embedding-shape2 hours ago
            > airgapped except for a bastion host that acts as a gateway

            First time I've heard of an airgapped system you could access remotely. Doesn't that kind of defeat the label "airgapped"? I think I'd just call that "isolated" at that point instead.

            • debarshrian hour ago
              This concept is related to PAM. You often have to do ops on infra and need some DMZ to do the ops. In regulated industry you have to record every operations done by the person and have to follow principle of least privilege. This what should happen in an ideal world.
              • embedding-shapean hour ago
                > You often have to do ops on infra and need some DMZ to do the ops.

                This makes sense, "bastion" hosts and similar things is fairly common too. What's not common is calling those "airgapped", because they're clearly not.

                • hnlmorg4 minutes ago
                  I agree. They’re network enclaves. Which isn’t the same thing as an air gapped network.
                • debarshrian hour ago
                  Airgapped is a different concept altogether.
            • rzzzt2 hours ago
              The moat!
        • orisho2 hours ago
          It's probably there not as a way to connect networks, but as a way to keep them separate, only allowing RDP between specific computers on different networks.
    • debarshrian hour ago
      We have a custom RDP client [1]. So i have some experience building something like this. We do some an implementation similar to this.

      Clipboard sharing, uploading and downloading via shared drive is a freerdp feature that should be readily available.

      We also have sessions recording which is non-negotiable in PAM.

      [1] https://adaptive.live

    • d3Xt3r4 hours ago
      And desktop scaling. And multi-monitor support. And file transfers. And drive redirection. And peripheral redirection. And...
      • rvz3 hours ago
        ...A test suite, And security audits, And most importantly benchmarks.

        What it does have is a license which it is GPLv3. So if anyone adds all those changes, they have to make the source code available with the same software license.

        • pixel_popping2 hours ago
          In this era tho, licenses (I don't agree with this, but this is what it is) are a matter of "tokens", I speak for a fact knowing multiple relatively-big companies just gobbling GPLv3 projects and rewriting them entirely, some do publish them as well.
  • yamapikaryaan hour ago
    is it work for opening rdp file from cyberark pam?
  • jqpabc1235 hours ago
    Interesting from a technical perspective but with native RDP clients readily available on just about every platform, I don't see the need for it.
    • le-mark3 hours ago
      When it’s in a browser you don’t need to install anything on the local machine. I used to use Apache guacamole to access my machine at home from work when I was stuck in a cube all day.

      https://guacamole.apache.org/

    • stephbookan hour ago
      1 contributor, 1 commit, new project... gives me vibe-coding feels.
    • pixel_popping2 hours ago
      Browsers are sandboxes, your native client often isn't, there is definitely a huge advantage, portability and embeddability as well, it's also simpler to sniff traffic (and MITM it).
    • boredishBoi4 hours ago
      Not many good MFA options for native RDP/RDG. Putting it in the browser lets you wrap the whole thing with OAUTH/passkeys etc
  • sebakubisz3 hours ago
    [dead]
  • johnwhitman2 hours ago
    [dead]