How does Remote Desktop handle Smart card and NLA? | RSA Community

Loading

Skip to Navigation Skip to Main Content

How does Remote Desktop handle Smart card and NLA?

Originally Published: 2010-06-07

Last Modified: 2023-10-06

Article Number

000058004

Applies To

Windows Network Level Authentication (NLA)
Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP)
RSA Authentication Client (RAC)
RSA Smart Card Middleware
RSA SID800
RSA SecurID SID800 Hardware Authenticators

Issue

How does Remote Desktop handle Smart card and NLA?

Resolution

RDP User Experience for Various Configurations of Network Level Authentication (NLA)

NLA configured on Local system?[1]	NLA configured on remote system?[2]	MS Password CP filtered on remote system?[3]	System where user is prompted for credentials	Smart card removal policy on remote system is enforced?
No	No	N/A		Yes
No	Yes	N/A	Remote system (subject to remote system policy)[4]	Yes
Yes	No	N/A	Remote system (subject to local policy)[5]	Yes
Yes	Yes	No	Local system	No
Yes	Yes	Yes	Both local system and remote system	Yes

[1] OS must be Windows Server 2008, Vista (any edition), Windows 7 or XP SP3 with CredSSP support explicitly enabled

[2] OS must be Windows Server 2008, Vista (any edition) or Windows 7

[3] Third-party providers cannot be configured to accept the passed-through credentials. Only the MS credential providers are supported for this purpose.

[4] Connection is only possible if Remote Desktop policy on the remote system is configured to allow non-NLA connections

[5] To handle the case where NLA is unavailable on the remote system, RDC policy can be set to 1. ) silently connect; 2.) allow the connection after warning the user; 3.) do not allow the connection

Don't see what you're looking for?

Loading

How does Remote Desktop handle Smart card and NLA? | RSA Community