RustDesk – Remote desktop software, written in Rust

by maverick74 • 3 years ago

205 125 3 years ago

2Gkashmiri2• 3 years ago

wow. i am in love with rustdesk.

this is the most active and impressive collaborative community of developers who are VERY VERY responsive to all questions and are helpful in improving the software.

mrintegrity• 3 years ago

between the comments pointing out numerous serious security issues and those who point out poor code quality or phoning home to china, the comment i am replying to feels strongly like astroturfing

2Gkashmiri2• 3 years ago

phoning home to china? what's that?

how many of those posters have created issues on github regarding these things?

phoning home?

security issues?

poor code quality?

edit: would you be comfortable with google analytics in exchange of "phoning home to china"?

naikrovek2• 3 years ago

I use this to remote into my Mac Mini from my Windows machines and it is very good. VNC is awful on Macs for some reason, unless you're using it from another Mac.

mull1wonder2• 3 years ago

intel or m1?

naikrovek2• 3 years ago

M1.

capableweb4• 3 years ago

Obvious question that I couldn't find any answer to: How does the latency compare to existing solutions?

I currently use RealVNC and Steam's own VNC thing to connect to a desktop computer in the same city as where I'm connecting from. RealVNC is much laggier than Steam, which seems optimized for latency. The ping latency is something around 10-15ms (at peak hours, otherwise less), but somehow RealVNC manage to still be kind of laggy, at least compared to whatever Steam is doing.

The use case is doing game development (in Unreal Engine) via a shitty laptop, connected to a proper desktop computer.

So how would RustDesk compare to RealVNC/Steam here?

rspoerri2• 3 years ago

When i play games on windows from my mac i used steam, rustDesk was a bit slower last time i checked (approx 1 year ago). However rustdesk is more flexible when it comes to remote access or number of plattforms the client is available (in my case iOS).

francislavoie• 3 years ago

I've heard good things about Parsec if you're connecting to a non-Linux machine.

TheFlyingFish2• 3 years ago

I can second that. Parsec is the best remote-access software I've used, bar none. The lack of Linux hosting is an unfortunate downside.

capableweb4• 3 years ago

Thank you for this recommendation. I'm connecting to a Windows machine from Windows/Linux/macOS and Parsec works really well, low latency and good quality. Much better than RealVNC and access to the full desktop compared to Steam.

Big thanks to you!

PreInternet01• 3 years ago

Looks interesting! I'm currently, and thankfully, not responsible for any infrastructure where this would be useful, but will definitely check it out the next time the need arises.

TeamViewer is (both technically and commercially) awful, and getting rid of it is always priority #1 when taking on a new environment. You always run into fun stuff like 'oh, yeah, this 4-years obsolete version is running on our main accounting server all the time, as that's the only thing the vendor supports, and they need to be able to get in at all times'... 'yes, indeed, using only a 4-digit PIN, why do you ask?'...

Being able to supply your own RustDesk rendezvous/relay server is especially interesting to me, as features like proper SSO-linked 2FA, a log of who accessed what from where (hopefully including file transfers), and alerts on large data flows becom a lot easier to implement that way.

alex7734• 3 years ago

Sadly TeamViewer is the only thing that works on old Android Point-of-Sale devices which are still numerous. And since Android requires the manufacturer signature to do screen sharing on older versions and those manufacturers are either dead or too big to care, it will remain to be so.

I can't wait though for the day the place I work for decides to drop support for them and stops paying for that... thing as it's not only extremely expensive and awful from a security perspective but also from a general quality one: some days their server just decides to not log you in, they have a nasty crashing bug that often happens when you resize your meeting window that has been there literally for years, among other things.

codeslave133• 3 years ago

Lots of chatter that it has some issues

https://youtu.be/JIAdEGX_sIU

Makes changes to system

https://github.com/rustdesk/rustdesk/blob/1.1.9/src/platform...

I prefer meshcentral myself

shaicoleman• 3 years ago

It no longer changes system configuration on the master branch

https://github.com/rustdesk/rustdesk/pull/3002

codeslave133• 3 years ago

Ill never trust them not to pull shit like that again.

Plenty of reddit threads to on issues with relay servers (china) etc. Boils down to i just dont trust it anymore

gzer0• 3 years ago

This is particularly interesting, the commit modified the `WaylandEnable` option in the file "/etc/gdm3/custom.conf" to "false", disabling Wayland and enabling X11.

But even more interestingly so, the modification is performed with elevated privileges, via `pkexec` command.

Yikes.

codeslave133• 3 years ago

Exactly. Unforgivable in my book

xwowsersx3• 3 years ago

I guess it's a testament to how loved Rust is as a language that there are so many projects posted here with "...built in Rust".."written in Rust". I like Rust, but in some contexts I wonder how or why it matters that it was written in Rust (I know there are some projects where for security or other reasons it may actually matter) to me as an end user or at least why it's so important that posts introducing the project lead with that fact. Sometimes, it just seems like a low level implementation detail that is unimportant. Naming the entire project after Rust ("rustdesk") is a whole new level though :)

capableweb4• 3 years ago

Naming the entire project after Rust ("rustdesk") is a whole new level though :)

That happens to most ecosystems that go through a "hype cycle" just like Rust is right now. So many Go projects have something "Go" in them, same with JavaScript, Ruby and all the others who've walked the path.

xwowsersx3• 3 years ago

Hah right. I'm surprised at how protracted this hype cycle is.

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

lolinder2• 3 years ago

Normally I see the name of the language included in libraries, not applications. In that context it makes a bit more sense because it actually does matter what language the library was written in/for. For a remote desktop application it's hard to see why it's relevant enough to be included in the name.

cozzyd2• 3 years ago

Yeah, I really think it's weird to include the language name in the package name unless it's a language-specific library (with no FFI... C libraries almost never include C in their names) or bindings to something. The language is (usually) an implementation detail for an "app"

And in this specific case, a rusty desk is probably not what most people want, so if you want any non-programmers to use it... it's not the best name.

cmeacham982• 3 years ago

It's not that it's impossible to write secure code in C/C++ or that it's impossible to write insecure code in Rust, but Rust makes it much harder to write a particularly prevalent class of bug (memory safety).

These bugs are obviously particularly bad because of the security implications, but even for applications where you don't care about security having the app randomly segfault is no fun. All else being equal, I would choose an application written in Rust over C/C++.

That said, obviously the name of this project is just because the author likes Rust a lot. It happens in other languages too ("go" in Go projects, "py" in Python projects, etc).

bogwog• 3 years ago

Is this the new “I’m on Arch btw”? The comment you’re replying to doesn’t say anything about memory safety or C++

avgcorrection• 3 years ago

I have no problem with noting that it is written in Rust. But why name the app after the language?

lavasalesman• 3 years ago

Rust apps are in their "Nintendo 64" era

criddell2• 3 years ago

Maybe that's the most interesting or distinguishing feature of the app?

w4rh4wk52• 3 years ago

Like others have already mentioned, _usually_ programs written in Rust are far more stable than their respective C/C++ implementation.

One impressive data point (for me) is this: https://youtu.be/GtRo-eF8-TE?t=671

xwowsersx3• 3 years ago

Total "crash" issues encountered: 2.

That part?

brightball2• 3 years ago

It's an actual selling point more than a "loved" situation.

If I see something built for massive concurrency and I see Erlang or Elixir, I'm immediately much more confident in the tooling.

If I see something written in Rust, I'm confident in it's memory safety at a minimum but it usually bodes well for quality code in general.

Thaxll• 3 years ago

bodes well for quality code in general

Built in Rust does not assess of good code quality at all, it just tells you that you will most likely not have a class of bugs or issues, but the code itself can be very ugly.

As a matter of fact given that Rust is "young" most people don't have a lot of knowledge and will most likely copy paterns from other languages, especially when fighting with the borrow checker.

Just open some random Rust code, open the lib.rs and see how things are organized in there, you will be very surprised.

FieryTransition2• 3 years ago

No language will save you from: - A lack of knowledge about the domain, this includes the technical framework in which your program exists, behaves and interacts - Code errors which result in valid code, but does the wrong thing, Rust isn't magic - Bad choice of datastructures and algorithms - Incomprihensible code documentation and bad development practices.

While I get that languages can eliminate a type of problem, they don't eliminate badly written software. Most of the time, the software development process itself, is more important, if you really want to examine what it means to build secure/safe software.

Having a team dedicated to developing software safely and using a language with stronger type safety guarantees vs. having a person just build something with the same language, does not magically imbue the end product with good qualities.

Take your example, if you don't have a good foundation in distributed systems, and try to build a distributed system in Erlang, you will only get so far, before you hit your head against the wall so hard, you start studying distributed systems instead.

enougrustspam• 3 years ago

It's one of dozens if not hundreds of memory-safe languages. The false marketing claim that Rust somehow invented it is absolutely infuriating.

rjzzleep2• 3 years ago

It's worth noting that for a few years people suffixed all their stuff with "made in node" to get upvoted and then for a while with "made in go". I always tell my clients not to fall into the trap of treating personal preferences as the optimal solution to a problem.

100721• 3 years ago

I always tell my clients to fall into the trap of treating personal preferences as the optimal solution to a problem.

Are you missing a negation here? I might be missing the intended tone perhaps?

cleanchit• 3 years ago

It starts off as a way of inviting other rust programmers to contribute. But then the project matures and becomes an end user product and we end up like this project. The fact that we see so many rust* project is a testament to the usability and power of the language.

worksonmine3• 3 years ago

This comment is so common here I decided to do a quick search here on HN:

- written in go: 1331 results

- written in rust: 1043 results

- written in python: 763 results

- written in javascript: 525 results

Not intended to be scientific and there are false positives but you get my point. Personally I appreciate not having to visit the repository to find out. A tool being written in a language I know and enjoy is a benefit.

bheadmaster2• 3 years ago

To be fair to Rust, Go evangelists can be just as annoying. I say this as a Go evangelist :)

lolinder2• 3 years ago

A tool being written in a language I know and enjoy is a benefit.

Sincere question: why? I 100% agree about libraries, but why does the implementation language of an application matter to you?

cy_hauser2• 3 years ago

Yup, a lot of false positives without quotes. Searching with quotes on Story gives the following. (Search is case insensitive.)

  "written|built in Rust"           832 (790|42)
  "written|built in Go"             809 (792|17)
  "written|built in Python":        390 (364|26)
  "written|built in Javascript/JS"  269 (220|14) / (32|3)
  "written|built in Java"           107 (101|6)
  "written|built in TypeScript"      66 (61|5)
  "written|built in C#"              41 (38|3)
  "written|built in Stone"           10 (10|0)

edited to include both "written in" and "built in".

cultofmetatron• 3 years ago

in my case being built in rust is a benefit. elixir is my daily driver and rust fills a niche for me (all the domains where elixir isn't great) and they pair well together thanks to rustler.

A project being written in rust communicates to me that if I ever wanted to join the community and start submitting patches, I could. I have little interest in devoting the next 10-15 years "mastering" c++ but I'm happy to dig into rust.

habibur2• 3 years ago

"Rewrite it in" started with Node. Beginning at around 2010.

Then there was "in Go". Mid 10s.

And now it's Rust. 20s.

ptx• 3 years ago

And Java before that.

Hirrolot2• 3 years ago

The Rust community seems to be obsessed with the idea of re-writing every prior piece of software in Rust, to such an extent that there is a specific word for it: RIIR. This is sometimes funny, since it demonstrates the incentive to be "approved", to be praised, for some reason unknown to me. And yet, I don't see much game-changing software written in Rust, such as Docker or Kubernetes.

misja111• 3 years ago

A couple of years ago there was an avalanche of posts about projects written in Go. Today's hyped language is Rust. Give it another couple of years and some new language will have taken its place here.

adamnemecek• 3 years ago

Rust projects are infinitely easier to contribute to.

anderspitman• 3 years ago

It's a reliable way to get engagement on HN. You're guaranteed lots of comments from the Rust Evangelism Task Force as well as people inevitably asking why everyone mentions their projects are written in Rust.

sophacles2• 3 years ago

Remote desktop software is traditionally the source of many hacks - like exploiting the software itself, not just using it. So there is a relevant security angle here.

Aside from that though - there's a lot of comments on rust threads in general about how Rust isn't ready for this or that or the next thing, so these types of projects showcase that maybe the "not ready" info is outdated or over-exaggerated.

It's also one of those things that seems to occur "naturally" as a language becomes more widely adopted. A few years ago there were tons of projects linked here about "x - a tool for y written in go". And before that ruby or python, etc.

MuffinFlavored• 3 years ago

or why it matters that it was written in Rust

Because it's an accomplishment to ship anything of complexity in Rust! /s

Maybe you can look at it as "wow, it's an entire application with no unsafe code and really good (perfect?) memory safety"?

ironmagma2• 3 years ago

As an exercise, think what the result would be if it was "written in PHP" instead.

chem83• 3 years ago

My thought process is that Rust's memory model not only has a positive impact on security, but on program correctness all up. This means fewer lock ups, better performance, resource utilization etc. without so much effort from the developer. As such, while the 'built with Rust' label is no guarantee of a well-written program, it certainly avoids certain pitfalls that other languages are more susceptible to with a minimal performance tradeoff.

BFLpL0QNek• 3 years ago

Agree the underlying language is not to important.

On the other hand when I see built with Rust I have high confidence it’s going to be fast, bloat free, easy to install binary and not some slow website packaged in electron made to look/feel like an app or some NodeJs app with 1000s of random dependencies.

mosselman• 3 years ago

Can I use this to control a Chromebook?

proto_lambda2• 3 years ago

This gets posted again and again, and every time I look at it, the code quality is absolutely terrible. Remote access software is by design a complete internet-accessible backdoor to your system, I will never use one that is written as shoddily as this one.

sambull• 3 years ago

whats the commercial options code quality looking like?

proto_lambda2• 3 years ago

Maybe not much better, but that's hardly the only alternative

qbasic_forever• 3 years ago

Ssh x11 forwarding is at least supremely battle tested over decades.

rspoerri2• 3 years ago

Are there any other remote desktop services what work out of the box to access servers behind firewalls and has clients for mobile and all desktop devices?

not to criticize your answer, i just have not found any viable alternative that is free to use for all use cases.

davidmurdoch2• 3 years ago

It's written in Rust, it can't be terrible! /s

summm• 3 years ago

Also note their persistent refusal to implement TLS for their web access. This attitude alone tells me never to trust this project ever, even when they finally should use TLS.

Sadly there is no other FOSS out there that combines remote support with good NAT traversal. Existing remote access tools such e.g. VNC all do not offer NAT traversal and are incredibly hard to setup. All FOSS web/phone conference tools offering screen sharing refuse to implement transferring Cursor/Keyboard control. Probably because it is not so easy, but mostly, I guess, out if fear for diffuse security problems.

Too bad people then will be compelled to use this absolute mess...

ibeckermayer• 3 years ago

I work on the Desktop Access feature for Teleport: https://goteleport.com/docs/desktop-access/getting-started/

The tool itself is open core: https://github.com/gravitational/teleport

Most of the desktop access stuff is open source. (The only desktop related thing that's proprietary is our tool that allows for access to machines not connected to Active Directory). A sizeable chunk of the desktop access code is even Written In Rust™: https://github.com/gravitational/teleport/tree/master/lib/sr...!

dns_snek2• 3 years ago

Are you talking about their website, rustdesk.com? It looks like they have HTTPS version of "rustdesk.com" but don't redirect to it automatically.

Do you have any links to issues/interactions you find concerning? I've been evaluating different remote desktop tools recently and I'd certainly like to know about any other red flags.

sammy2255• 3 years ago

I absolutely love the idea of this, but the Google-like gui and controls bring it down so much

wdb• 3 years ago

Can imagine this will be really useful for the helpdesk scammers that get more and more banned by similar commercial providers

kwhitefoot• 3 years ago

I installed it on my laptop (Linux Mint) and mobile. It works. But how does one shut it down? Closing the UI doesn't kill the service.

guilamu2• 3 years ago

It was extremely laggy and nearly impossible to connect so I installed the docker on a server and got exactly the same result.

No idea if I did something worng, but it's unusable for me in the current state.

Anyhow, I'm still very intrested in a working version of this.

Did you guys had better luck than me?

rbut• 3 years ago

We use it for our organisation and run our own server via docker also.

Its been flawless on Linux, Mac and Windows for us, so I'm not sure why all the complaints of lag?

guilamu2• 3 years ago

I mean it's not even laggy, it takes me a full minute to display the remote desktop on a local gigabyte network.

iKlsR• 3 years ago

It seems to be getting a lot of hate here (where I found it) but I've been using it for over a year now. One of my developers used to drop into my mac from windows to do builds and diagnose ios issues plus spend non trivial time setting up other things, it was basically on for hours. Latency was good, no issues whatsoever in our time using it.

mull1wonder2• 3 years ago

Wondering if there will ever be a arch64 (m1/m2) version of rustdesk for the mac. It is currently intel only

davidmurdoch2• 3 years ago

Someone recently mentioned they have "AI fatigue". Is Rust fatigue a thing?

timbit423• 3 years ago

A piece of metal with rust could be called fatigued.

vsviridov• 3 years ago

Tried it, deployed open rendezvous server, but it was really slow (and back then didn't support ivp6).

I'm using dwservice now, but still on a lookout for a self hosted solution.

eptcyka• 3 years ago

Last time I checked, this application did a dirty thing to my /etc to force X sessions instead of Wayland. You can do these things, but please be upfront and ask me first - I certainly do before depositing bodily fluids in places I do not own.

infogulch• 3 years ago

You may be glad to hear that it doesn't do those things anymore, and native wayland support has started to be integrated: https://github.com/rustdesk/rustdesk/pull/3002

Saris• 3 years ago

I tried this about a month ago, but it caused my android tablet to hard reboot when trying to connect to my PC.

malkosta• 3 years ago

The "written in Rust" part is just because it is so impossible hard to do anything in Rust that its developers have to brag about it.

y-c-o-m-b2• 3 years ago

I found this program last week and replaced AnyDesk with it, but after reading all the comments around the security issues and especially seeing that their relay servers are potentially hosted in Beijing, I'm feeling a bit sick to my stomach honestly. I'm going to uninstall it and do more research. I'm not comfortable with the ambiguity around something that is effectively an open door to my entire system.

deeviant• 3 years ago

I'm not comfortable with the ambiguity around something that is effectively an open door to my entire system.

But the back door is written in Rust, so it's a secure, well-built backdoor, a backdoor you can trust.

TheSkyHasEyes• 3 years ago

replaced AnyDesk

What were your dislikes with it? Thanks.

y-c-o-m-b2• 3 years ago

Well it's technically not free - although you can still use it for free after the trial period, but they can disconnect you at any time - and I would lose connectivity sometimes. The main reason for switching to RustDesk is so I can build my own version and deploy it on the work laptop. I'm using PiKVM to VNC into the work laptop right now, but it's a poor alternative at the moment with the latency and resolution issues in TigerVNC.

SilentM68• 3 years ago

Has the Headless Remote issue been resolved with it? I remember it was not able to remote into headless servers when last I used it!

vfclists• 3 years ago

Unable to get encryption working with self-hosted docker versions.

RustDesk – Remote desktop software, written in Rust

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