this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2024

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What's your thoughts on Rustdesk? (lemmy.zip)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

59 comments fedilink hide all child comments

So I've been using Rustdesk with a self hosted server for business and personal use now for some time. However, it is definitely the sketchiest foss software I've used. It seems to be based in China but the developers keep lying and saying its in Singapore.

Here is a list if everything I've found:

https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/14kjvkg/community_consensus_on_rustdesk_with_all_the/

https://github.com/rustdesk/rustdesk/discussions/1159

https://www.reddit.com/r/rustdesk/comments/y230hf/my_rustdesk_client_try_to_communication_with/

https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/10ppntj/reminder_about_the_shadyness_of_rustdesk/

https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/109tn1i/rustdesk_server_117_supports_ipv6_now_selfhosted/j42pf4m/

https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/uurta8/_/

https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/y80sw1/as_someone_that_knows_nothing_about_virtualremote/isxvib2/

https://youtu.be/JIAdEGX_sIU

It seems that now the clients and OSS server are completely foss which is good. They also no longer have public servers in China according to them. In the client itself it also now has better defaults so you are less at risk of getting attacked.

It still is sketch but it now is slightly less sketch I guess? Either way its not ideal.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 months ago

Was using AnyDesk (until it went to shit), then Teamviewer (before they went to shit) and a ton of other VNC and remote desktop options, but did finally land on self-hosting RustDesk.

It's been VERY solid and reliable for me, but what you just brought up concerns me.

I checked my filter log (from Adguard on Windows) to see if Rustdesk is calling home, and I'm not seeing anything after multiple connections and several hours of use. I guess these things aren't a concern with the self-hosted deployment?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago (2 children)

If you have a custom DNS, be sure to block all the relay domains they use and block the respective ports from external access. Even if you disable the settings to avoid relays, they don't acknowledge them and continue to try and phone home somewhere. Just checked the latest version on my phone, which has no relay setting configured, before commenting on this and sure enough, still true. Just logged an entry to rs-ny.rustdesk.com on my DNS, which of course was blocked. Desktop app has an option to disable them if I recall, but it never worked for me.

That out of the way, it is a very good local network software for remote access. Way faster than the alternatives I've tried.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Was this on a self-hosted install?

I'm not seeing any calls to *.rustdesk.com when I'm starting, stopping, or using a self-hosted version on Windows.

Or is it calling from home via the docker container?😵

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Noticed it with the android install (via fdroid) and I think I had the appimage on Linux (not at my machine to check, so going by my memory). I connected to a windows machine that had no internet connectivity so can't speak to the windows installs working and ignoring relays or not, but Linux and android do phone the relay servers at least. I'll see if I can pull some screenshots or details tomorrow when I get a moment! I'll update the appimage too just in case (since I only validated the DNS call being made on my phone yesterday)

Either way, if I had to choose between it and TeamViewer for what I use it for, Rustdesk is still a clear winner lol.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Okay hopefully attaching images work on this app, never tried on Lemmy lol. I blocked the domain on my network firewall and then unblocked it from the DNS to confirm... and yes, the latest rustdesk appimage still calls out. I guess my memory of trying to disable the relay server was to try and force it to localhost in the settings. Could have swore there was a checkmark setting in there, but maybe that was some other software. The fields are default blank I believe.

However... I just tried to put 127.0.0.1 in ALL the fields (unlike the screenshot, which was when I checked what I had in there before), and it appears to now to call localhost. Either I goofed before, or it was fixed recently, because I am pretty sure I did try that before. It doesn't get you around the very first call made when running the software of course... Opt out, not opt in, lol. But hey at least it's possible now? I just tried on mobile and it worked there to when filling everything in with 127.0.0.1.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I never ran it since i got scared by the shit they done with 'wayland support' which smells like really bad code practices. Patch

But i still somewhat want to use it since it seems much less hassle then teamviewer and anydesk these days.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I don't believe it does that anymore and the flatpak never did that. On Reddit they did admit to it being a terrible design.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (3 children)

It does not matter to me if it is still there or not. The point that this was in a release makes me question their code and release practices.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

They apologized and admitted that it was a dumb thing to do.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

I very much agree. I think it would be best to at least get some third party to verify releases. Maybe if it gets on Flathub that will happen.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Well, vote with your choices, I suppose.

I've seen enough poor practices go unacknowledged and buried, or simply forgotten (lemmy user count +1 is kindof a minor but hilarious 'fix' for divide-by-zero), that I just like or when an organization acknowledges it and makes a change. I don't need rustdesk, but I wouldn't mind using them.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

It has way better performance than TeamViewer and AnyDesk but is also as feature rich and can be self hosted, I love it!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

Me too, I hope that they will become more transparent.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

I love it, it works. Running a server is super easy and the speed is quite nice for a free piece of software.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Do you have the same hangup of 7zip being from Russia?

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (6 children)

I wouldn't touch it with a stick. The whole thing is just shady to say the least. Nothing trustworthy whatsoever.

MeshCentral needs to get better. We need it.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I’ve found using software meant for gaming often works better for this application. My personal choice is moonlight. I run it behind Tailscale so my connections never leave my devices. Even over cellular it’s snappy enough for non gaming tasks, and if I need to check on my dailies in a game or something similar, it handles that much better than any Remote Desktop product. I messed around with rust desk and could never get it quite working and didn’t feel comfortable using the public servers at the time. So I swapped to moonlight and it serves me well.

Games on Whales is a containerized version of moonlight that I struggled to get working as well, but I thinks that’s because I’m a docker beginner.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

How did you get it to work without auto login?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

As of now I ran moonlight on Windows, so I might not be able to help a ton. I just started my own Arch (by the way) install that I plan to revisit getting moonlight running on, but I’m not even at a desktop environment yet.

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