Introduction

IronRDP is a collection of Rust crates that provide a complete implementation of the Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), with a strong focus on security and modern Rust practices.

What is IronRDP?

IronRDP is a comprehensive RDP protocol implementation that enables you to:

Build custom RDP clients and servers in Rust
Integrate RDP functionality into existing applications
Create specialized remote desktop solutions with full protocol control
Leverage Rust’s memory safety guarantees for secure remote access

The project is designed as a suite of modular crates, allowing you to use only the components you need, from low-level PDU encoding/decoding to high-level client and server implementations.

Key Features

Security-First Design

IronRDP treats all parsing and state transitions as potentially hostile input surfaces, making security a core architectural principle rather than an afterthought.

Modular Architecture

The crate suite is organized into distinct tiers:

Core Tier: Foundational libraries with strict quality standards (no_std-compatible, heavily fuzzed)
Extra Tier: Higher-level abstractions for async/sync I/O, clients, and servers
Community Tier: Additional implementations and tools maintained by the community

Comprehensive Codec Support

IronRDP supports multiple video codecs for efficient remote desktop streaming:

Uncompressed raw bitmap
Interleaved Run-Length Encoding (RLE) Bitmap Codec
RDP 6.0 Bitmap Compression
Microsoft RemoteFX (RFX)

Virtual Channel Support

Implement custom functionality through static and dynamic virtual channels:

CLIPRDR: Clipboard redirection (MS-RDPECLIP)
RDPDR: Device redirection
RDPSND: Audio output (MS-RDPEA)
DRDYNVC: Dynamic virtual channel infrastructure
Custom channel implementations through extensible traits

Architecture Overview

IronRDP follows a strict architectural design where foundational crates in the Core Tier must be no_std-compatible, platform-independent, and thoroughly fuzzed for robustness.

The meta crate ironrdp re-exports the most important crates through feature flags:

[dependencies]
ironrdp = { version = "0.14", features = ["connector", "session", "graphics"] }

Available features include:

core - Common traits and types (enabled by default)
pdu - PDU encoding and decoding (enabled by default)
connector - Client connection state machines
acceptor - Server connection acceptance
session - Session state machines
graphics - Image processing primitives
server - Server implementation skeleton
cliprdr, rdpdr, rdpsnd - Virtual channel implementations
And more specialized features for specific use cases

Common Use Cases

Building an RDP Client

IronRDP provides everything needed to create a full-featured RDP client:

use ironrdp::connector::{self, Credentials, ConnectionResult};
use ironrdp::session::{ActiveStage, ActiveStageOutput};

let config = connector::Config {
    credentials: Credentials::UsernamePassword { 
        username: "user".to_owned(), 
        password: "pass".to_owned() 
    },
    domain: None,
    desktop_size: connector::DesktopSize {
        width: 1280,
        height: 1024,
    },
    // ... additional configuration
};

Building an RDP Server

Create custom RDP servers with full control over input handling and display updates:

use ironrdp::server::{RdpServer, RdpServerInputHandler, KeyboardEvent, MouseEvent};

struct MyHandler;

impl RdpServerInputHandler for MyHandler {
    fn keyboard(&mut self, event: KeyboardEvent) {
        // Handle keyboard input
    }

    fn mouse(&mut self, event: MouseEvent) {
        // Handle mouse input
    }
}

Blocking vs Async I/O

IronRDP supports both blocking and async I/O patterns:

ironrdp-blocking: Synchronous, blocking I/O for simple use cases
ironrdp-async: Future-based async abstractions
ironrdp-tokio: Integration with the Tokio async runtime
ironrdp-futures: Integration with the Futures crate

Example: Screenshot Client

The project includes a complete example that connects to an RDP server, receives graphics updates, and saves them as a PNG image:

cargo run --example=screenshot -- --host <HOSTNAME> -u <USERNAME> -p <PASSWORD> -o out.png

This example demonstrates how to create a basic RDP client in just a few hundred lines of code by leveraging the IronRDP crates suite.

Example: RDP Server

A full server implementation example is also included:

cargo run --example=server -- --bind-addr 127.0.0.1:3389 --user username --pass password

Protocol Compliance

IronRDP implements the Microsoft RDP protocol specifications, with extensive support for:

RDP 6.0+ features
TLS security layer
CredSSP authentication
Multiple compression types (K8, K64, RDP6, RDP6.1)
Virtual channel extensibility

For detailed protocol implementation details, see the Microsoft Open Specifications (MS-RDP* series).

Getting Help

If you need assistance or want to contribute:

Report bugs in the GitHub issue tracker
Join discussions in the Matrix room
Review the ARCHITECTURE.md document for deep dives

Next Steps

Installation

Add IronRDP to your Rust project

Quickstart

Build your first RDP client in minutes

Get Started

Architecture

Core Concepts

Guides

What is IronRDP?

Key Features

Security-First Design

Modular Architecture

Comprehensive Codec Support

Virtual Channel Support

Architecture Overview

Common Use Cases

Building an RDP Client

Building an RDP Server

Blocking vs Async I/O

Example: Screenshot Client

Example: RDP Server

Protocol Compliance

Getting Help

Next Steps

Installation

Quickstart

​What is IronRDP?

​Key Features

​Security-First Design

​Modular Architecture

​Comprehensive Codec Support

​Virtual Channel Support

​Architecture Overview

​Common Use Cases

​Building an RDP Client

​Building an RDP Server

​Blocking vs Async I/O

​Example: Screenshot Client

​Example: RDP Server

​Protocol Compliance

​Getting Help

​Next Steps

Installation

Quickstart

What is IronRDP?

Key Features

Security-First Design

Modular Architecture

Comprehensive Codec Support

Virtual Channel Support

Architecture Overview

Common Use Cases

Building an RDP Client

Building an RDP Server

Blocking vs Async I/O

Example: Screenshot Client

Example: RDP Server

Protocol Compliance

Getting Help

Next Steps