Remotely set VNC service password

passwordrdpremote desktopvnc

After a Windows update I cannot connect to a Windows Server 2008 machine via RDP. As an alternative, I remotely installed UltraVNC using PsExec.

The WinVNC service starts successfully but when I try to connect remotely, I receive the following error message:

This server does not have a valid password enabled.
Until a password is set, incoming connections cannot be enabled.

Since I don't have desktop access to the machine, how do I set the password?

Best Answer

You can remotely set the registry key

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\RealVNC\WinVNC4] "Password"=hex:xx xx xx xx

to figure out what hex value to set you can set it on a test machine and copy the resultant value, or you could use a tool which there a many of to generate one for you

EDIT

it even looks like there is an app for this I havent tested this I have only just searched for it on google, but there are a load of results with similar promises

Related Solutions

Firewall – Can’t connect remotely to Windows Server 2008 R2

Ok, I now have it working. The 6.1 client did not work for me. The 7.0 client does which can be downloaded here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/969084/en-us

In addition to this I had to enable two rules in my Inbound firewall: 1) Remote Administration (RPC) 2) Remote Desktop (TCP-In)

Hopefully this will help others. Thanks for all your help.

Edit 1: also, if you want to keep Network Level Authentication for RDP sessions on your 2008 server and you're connecting from your XP SP2/3 workstation than there are some registry changes which you will need to make in order to enable CredSSP. This is from the page: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/951608/

Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then press ENTER.
In the navigation pane, locate and then click the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa
In the details pane, right-click Security Packages, and then click Modify.
In the Value data box, type tspkg. Leave any data that is specific to other SSPs, and then click OK.
In the navigation pane, locate and then click the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders
In the details pane, right-click SecurityProviders, and then click Modify.
In the Value data box, type credssp.dll. Leave any data that is specific to other SSPs, and then click OK.
Exit Registry Editor.
Restart the computer.

Ssh – How to automate SSH login with password

Don't use a password. Generate a passphrase-less SSH key and push it to your VM.

If you already have an SSH key, you can skip this step… Just hit Enter for the key and both passphrases:

$ ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 2048
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/home/username/.ssh/id_rsa):
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Enter same passphrase again:
Your identification has been saved in /home/username/.ssh/id_rsa.
Your public key has been saved in /home/username/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.

Copy your keys to the target server:

$ ssh-copy-id id@server
id@server's password:

Now try logging into the machine, with ssh 'id@server', and check-in:

.ssh/authorized_keys

Note: If you don't have .ssh dir and authorized_keys file, you need to create it first

to make sure we haven’t added extra keys that you weren’t expecting.

Finally, check to log in…

$ ssh id@server

id@server:~$

You may also want to look into using ssh-agent if you want to try keeping your keys protected with a passphrase.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Firewall – Can’t connect remotely to Windows Server 2008 R2

Ssh – How to automate SSH login with password

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