Project Honolulu – a new tool that attaches UI to Powershell WMI capabilities for managing your servers securely.
I don’t have to explain why connecting with RDP to a remote server is a really really bad security practice. By default, Windows has no timeout on a disconnected RDP session. In fact, after you close your RDP session, your user (some kind of admin, right?) stays logged in to the server and God knows what happens when you don’t watch! For example, anyone who gains access to the same server as a non-privileged user can dump in-memory credentials and steal your remote session (i.e. with help of the infamous Mimikatz tool).
How to mitigate this problem? Don’t connect to servers with RDP. Ever! Microsoft believes that the solution is using WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) via Powershell. At least, it protects you from those guys who wait in the server for you to log in to steal your credz. Sounds great but I want back my GUI, right?
Luckily, we’ve just got a tool for it – Project Honolulu. It executes PowerShell WMI commands in the backend and streamlines framework’s capabilities through the lean (and flat, of course!) UI. It allows you to perform most of the operations you would typically make in RDP. Hyper-V and Failover clusters are also supported.
Nowadays, the tool is in the Technical Preview but “it perfectly works in my environment” (c). Download it here.
Some screenshots from my Honolulu:
It covers most common operations such as modifying firewall rules, local groups, checking logs, registry, resource utilization, installing new roles and features, and so much more!
Have fun!
Cloud Application Security 