Tag Archives: RDP Certificate

How to add a AD CA certificate to Windows 2012 RDP for PCI compliance

For PCI compliance, a requirement is to have RDP port 3389 connect with TLSv1.1 or TLSv1.2 and have the certificate have the same name as the server. Most servers issue self signed certificates which is not acceptable with PCI compliance.

To fix this, you have to re-issue new certificates from a trusted CA. You should use an internal CA within your company to avoid the cost of purchasing and maintaining certificates for RDP services.

How to issue and import a certificate:

Issue a certificate from your Root CA. You can go through the process I’ve outlined to create a certificate using OpenSSL

Import the certificate to the store using MMC and add the Certificates snapin

Move the Root and Intermediate to the correct store

Get the SHA1 thumbprint off of the certificate by opening up the certificate, go to the “Details” tab and scroll down to below the Thumbprint algorythm and selecting the “Thumbprint”
highlight the thumbprint
copy the thumbprint into a Command Shell and remove the spaces and the hidden character at the beginning.

Put the thumbprint in this command and run it on the server

wmic /namespace:\\root\cimv2\TerminalServices PATH Win32_TSGeneralSetting Set SSLCertificateSHA1Hash="<EnterSHA1ThumbprintHere>"

Restart Remote Desktop Services Note: this will disconnect you from your RDP session.

Log back in and you should not be prompted.

Retest by scanning your computer with Nessus or another approved scanning software.