Enable Remote Desktop with XRDP on Kali Linux

There was a lot of issue with enabling XRDP on my Kali Linux box. I would set it up following the required parameters, but after entering the correct credentials, it would immediately terminate and land me back to my original desktop. Through a lot of trial and error, I’ve figured out that these steps will help anyone facing a similar issue.

Step 1: Ensure that your machine is update.

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get uprade

Step 2: Install XRDP

sudo apt-get install xrdp

Step 3: Install tigervnc to circumvent a bug on XRDP.

sudo apt-get install tigervnc-common 
sudo apt-get install tigervnc-scraping-server
sudo apt-get install tigervnc-standalone-server
sudo apt-get install tigervnc-viewer 
sudo apt-get install tigervnc-xorg-extension

Step 4: Add the user.

sudo adduser xrdp ssl-cert

Step 5: Create a file xsession and add the following content.

sudo echo xfce4-session > /etc/.xsession

Step 6: We need to make some modifications to the startwm.sh file.

vim /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh

Step 7: Comment or remove the following lines that can be found towards the end of the document.

test -x /etc/X11/Xsession && exec /etc/X11/Xsession
exec /bin/sh /etc/X11/Xsession

Step 8: Towards the end, add the string startxfce4 and then save the file.

Step 9: Start the XRDP service.

sudo systemctl enable xrdp
sudo systemctl start xrdp

Step 10: You can login now with your RDP client, however, the login should be with incorrect credentials, and you’ll see the following error.

Step 11. Click OK and set the following options as xvnc from the dropdown and give the CORRECT credentials here.

Step 12: You will now be able to successfully login.