Selfhosting Rustdesk

---

Important Safety Notes

A word of Caution :

Do not blindly copy and paste these commands.

This guide is not a simple “copy/paste and hope” set of commands.

Self-Hosting RustDesk Server

1. Create a VPS somewher (like Digital Ocean)
2. Update: apt update && apt dist-upgrade -y
3. Create a user (optional): add testuser
4. harden ssh (see section below)
5. Install Docker (see below)
6. Deploy the RustDesk Server

RustDesk Server

Create the docker compose

I like to create it in: /opt/stacks/rustdesk/compose.yml

networks:
  rustdesk-net:
    external: false

services:
  hbbs:
    container_name: hbbs
    ports:
      - 21115:21115
      - 21116:21116
      - 21116:21116/udp
      - 21118:21118
    # I like to pin the version number, instead of latest
    image: rustdesk/rustdesk-server:1.1.15
    command: hbbs -r rustdesk.yourdomain.com:21117 -k _
    volumes:
      - ./hbbs:/root
    networks:
      - rustdesk-net
    depends_on:
      - hbbr
    restart: unless-stopped

  hbbr:
    container_name: hbbr
    ports:
      - 21117:21117
      - 21119:21119
    image: rustdesk/rustdesk-server:1.1.15
    command: hbbr  -k _
    volumes:
    ## changed this after having issues with a key error
      - ./hbbs:/root
    networks:
      - rustdesk-net
    restart: unless-stopped

Spin up the server and make a note of the key:

docker compose up -d --force-recreate && docker compose logs -f

Make a note of the Key:

you should see it in the docker compose logs It should look somethink like this: TcPb8aBlahBlahBlahBlahBlah=

Deploy the clients

Download them from: https://github.com/rustdesk/rustdesk/releases

That should be it, just instal the rustdesk client and change the networking information:

• Settings –> Network –> change the info in ID/Relay server
  • ID server
  • Key

or for Windows rename the executable to:

rustdesk-host=remote.yourdomain.com,key=TcBlahBlahBlah=.exe

---

---

Hardening SSH

Edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config (at the very least!):

• Disable Password-Based Authentication

  PasswordAuthentication no
  

• Deny Emtpy Passwords

  PermitEmptyPasswords no
  

• Deny Root Login

  PermitRootLogin no
  

• Limit login attempts

  MaxAuthTries 5
  

• Additional Settings

  ChallengeResponseAuthentication no
  KerberosAuthentication no
  GSSAPIAuthentication no
  

  ---

  Install Docker

1.- Install Pre-requisites

apt update && apt install -y apt-transport-https curl

2.- Add Docker’s Official GPG Key and

`curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg`

3.- add Repo

`echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu $(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME") stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null`

4.- Update and Install Docker:

apt update && apt install -y docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

---

Sources

• RustDesk github: https://github.com/rustdesk/rustdesk-server

• Installing Docker: Source: https://linuxiac.com/how-to-install-docker-on-ubuntu-24-04-lts/

---