Let’s get something straight: slapping MFA on RDP doesn’t mean your environment is secure.
We know that sounds like heresy to some, but it’s the truth. Every week, we see organizations brag about “locking down remote access” with multifactor authentication — and yet, the same networks fall in minutes during red team exercises. Why? Because while RDP is guarded by MFA, PowerShell Remoting (PSRemoting) is wide open.
That’s the silent killer in most Windows environments.
Here’s the play: an attacker gains a foothold — maybe a phishing payload, maybe a compromised workstation — and suddenly, they don’t care about RDP. They don’t need it. PSRemoting gives them the keys to the castle. No MFA prompts. No interactive login. Just pure, unfiltered command execution across your domain.
And this isn’t an exotic exploit. It’s not a zero-day. It’s a configuration failure.
Let me spell it out — MFA on RDP is like putting a deadbolt on your front door… while leaving the back door unlocked and wide open. It looks great on paper. It checks a compliance box. But it does nothing to stop real attackers.
Now imagine this from a business risk perspective:
- You’ve invested in “secure remote access.”
- You’ve reported to the board that MFA is enforced.
- Your auditors have marked it as compliant.
But one overlooked PowerShell setting means any compromised internal account can move laterally, harvest credentials, and control domain servers — without ever triggering MFA.
That’s not a technical issue. That’s a strategic failure.
If you’re a CEO, CIO, CISO, IT Security Director, or even Legal or Procurement — understand this: RDP MFA without PSRemoting restriction is a false sense of security.
When we assess environments like this, we don’t need exploits — we just need your configuration. That’s how critical this gap is.
So here’s the question: if an attacker landed in one of your workstations right now, could they pivot via PowerShell to your crown jewels — or would they hit a wall?
If you can’t answer that confidently, your MFA investment is an illusion.
It’s time to move beyond compliance optics and get real about secure configuration. Because attackers already have.
Read the full breakdown here — including the exact PowerShell configurations, Group Policy controls, and auditing strategies to close this gap before someone else opens it.