What is the security model of VSCode Remote Development? - visual-studio-code

What is the security model of VSCode Remote Development? If the remote server is fully controlled by an attacker, is it possible for him/her to run arbitrary code on my local machine? Is there any PoC for this?
If the answer is yes, does Restricted Mode solve this problem? In my understanding, Restricted Mode only stops attacks from the project folder, while the attacker could also manipulate the vscode server.

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Is there a way to run an IDE like VSCode from a cloud instance?

I know that with R you can run RStudio as a browser instance directly from a server/cloud instance, so you access the IDE via browser, and that IDE has access to files/data available on that instance (similar to what Jupyterlab does).
Similarly i wonder if there is a way to run VSCode (or some other full feature IDE) as a browser instance on something like a google dataproc, so instead of using Jupyter to run code and access data, you would use the IDE.
I realize there are ways to run a local instance of an IDE and connect to a server/cloud instance, but in some cases these connections are blocked by firewalls and you have no way of running code on the instance other than via browser/jupyter, so i was wondering if there was some other way to do this.
As #guillaume blaquiere suggested :
Cloud Workstation is the brand new feature is designed for that
Fully managed development environments built to meet the needs of security-sensitive enterprises. It enhances the security of development environments while accelerating developer onboarding and productivity.
Access secure and fast development environments anytime via browser or local IDE
Enable administrators to easily provision, scale, manage, and secure development environments
Customize development environments with your preferred IDE and through custom container images

Java grey screen and setting JAVA_AWT_WM_NONREPARENTING for remote desktop

I'm having issue where all the java UI applications I open return an unusable grey screen. This is a known issue with known fixes.
The preferred fix is to use wmname, which would be great if my company wasn't making me jump through a million hoops to be allowed to download this program from the internet into our corporate infrastructure.
The other option was to set JAVA_AWT_WM_NONREPARENTING=1 in .xinitrc or .xinitrc. I set it in both files just to be sure and it worked perfectly... when connecting via a vnc client. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to help when connecting via remote desktop, even if I restart the xrdp server.
So how can I get my RDP connection to recognize and respect setting of JAVA_AWT_WM_NONREPARENTING?

VS Code Remote Development Errors

I am connected to my company's VPN on my Windows 10 desktop and uses VS Code for my development. I wanted to use VS Code Remote Development so that I can connect to my remote company development server and autosave my files directly on the server. I have installed VS Code Remote Development package and this is my SSH config.
Host my.company.server
HostName 10.XXX.XXX.XX6
User root
IdentityFile C:\Users\My_User\Documents\Company\company_key.pem
However, when connect VS Code to the remote server, VS Code shows that I am connected but I am getting the errors below and cannot view the remote directory.
Unable to write to Folder Settings because no resource is provided.
Could not fetch remote environment.
Failed to connect to the remote extension host server
(Error: Websocket close with status code 1006)
I tried connecting to the remote server using WinSCP and that works fine. I also used PowerShell to login using the below command and that works fine too.
ssh -i C:\Users\My_User\Documents\Company\company_key.pem root#10.XXX.XXX.XX6
What am I doing wrong here? Any VS Code gurus can assist me with this issue? Thanks.
VSCode was attempting to download and install several components on that remote machine, which probably was blocked by the machine administrators in your company (as downloading from an external resource is commonly seen as a security risk on an internal machine).
You should carefully review the information security policies of the company before making any violation. And then discuss with your manager to see if VSCode Remote should be used or not.

How to set up an IDE on a remote server?

Im interested in doing some development from my iPad, and one idea I had would be to code from the safari browser. Does anyone know of a way to set up eclipse on a cloud-based server, so that it can be accessed from a browser?
I believe, you will need the following parts to make it work
The cloud server must be based on one of the supported Eclipse Target Environments.
The cloud server provider must support UI based on some sort of remote desktop - e.g. VNC. Be aware that many cloud providers does not allow UI.
iPad must support the same remote desktop technology. There seem to be many VNC implementations for iPad...
I guess the difficult part is to find a cloud server to use. Though you, as an alternative, could use any PC with an VNC server where you have Internet access...

What strategy do you use to sync your code when working from home

At my work I currently have my development environment inside a Virtual Machine. When I need to do work from home I copy my VM and any databases I need onto a laptop drive sized external USB drive. After about 10 minutes of copying I put the drive in my pocket and head home, copy back the VM and databases onto my personal computer and I'm ready to work. I follow the same steps to take the work back with me.
So if I count the total amount of time I spend waiting around for files to finish copying in order for me to take work home and bring it back again, it comes to around 40 minutes! I do have a VPN connection to my work from home (providing the internet is up at both sites) and a decent internet speed (8mbits down/?up) but I find Remote Desktoping into my work machine laggy enough for me to want to work on my VM directly.
So in looking at what other options I have or how I could improve my existing option I'm interested in what strategy you use or recommend to do work at home and keeping your code/environment in sync.
EDIT: I'd prefer an option where I don't have to commit my changes into version control before I leave work - as I like to make meaningful descriptive comments in my commits, committing would take longer than just copying my VM onto a portable drive! lol Also I'd prefer a solution where my dev environment stays in sync too. Having said that I'm still very interested in your own solutions even if they don't exactly solve my problem as best as I'd like. :)
A Distributed / Decentralized Version Control System solution will suit your needs, Git, Bazaar, Mercurial, darcs... you have plenty alternatives.
Use a version control software like SVN, SourceOffSite, etc. You just have to check-in all your changes and get the latest changes when you want to sync.
Or you can use Windows Live Sync -> https://sync.live.com/foldersharetolivesync.aspx
Hasn't anyone recommended rsync? Use an rsync client to send the diff between files. You can apply these diffs thus bringing your file up-to-date. For the smallest file transfer it's probably the best idea.
I simply use an external portable notebook drive and do all my work on that. All my PCs have it set to the same drive letter. So no copying anything .. I've not attempted to run VMs this way, however, but I don't see any reason it shouldn't simply work.
i use dropbox.
We use Citrix and then I do a remote desktop connection to my PC at work. It is not the fastest solution in the world, but it does eliminate the problem of keeping two or more workstations up-to-date.
Here is a solution I use.
Set up a VPN between the office network and the laptop.
Install the VisualSVN Server
Load all projects in the SCC.
When at the office I check out a project, work on it and then check it in. When at home or around the world I connect to the office via VPN, check out my project, do my thing then check it in. Via the VPN connection I can also RDP to my dev boxes and or servers.
Hope this helps. Good luck!
I either connect remotely to the office SVN, or VPN in and remote desktop my dev or desktop machine and carry on working. It's very rare I sync any files, but when I do it's usually with DropBox (although you can't really do that with large files).
Write program, that will syncronize all your data through internet, and then shutwodn your computer, so at the end of the day you launch it, and go home, and when you come home all data is already there
We work with a distributed team, so it is vital everyone has easy and secure code repository access. For this, we use SVN over ssl/https. It works great, reliably and secure.
Depending on the VM software you are using why don't you set up 2 different VM disks, keep your user profile/dev files on one disk and the OS and other programs that change rarely on the other.
This way you can probably get away with only having to copy the larger disk image when you've installed something new and end up only copying a single virtual disk containing your work.
Just setup a SVN server at home, forward your router port and get on with your life. rsync is also a good, fast solution. Just remember to use it over SSH.
I had a similar problem. But fortunately we had a source control server (TFS) configured so I use to work only from the local Virtual Machines stored on my external drive and than check in the required files to the TFS as an when required.
you haven't specified the OS and virtualization system, but if you're working VM images that can be mounted, e.g. XEN on linux, then you could mount the image and sync it via rsync.
i connecting to the office net work and download the lates version form svn
use the Dev mysql server
so i am just like anther computer in the office network
I imagine that most of the time spent copying involves the database. Is that right? If so, can you not simply connect to your work DB from home using your VPN connection?
You would still copy your source files (or use a source code control system as others have suggested), but this would only take a fraction of the time.
If all you need is a virtual machine from your work computer, then you could mount a remote catalog (using nfs or smb) where is your virtual machine files store and run that virtual machine from there. This should be faster than using remote desktop.
I also use DropBox, and that is key because it is important to keep it simple.
It is generally better if you can have some type of remote desktop ability, because this will allow you to use a standard workstation configuration, and it will allow for consistent connection to network resources (database server, business servers like workflow, etc).
Working offline, in my opinion, is ok for certain tasks, but overall there are obstacles for systems which connect to other resources (unless you plan to move those resources to your home box).
It was a problem for me too. So, the company bought me a laptop, and I do my work on it, at home or anywhere else.
I have a set up where a folder on one machine is synced to a folder on another machine. any changes to the contents on one machine is also made on the other machine within a minute.
So you could sync the top level folder of your work files, and have then sync to your home machine. What I like about this is that syncing is completely transparent. As far as the user experience goes, I'm simply using the file system. No external app to interact with.
I use Live Sync Live Sync from Microsoft to this. You'll need to create a Windows Live ID to use this system. It works for windows and macs.
Dropbox and Microsoft's Live Sync are good options that have already been mentioned. My personal favorite is Live Mesh, also from Microsoft. The one great feature that puts it above the other two, in my mind, is the ability to specify which folders get synched on which computers, and where the folders are located. So, for example, I synch my Visual Studio 2005/Projects folder between my work machine and my dev box at home, and I synch Visual Studio 2008/Projects between my side gig VM and my home dev box.
i have a macbook with all my dev software on it; when i go to work, i start it in target firewire mode and plug it into my work macpro with the fast processor, lan connection, big monitor, etc. this way i never have to leave my user folder but i have access to all the software and hardware available at work.
Why don't you just use version control? A DVCS?
Find here a tutorial on DVCS for Windows users (very simple)
http://codicesoftware.blogspot.com/2010/03/distributed-development-for-windows.html
Some ideas:
Use network storage (with SSD cache if speed is a concern), either for your code or to host your VM.
Separate data and OS into two virtual disks in your VM.
Google drive, Onedrive, Dropbox etc.
If you use Visual Studio (Code), try the Live Share extension.
Dockerize your environment. Alternatively, I keep a bash script for all the setup I did, so I could almost one-click reinstall my dev environment anywhere.
Use a second version control, covering your whole work directory. Commit and push everything before switching environments, then pull and hard reset your commit in another machine.