The Remote Network Driver Interface Specification (RNDIS) is a
Microsoft proprietary protocol used mostly on top of
USB. It provides a virtual
Ethernet link to most versions of the
Windows,
Linux, and
FreeBSD
FreeBSD is a free and open-source Unix-like operating system descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), which was based on Research Unix. The first version of FreeBSD was released in 1993. In 2005, FreeBSD was the most popular ...
operating systems. Multiple revisions of a partial RNDIS specification are available from Microsoft, but Windows implementations have been observed to issue requests not included in that specification, and to have undocumented constraints.
The protocol is tightly coupled to Microsoft's programming interfaces and models, most notably the
Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS), which are alien to operating systems other than Windows. This complicates implementing RNDIS on non-Microsoft operating systems, but Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD implement RNDIS natively.
The
USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) defines at least three non-proprietary
USB communications device class (USB CDC) protocols with comparable "virtual Ethernet" functionality; one of them (CDC-ECM) predates RNDIS and is widely used for interoperability with non-Microsoft operating systems, but does not work with Windows.
Most versions of
Android
Android may refer to:
Science and technology
* Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human
* Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system
** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...
include RNDIS USB functionality. For example,
Samsung smartphones have the capability and use RNDIS over USB to operate as a virtual Ethernet card that will connect the host PC to the mobile or Wi-Fi network in use by the phone, effectively working as a
mobile broadband modem or a
wireless card, for
mobile hotspot tethering.
Controversy
In 2022 it was suggested that support for RNDIS should be removed from Linux, claiming that is inherently and uncorrectably insecure in the presence of untrusted USB devices.
See also
*
Ethernet over USB
Ethernet over USB refers to use of USB as an Ethernet network. It also refers to an Ethernet device which is connected over USB (instead of e.g. PCI or PCIe).
Protocols
There are numerous protocols for Ethernet-style networking over USB. The use ...
References
{{Reflist
External links
Overview of Remote NDIS (RNDIS)
Microsoft application programming interfaces
Computer networking