Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops

Generic USB devices

April 4, 2024

Contributed by:

Introduction

The generic USB redirection feature allows redirection of USB devices from client machines to HDX sessions giving end users the ability to interact with a wide selection of generic USB devices in their HDX session. This is helpful in scenarios where users need to use speciality devices that don’t have optimized support or where it is unsuitable.

Note: USB Devices not optimized for virtual channel support will fall back to the Generic USB virtual channel using raw USB redirection.

How does it work?

Generic USB redirection works at a low level and redirects USB request and response messages between client machines and XenDesktop virtual desktop.

It avoids the requirement for compatible device drivers on the client machine and the driver is expected to be supported on the virtual desktop only. USB redirection policy rules follow a certain order of precedence that allow client side policies and default rules to be honored after DDC policy rules have been evaluated and enforced. This allows Citrix admins to prevent any unauthorized/spoofed devices from being redirected inside a session.

Additionally, event logging of unauthorized devices attempting to access the remote session can be audited and flagged and admins can take additional action to prevent data exfiltration.

When a user plugs in a USB device, the session host checks it against each policy rule consecutively until a match is found. The first match for any device is considered definitive.

If the first match is an Allow rule, the device is redirected to the virtual desktop.
If the first match is a Deny rule, the device is not redirected to the session, and only available for use in the local user device. If no match is found, default rules are used.

USB_Intro

The official version of this content is in English. Some of the Cloud Software Group documentation content is machine translated for your convenience only. Cloud Software Group has no control over machine-translated content, which may contain errors, inaccuracies or unsuitable language. No warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, is made as to the accuracy, reliability, suitability, or correctness of any translations made from the English original into any other language, or that your Cloud Software Group product or service conforms to any machine translated content, and any warranty provided under the applicable end user license agreement or terms of service, or any other agreement with Cloud Software Group, that the product or service conforms with any documentation shall not apply to the extent that such documentation has been machine translated. Cloud Software Group will not be held responsible for any damage or issues that may arise from using machine-translated content.

Was this helpful

Generic USB devices

April 4, 2024

Contributed by:

April 4, 2024

Contributed by:

Generic USB devices

Introduction

How does it work?

In this article