- How can I see what ports are open on my machine?
- 10 Answers 10
- nmap (install)
- How to find ports opened by process ID in Linux?
- -p (Linux):
- How to Check (Scan) for Open Ports in Linux
- Introduction
- What is Open Port?
- Check Open Ports with nmap
- Check Open Ports with netcat
- Check Open Ports using Bash Pseudo Device
- Conclusion
How can I see what ports are open on my machine?
I would like to see what ports are open on my machine, e.g. what ports my machine is listening on. E.g. port 80 if I have installed a web server, and so on. Is there any command for this?
10 Answers 10
If the netstat command is not available, install it with:
sudo apt install net-tools
-l already filters for listening. grep LISTEN won’t help beyond hiding 2 lines of header information.
-t : tcp, -l : listening socket, -p : show pid and program name, -n : print 127.0.0.1:80 instead of localhost:http . Reference: linux.die.net/man/8/netstat
The expanded command is sudo netstat —tcp —listening —programs —numeric . There’s no need to use grep unless you want to eliminate column headers.
nmap (install)
Nmap («Network Mapper») is a free and open source utility for network exploration or security auditing.
Use nmap 192.168.1.33 for internal PC or nmap external IP address .
More information man nmap .
Zenmap is the official GUI frontend.
Remember that there is a difference between nmap localhost and nmap 192.168.0.3 (or what ever you machine IP is)
I think netstat is a better answer to this. netstat will list what the system is listening on directly, and without using an additional application or doing unnecessary calls over localhost or thought the network.
This is stupid. If you have access to the computer, just use netstat -ln . You’ll instantly see all the open ports.
nmap localhost didn’t find services that were bound only to localhost. For example, I run influxd with bind-address:localhost:8086 . That didn’t show up in sudo nmap localhost , but did show up in sudo netstat -tulpn .
Other good ways to find out what ports are listenting and what your firewall rules are:
To list open ports use the netstat command.
$ sudo netstat -tulpn | grep LISTEN tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:53 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 5452/dnsmasq tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:631 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 1037/cupsd tcp6 0 0 ::1:631 . * LISTEN 1037/cupsd
In the above example three services are bound to the loopback address.
IPv4 services bound to the loopback address «127.0.0.1» are only available on the local machine. The equivalent loopback address for IPv6 is «::1». The IPv4 address «0.0.0.0» means «any IP address», which would mean that other machines could potentially connect to any of the locally configured network interfaces on the specific port.
Another method is to use the lsof command:
$ sudo lsof -nP -i | grep LISTEN cupsd 1037 root 9u IPv6 11276 0t0 TCP [::1]:631 (LISTEN) cupsd 1037 root 10u IPv4 11277 0t0 TCP 127.0.0.1:631 (LISTEN) dnsmasq 5452 nobody 5u IPv4 212707 0t0 TCP 127.0.0.1:53 (LISTEN)
For more details see man netstat or man lsof .
How to find ports opened by process ID in Linux?
Hmm..I don’t seem to have the —all and —program options. I’m using OSX. Brew doesn’t seem to have a formula for it either.
-n will dramatically speed things up by not resolving hostnames. netsta -tupan is a good default command all and easy to remember.
You can use the command below:
As a side note, netstat -ao will read the /proc/PID/tcp etc to see the ports opened by the process. This means that its reading information supplied by the system (the linux KERNEL), and is in no way directly looking on the network interface or other means. Same goes for lsof.
If you are doing this as a security measure, you failed. You should never (NEVER EVER) trust the output of netstat, even if you are 100% sure you are in fact running a real netstat program (as opposed to a trojaned version) or any other program that reads the /proc filesystem. Some people seem to think that netstat, ls, ps or any other of the standard unix tools do some sort of magic and poll information from the sources, the truth is all of them rely on the /proc filesystem to get all of their data, which can be easily subverted by a rootkit or hypervisor.
If you’re dealing with a rootkitted system or a compromised hypervisor, you can’t trust anything, including something that purports to look directly at the network interface.
You can use the netstat command line tool with the -p command line argument:
-p (Linux):
Process: Show which processes are using which sockets (similar to -b under Windows). You must be root to do this.
To display all ports open by a process with id $PID :
In some embedded devices or with old version of Linux, the problem is netstat do not have —process or -p options available.
The following script shows process with its IP and port, you must be root.
#!/bin/bash for protocol in tcp udp ; do #echo "protocol $protocol" ; for ipportinode in `cat /proc/net/$ | awk '/.*:.*:.*/'` ; do #echo "#ipportinode=$ipportinode" inode=`echo "$ipportinode" | cut -d"|" -f3` ; if [ "#$inode" = "#" ] ; then continue ; fi lspid=`ls -l /proc/*/fd/* 2>/dev/null | grep "socket:\[$inode\]" 2>/dev/null` ; pid=`echo "lspid=$lspid" | awk 'BEGIN /socket/'` ; if [ "#$pid" = "#" ] ; then continue ; fi exefile=`ls -l /proc/$pid/exe | awk 'BEGIN ">/->/'` #echo "$protocol|$pid|$ipportinode" echo "$protocol|$pid|$ipportinode|$exefile" | awk ' BEGIN function iphex2dec(ipport) < ret=sprintf("%d.%d.%d.%d: %d","0x"substr(ipport,1,2),"0x"substr(ipport,3,2), "0x"substr(ipport,5,2),"0x"substr(ipport,7,2),"0x"substr(ipport,10,4)) ; if( ret == "0.0.0.0:0" ) #compatibility others awk versions < ret= strtonum("0x"substr(ipport,1,2)) ; ret=ret "." strtonum("0x"substr(ipport,3,2)) ; ret=ret "." strtonum("0x"substr(ipport,5,2)) ; ret=ret "." strtonum("0x"substr(ipport,7,2)) ; ret=ret ":" strtonum("0x"substr(ipport,10)) ; >return ret ; > < print $1" pid:"$2" local="iphex2dec($3)" remote="iphex2dec($4)" inode:"$5" exe=" $6 ; >' ; #ls -l /proc/$pid/exe ; done ; done
tcp pid:1454 local=1.0.0.127:5939 remote=0.0.0.0:0 inode:13955 exe=/opt/teamviewer/tv_bin/teamviewerd tcp pid:1468 local=1.1.0.127:53 remote=0.0.0.0:0 inode:12757 exe=/usr/sbin/dnsmasq tcp pid:1292 local=0.0.0.0:22 remote=0.0.0.0:0 inode:12599 exe=/usr/sbin/sshd tcp pid:4361 local=1.0.0.127:631 remote=0.0.0.0:0 inode:30576 exe=/usr/sbin/cupsd tcp pid:1375 local=1.0.0.127:5432 remote=0.0.0.0:0 inode:12650 exe=/usr/lib/postgresql/9.3/bin/postgres
With ls you can know the process route.
The fuser command says that the process is: 2054
I’ve added IPv6 support and made a few fixes. Additionally on my system the octets of the IP address are reversed. Dependencies are only to posix shell, awk and cut.
My Version can be found on Github
#!/bin/sh # prints all open ports from /proc/net/* # # for pretty output (if available) start with # ./linux-get-programm-to-port.sh | column -t -s $'\t' #set -x ip4hex2dec () < local ip4_1octet="0x$" local ip4_2octet="$" ip4_2octet="0x$" local ip4_3octet="$" ip4_3octet="0x$" local ip4_4octet="$" ip4_4octet="0x$" local ip4_port="0x$" # if not used inverse #printf "%d.%d.%d.%d:%d" "$ip4_1octet" "$ip4_2octet" "$ip4_3octet" "$ip4_4octet" "$ip4_port" printf "%d.%d.%d.%d:%d" "$ip4_4octet" "$ip4_3octet" "$ip4_2octet" "$ip4_1octet" "$ip4_port" > # reoder bytes, byte4 is byte1 byte2 is byte3 . reorderByte() < if [ $-ne 8 ]; then echo "missuse of function reorderByte"; exit; fi local byte1="$" local byte2="$" byte2="$" local byte3="$" byte3="$" local byte4="$" echo "$byte4$byte3:$byte2$byte1" > # on normal intel platform the byte order of the ipv6 address in /proc/net/*6 has to be reordered. ip6hex2dec()< local ip_str="$" local ip6_port="0x$" local ipv6="$(reorderByte $)" local shiftmask="$" ipv6="$ipv6:$(reorderByte $)" shiftmask="$" ipv6="$ipv6:$(reorderByte $)" ipv6="$ipv6:$(reorderByte $)" ipv6=$(echo $ipv6 | awk '< gsub(/(:0|^0)/, ":"); sub(/(:0)+:/, "::");print>') printf "%s:%d" "$ipv6" "$ip6_port" > for protocol in tcp tcp6 udp udp6 raw raw6; do #echo "protocol $protocol" ; for ipportinode in `cat /proc/net/$protocol | awk '/.*:.*:.*/'` ; do #echo "#ipportinode=$ipportinode" inode=$ if [ "#$inode" = "#" ] ; then continue ; fi lspid=`ls -l /proc/*/fd/* 2>/dev/null | grep "socket:\[$inode\]" 2>/dev/null` ; pids=`echo "$lspid" | awk 'BEGIN /socket/ END>'` ; # removes duplicats for this pid #echo "#lspid:$lspid #pids:$pids" for pid in $pids; do if [ "#$pid" = "#" ] ; then continue ; fi exefile=`ls -l /proc/$pid/exe | awk 'BEGIN ">/->/'`; cmdline=`cat /proc/$pid/cmdline` local_adr_hex=$ remote_adr_hex=$ remote_adr_hex=$ if [ "#$" = "#6" ]; then local_adr=$(ip6hex2dec $local_adr_hex) remote_adr=$(ip6hex2dec $remote_adr_hex) else local_adr=$(ip4hex2dec $local_adr_hex) remote_adr=$(ip4hex2dec $remote_adr_hex) fi echo "$protocol pid:$pid \t$local_adr \t$remote_adr \tinode:$inode \t$exefile $cmdline" done done done
How to Check (Scan) for Open Ports in Linux
In this tutorial, we will discuss many methods for determining which ports on your Linux system are available to the outside world.
Introduction
One of the first things to check when troubleshooting network connectivity issues or establishing a firewall is whether ports are truly open on your machine.
In this tutorial, we will discuss many methods for determining which ports on your Linux system are available to the outside world.
What is Open Port?
A program that listens on a network port is known as a listening port. You may retrieve a list of your system’s listening ports by using tools like ss , netstat , or lsof to query the network stack. Using a firewall, each listening port can be opened or blocked (filtered).
A network port that admits incoming packets from faraway destinations is known as an open port.
For instance, if your web server listens on ports 80 and 443 and those ports are open on your firewall, anyone (excluding blocked ips) can use his browser to view websites housed on your web server. Both ports 80 and 443 are open in this scenario.
Open ports can be a security issue since attackers can use them to exploit vulnerabilities or carry out other types of attacks. All other ports should be closed and just the ports required for your application’s operation should be exposed.
Check Open Ports with nmap
Nmap is a network scanning program capable of scanning both single hosts and big networks. It’s mostly used for penetration testing and security assessments.
When it comes to port scanning, nmap should be your first choice if it is available. Nmap can determine the Mac address, OS type, kernel versions, and much more in addition to port scanning.
Which ports are listening for TCP connections from the network can be determined by using the following command from the console:
The -sT option instructs nmap to scan for TCP ports, whereas the -p- option instructs it to scan for all 65535 ports. If the -p- option is not specified, nmap will only scan the 1000 most popular ports.
Output Starting Nmap 7.60 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2019-07-09 23:10 CEST Nmap scan report for 10.10.8.8 Host is up (0.0012s latency). Not shown: 998 closed ports PORT STATE SERVICE 22/tcp open ssh 80/tcp open http MAC Address: 08:00:27:05:49:23 (Oracle VirtualBox virtual NIC) Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 0.41 seconds
Only ports 22 , 80 , and 8069 are open on the target system, according to the output.
Instead of -sT , use -sU to scan for UDP ports:
Visit the nmap man page for more information and to learn about all of this tool’s other useful features.
Check Open Ports with netcat
Netcat (or nc ) is a command-line utility that uses the TCP or UDP protocols to read and write data across network connections.
Netcat can scan a single port or a range of ports.
To search for open TCP ports on a distant system with IP address 10.10.8.8 in the range 20-80 , for example, execute the command:
The -z option instructs nc to scan only for open ports and not transfer any data, whereas the -v option provides more detailed information.
This is what the output will look like:
Output The -z option instructs nc to scan only for open ports and not transfer any data, whereas the -v option provides more detailed information. This is what the final product will look like:
If you just want the lines with open ports written on the screen, use the grep command to filter the results.
nc -z -v 10.10.8.8 20-80 2>&1 | grep succeeded
Output Connection to 10.10.8.8 22 port [tcp/ssh] succeeded! Connection to 10.10.8.8 80 port [tcp/http] succeeded!
Pass the -u argument to the nc command to scan for UDP ports:
nc -z -v -u 10.10.8.8 20-80 2>&1 | grep succeeded
Check Open Ports using Bash Pseudo Device
The Bash shell /dev/tcp/.. or /dev/udp/.. pseudo-device can also be used to determine whether a port is open or closed.
Bash will open a TCP or UDP connection to the specified host on the specified port when a command is run on a /dev/$PROTOCOL/$HOST/$IP pseudo-device.
The if..else statement below will check if port 443 on kernel.org is open:
if timeout 5 bash -c '/dev/null' then echo "Port is open" else echo "Port is closed" fi
What is the purpose of the code above?
Because the default timeout when connecting to a port via a pseudo-device is so long, we’re utilizing the timeout command to kill the test command after 5 seconds. The test command will return true if the connection to kernel.org port 443 is established.
Use the for loop to check for a port range:
for PORT in ; do timeout 1 bash -c "/dev/null" && echo "port $PORT is open" done
You will get an output like below:
Output port 22 is open port 80 is open
Conclusion
We’ve taught you how to scan for open ports with a variety of tools. You can also check for open ports using other utilities and methods, such as the Python socket module, curl , telnet , or wget .
If you have any queries, please leave a comment below and we’ll be happy to respond to them.