How to know port in linux

How to check open ports in Linux using the CLI

I need to list all open ports in Linux cloud server. How do I check open ports in Linux using the CLI? Can you give me the command to check open ports in Linux operating system?

To troubleshoot server problems and to avoid security issue, one needs to find out open TCP and UDP ports. In this tutorial, you will learn the different Linux commands to check open ports in Linux for auditing and securing the server.

Tutorial details
Difficulty level	Easy
Root privileges	Yes
Requirements	Linux command line
Est. reading time	5 minutes

What the hell are a TCP and UDP ports?

A port is nothing but a 16-bit number between 0 to 65535. For example, TCP port number 22 may be forwarded to the OpenSSH server. Therefore, 22 port number is a way to identify the sshd (OpenSSH server) process.

Port numbers

• The Well Known Ports are those from 0 through 1023.
• The Registered Ports are those from 1024 through 49151.
• The Dynamic and Private Ports are those from 49152 through 65535.

A registered port is a network port assigned by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and stored in /etc/services file. Use the cat command or grep command/egrep command to view port numbers and service mappings:

Display a list of applications and their ports assigned by IANA

Check open ports in Linux

The procedure to monitor and display open ports in Linux is as follows:

1. Open a Linux terminal application
2. Use ss command to display all open TCP and UDP ports in Linux.
3. Another option is to use the netstat command to list all ports in Linux.
4. Apart from ss / netstat one can use the lsof command to list open files and ports on Linux based system.
5. Finally, one can use nmap command to check TCP and UDP ports too.

Let us see all commands and examples in details.

Using netstat to list open ports

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• -t : All TCP ports
• -u : All UDP ports
• -l : Display listening server sockets
• -p : Show the PID and name of the program to which each socket belongs
• -n : Don’t resolve names
• | grep LISTEN : Only display open ports by applying grep command filter.

Use ss to list open ports

The ss command is used to dump socket statistics. It allows showing information similar to netstat. It can display more TCP and state information than other tools. The syntax is:
sudo ss -tulpn
Sample outputs:

Listening ports and applications using lsof command

Let us run the following to check open TCP and UDP ports using the lsof command:
sudo lsof -i -P -n | grep LISTEN

Where,

• -i : Look for listing ports
• -P : Inhibits the conversion of port numbers to port names for network files. Inhibiting the conversion may make lsof run a little faster. It is also useful when port name lookup is not working properly.
• -n : Do not use DNS name
• | grep LISTEN : Again only show ports in LISTEN state using the grep command as filter.

nmap command

In addition, to above commands one can use the nmap command which is an open source tool for network exploration and security auditing. We are going to use nmap to find and list open ports in Linux:
$ sudo nmap -sT -O localhost
$ sudo nmap -sU -O 192.168.2.254 ##[ list open UDP ports ]##
$ sudo nmap -sT -O 127.0.0.1 ##[ list open TCP ports ]##
$ sudo nmap -sTU -O 192.168.2.24
Sample outputs:

The open port doesn’t mean anyone from outside can access those ports

So far, you know how to find and list open TCP and UDP ports on Linux. However, those ports can still be blocked by software, cloud, or hardware firewall. Hence, you need to verify that your corporate firewall is not blocking incoming or outgoing access. For instance on Linux server we list or dump firewall rules using the following syntax:
sudo iptables -S
# IPv6
sudo ip6tables -S

Conclusion

In conclusion, finding out open ports is one of the most fundamental duties of a Linux system administrator for security reasons. Therefore, close down all unwanted ports and configure firewall such as UFW and FirewallD to open or block ports as per your requirements. After reading this tutorial, you should have a good understanding of how to check for open ports in Linux. See IANA’s offical list of TCP, UDP and other ports here for more information.

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How to Check Which Ports Are in Use on Your Linux System

One step in securing a Linux computer system is identifying which ports are active. Your system’s active ports give you information about which outside applications may be connected to your system. You can also discover if you are unintentionally exposing an application or service to the internet, like a MySQL database. There are several Linux tools that help you discover which ports are in use and identify both ends of active communications. This guide introduces three common tools you can use find the active ports on your Linux server or computer with links to guides that dive deeper into each tool.

What is a Port in Computer Networking?

Service names and port numbers are used to distinguish between different services that run over transport protocols. Common transport protocols are TCP, UDP, DCCP, and SCTP. These protocols enable communication between applications by establishing a connection and ensuring data is transmitted successfully. Well-known port assignments, such as HTTP at port 80 over TCP and UDP, are listed at the IANA Service Name and Transport Protocol Port Number Registry. These port assignments help distinguish different types of network traffic across the same connection.

Which Linux System Ports Are in Use?

Three tools to help you check ports in use on a Linux system are:

• netstat: This tool shows your server’s network status.
• ss: You can view socket statistics with the ss tool. For example, ss allows you to monitor TCP, UDP, and UNIX sockets.
• lsof: This Linux utility lists open files. Since everything on a Linux system can be considered a file, lsof provides a lot of information on your entire system.

Using netstat

This tool is great for inspecting the following areas of your Linux system:

• Unix sockets and network connections
• Routing tables
• Network interfaces
• Network protocols
• Multicast group membership

Running netstat without any options displays all open sockets and network connections, which can generate a lot of output. You can control the output using netstat’s command-line options. For example, to view the PID and program name for a system’s listening TCP connections, run netstat with the following command-line options:

The output resembles the following:

To learn how to install netstat, interpret its output, and view common command line options, see our Inspecting Network Information with netstat guide.

Using ss

The ss tool was created to improve upon netstat and provides more functionality. It allows you to monitor TCP, UDP, and UNIX sockets. A socket enables programs to communicate with each other across a network and is comprised of an IP address and a port number.

Running the ss with no options displays TCP, UDP, and UNIX sockets. Similar to netstat, restrict the ss command’s output by using command-line options. For example, to view all listening and non-listening TCP sockets issue the following command:

The output resembles the following:

To take a deeper dive into the ss tool, read our Learning to Use the ss Tool to its Full Potential guide. This guide provides commands specific to each protocol, commands to view general statistics about a system’s current connections, and ways to filter your output.

Using lsof

Since everything on a Linux system can be considered a file, the lsof tool can report on many aspects of a system, including open network interfaces and network connections. The lsof tool is preinstalled on many Linux distributions, so you may consider using it before a tool you need to install. One unique feature of the lsof tool is repeat mode*. This mode allows you to run the lsof command continuously on a timed interval. When inspecting your system to find information about which ports are in use, lsof can return information about which user and processes are using a specific port. For example, when working with a local development environment you may want to find which localhost ports are currently in use. Use the following command to retrieve this information:

The output returns a similar response:

To learn more about the lsof command read our How to List Open Files with lsof guide. This guide provides information about command-line options, the anatomy of the lsof output, and filtering your output with regular expressions.

This page was originally published on Thursday, February 25, 2021.

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How do I check if a port is in use on Linux?

I am a new Linux system user. I need to find out which process is listening on a port on Linux using the command line. How do you find out which process is listening on a port on Linux operating systems?

A network port in Linux is nothing but a number that identifies one side of a connection between two systems. All networked devices use port numbers to determine to which process a message should be delivered. The domain name and IP address are like a street address, and port numbers are like room numbers.

Tutorial details
Difficulty level	Easy
Root privileges	Yes
Requirements	Linux
Est. reading time	2 minutes

Popular port numbers in Linux

• HTTP – TCP 80
• HTTPS – TCP 443
• POP3 – TCP 110
• SMTP – TCP 25
• SSH – TCP 22
• DNS/DOMAIN – TCP/UDP 53

Use the cat command or grep command/egrep command to query port numbers as follows:
cat /etc/services
grep -w 80 /etc/services
egrep -w ’53/(tcp|udp)’ /etc/services

How to check if a port is in use on Linux

The procedure is as follows:

1. Open the terminal application on Linux.
2. Type any one of the following command to check if a port is in use on Linux
   sudo lsof -i -P -n | grep LISTEN
   sudo netstat -tulpn | grep LISTEN
   sudo netstat -tulpn | grep :443
   sudo ss -tulpn | grep LISTEN
   sudo ss -tulpn | grep ‘:22’
3. Search for the TCP or UDP port description in /etc/services file on Linux:
   grep -E -w ‘PORT_NUMBER_HERE/(tcp|udp)’ /etc/services

Let us see some examples and sample commands in details.

How can you find out which process is listening on a port on Linux

Type the ss command or netstat command to see if a TCP port 443 is in use on Linux?
sudo netstat -tulpn | grep :443
sudo ss -tulpn | grep :443
If a port is open, you should see the output as follows:

The port 443 is in use and opened by nginx service. Where,

• -t : Display TCP sockets/port
• -u : Show UDP sockets/port
• -l : See only listening sockets i.e. open port
• -p : Also display process name that opened port/socket
• -n : View addresses and port numbers in numerical format. Do not use DNS to resolve names.

Getting a list of all open port in production

Simply run:
sudo lsof -i -P -n | grep LISTEN
sudo ss -tulpn
sudo netstat -tulpn
Sample outputs:

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How to check if port is in use on Linux or Unix

H ow do I determine if a port is in use under Linux or Unix-like system? How can I verify which ports are listening on Linux server? How do I check if port is in use on Linux operating system using the CLI?

It is important you verify which ports are listening on the server’s network interfaces. You need to pay attention to open ports to detect an intrusion. Apart from an intrusion, for troubleshooting purposes, it may be necessary to check if a port is already in use by a different application on your servers. For example, you may install Apache and Nginx server on the same system. So it is necessary to know if Apache or Nginx is using TCP port # 80/443. This quick tutorial provides steps to use the netstat, nmap and lsof command to check the ports in use and view the application that is utilizing the port.

Tutorial details
Difficulty level	Easy
Root privileges	Yes
Requirements	lsof, ss, and netstat on Linux
Est. reading time	3 minutes

How to check if port is in use in

To check the listening ports and applications on Linux:

1. Open a terminal application i.e. shell prompt.
2. Run any one of the following command on Linux to see open ports:
   sudo lsof -i -P -n | grep LISTEN
   sudo netstat -tulpn | grep LISTEN
   sudo ss -tulpn | grep LISTEN
   sudo lsof -i:22 ## see a specific port such as 22 ##
   sudo nmap -sTU -O IP-address-Here
3. For the latest version of Linux use the ss command. For example, ss -tulw

Let us see commands and its output in details.

Option #1: lsof command

The syntax is:
$ sudo lsof -i -P -n
$ sudo lsof -i -P -n | grep LISTEN
$ doas lsof -i -P -n | grep LISTEN ### [OpenBSD] ###
Sample outputs:

Fig.01: Check the listening ports and applications with lsof command

Option #2: netstat command

You can check the listening ports and applications with netstat as follows.

Linux netstat syntax

Run netstat command along with grep command to filter out port in LISTEN state:
$ netstat -tulpn | grep LISTEN
The netstat command deprecated for some time on Linux. Therefore, you need to use the ss command as follows:
sudo ss -tulw
sudo ss -tulwn
sudo ss -tulwn | grep LISTEN

Where, ss command options are as follows:

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• -t : Show only TCP sockets on Linux
• -u : Display only UDP sockets on Linux
• -l : Show listening sockets. For example, TCP port 22 is opened by SSHD server.
• -p : List process name that opened sockets
• -n : Don’t resolve service names i.e. don’t use DNS

FreeBSD/MacOS X netstat syntax

$ netstat -anp tcp | grep LISTEN
$ netstat -anp udp | grep LISTEN

OpenBSD netstat syntax

$ netstat -na -f inet | grep LISTEN
$ netstat -nat | grep LISTEN

Option #3: nmap command

The syntax is:
$ sudo nmap -sT -O localhost
$ sudo nmap -sU -O 192.168.2.13 ##[ list open UDP ports ]##
$ sudo nmap -sT -O 192.168.2.13 ##[ list open TCP ports ]##
Sample outputs:

Fig.02: Determines which ports are listening for TCP connections using nmap

A note about Windows users

You can check port usage from Windows operating system using following command:
netstat -bano | more
netstat -bano | grep LISTENING
netstat -bano | findstr /R /C:»[LISTEING]»

Conclusion

This page explained command to determining if a port is in use on Linux or Unix-like server. For more information see the nmap command and lsof command page online here

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