TCP Port 488 – gss-http
About TCP Port 488
Port 488 carries the IANA assignment for gss-http. The IANA description reads: ‘gss-http’. This port is referenced in 8 IDS rules and exhibits high malware activity in monitored traffic.
IDS Rule References
8 IDS / security rules reference TCP port 488. Treat that number as context, not a danger score. Many detection rules are written against groups of ports rather than one service, web ports especially, so common web alternate ports inherit large counts while genuinely sensitive services can show few rules or none. Presence in IDS rules does not mean traffic on this port is malicious.
Rule categories (top 1): trojan-activity (8).
Sample rule descriptions for TCP port 488:
- MALWARE-BACKDOOR Win.Trojan.Wiper inbound communication attempt
- MALWARE-BACKDOOR Win.Trojan.Wiper outbound communication attempt
- MALWARE-BACKDOOR Win.Trojan.Wiper inbound communication attempt
- MALWARE-BACKDOOR Win.Trojan.Wiper outbound communication attempt
- ET MALWARE US-CERT TA14-353A Lightweight Backdoor 1
Malware Rule References
A large share of the IDS rules that reference this port are malware related.
8 of the 8 IDS rules that reference TCP port 488 are malware related. That describes detection coverage across the whole internet, not anything about your machine or your network.
Families observed (top 2): US-CERT (4), Wiper (4).
Data Sources
This information is compiled from: IANA Service Name and Transport Protocol Port Number Registry, Emerging Threats Open Ruleset (BSD 2-Clause / GPLv2 per SID range), Snort Community Rules (GPLv2), and MITRE ATT&CK (Apache 2.0).