TCP Port 42 – name

About TCP Port 42

Port 42 is registered with the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for name. The IANA description reads: ‘Host Name Server’. This port appears in 3 IDS rules and does not have notable malware activity indicators in our data.

IDS Rule References

3 IDS / security rules reference TCP port 42. 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 3): attempted-user (1), misc-attack (1), attempted-admin (1).

Sample rule descriptions for TCP port 42:

• OS-WINDOWS Microsoft Windows WINS overflow attempt
• OS-WINDOWS Microsoft Windows WINS name query overflow attempt TCP
• ET EXPLOIT Possible WINS Server Remote Memory Corruption Vulnerability

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), and Snort Community Rules (GPLv2).