UDP Port 162 – SNMP Trap (Asynchronous Notifications)

About UDP Port 162

Port 162 is registered with the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for snmptrap. The IANA description reads: ‘SNMPTRAP’. This port appears in 5 IDS rules and does not have notable malware activity indicators in our data.

IDS Rule References

5 IDS / security rules reference UDP port 162. 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 2): misc-attack (3), attempted-recon (2).

Sample rule descriptions for UDP port 162:

• PROTOCOL-SNMP community string buffer overflow attempt
• PROTOCOL-SNMP broadcast trap
• PROTOCOL-SNMP trap udp
• PROTOCOL-SNMP community string buffer overflow attempt with evasion
• PROTOCOL-SNMP PROTOS test-suite-trap-app attempt

Data Sources

This information is compiled from: IANA Service Name and Transport Protocol Port Number Registry and Snort Community Rules (GPLv2).