Daily security tips 3: Open Ports

Published: Jun 30, 2018 by nemanjan00

Imagine each and every port that is open on your computer as a potential door to your computer, for malicious person.

Every single door more is one more potential door your attacker can open.

So, what can you do after this?

1. Know your computer networking

To see all of TCP the ports open on your computer, use this command:

netstat -tlpn

For UDP ports, use:

netatal -ulpn

1.1 What to look for?

First thing you need to look at is at which interface program is listening at.

First figure out which IP is on which interface.

For example:

$ ifconfig
enp0s25: flags=4099<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        ether 3c:97:0e:0f:5c:6b  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0
        device memory 0xe1600000-e1620000  

lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING>  mtu 65536
        inet 127.0.0.1  netmask 255.0.0.0
        inet6 ::1  prefixlen 128  scopeid 0x10<host>
        loop  txqueuelen 1000  (Local Loopback)
        RX packets 1099393  bytes 2018987222 (1.8 GiB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 1099393  bytes 2018987222 (1.8 GiB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

tun0: flags=4305<UP,POINTOPOINT,RUNNING,NOARP,MULTICAST>  mtu 1304
        inet6 fc15:9d75:e614:a0e1:17a0:61d4:341d:b5dd  prefixlen 8  scopeid 0x0<global>
        inet6 fe80::c39b:ac2a:eac6:6ab9  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>
        unspec 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00  txqueuelen 500  (UNSPEC)
        RX packets 32  bytes 2728 (2.6 KiB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 69  bytes 4400 (4.2 KiB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

wlp2s0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 192.168.1.17  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.1.255
        inet6 fe80::95de:a8ca:ddb9:ac84  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>
        ether 1e:93:85:2d:6a:b7  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 3893447  bytes 3986568321 (3.7 GiB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 2923905  bytes 733067221 (699.1 MiB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

wwp0s20u4i6: flags=4099<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        ether 02:15:e0:ec:01:00  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

This is my ifconfig output.

If you do not have ifconfig command, you can also use ip addr.

$ ip addr            
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: enp0s25: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state DOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 3c:97:0e:0f:5c:6b brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: wlp2s0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 1e:93:85:2d:6a:b7 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 192.168.1.17/24 brd 192.168.1.255 scope global dynamic noprefixroute wlp2s0
       valid_lft 49655sec preferred_lft 49655sec
    inet 192.168.1.254/24 brd 192.168.1.255 scope global secondary noprefixroute wlp2s0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 fe80::95de:a8ca:ddb9:ac84/64 scope link noprefixroute 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
4: wwp0s20u4i6: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state DOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 02:15:e0:ec:01:00 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
19: tun0: <POINTOPOINT,MULTICAST,NOARP,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1304 qdisc fq_codel state UNKNOWN group default qlen 500
    link/none 
    inet6 fc15:9d75:e614:a0e1:17a0:61d4:341d:b5dd/8 scope global 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 fe80::c39b:ac2a:eac6:6ab9/64 scope link stable-privacy 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

So, in my case, I am connected to wifi and my IP is 192.168.1.17.

I am also connected to VPN and IP is fc15:9d75:e614:a0e1:17a0:61d4:341d:b5dd.

If application is listening at 0.0.0.0 or ::, that means it is listening on all interfaces.

If application is listening at 127.0.0.1 or ::1, that means it is listening only on a virtual loopback device.

To figure out which application it is, take a look at PID/Program name row.

If there is no name for program, run command as root.

If PID is 1, that probbably means systemd is forwarding file socket to TCP/UDP port.

1.2 What do you want to accomplish?

You probably do dot want applications listening on any other interface except loopback if it does not have to.

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