Re: [nznog] Port 0 Probe

On Thu, 2003-09-11 at 16:11, Ray Chow wrote:

Hi All,

I was wondering how useful is port 0 beside some Unix program requires it and OS finger printing. What effect it will create if the port is blocked?

If you mean blocked by firewall or network 'scrubber', then nothing should break. I don't know of any UNIX systems that use it (maybe you are thinking of port 1 which is used by IRIX). Nothing should use port 0. That said I see quite a bit of garbage on this port, I'm guessing that most is mangled by things like NAT boxes or load balancing switches and the like. Some of it may be OS finger printing but most of it isn't. -- Russell Fulton, Network Security Officer, The University of Auckland, New Zealand.