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Port 443 is open
- Thread starter oldhifi
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I think you are wrong here, any https in the URL Bar of a browser will use this port, if you deny it you can't connect to that site, for instance your Bank.
Yes it is. Port 443 is used for all https sites. If you close it you will not be able to browse or otherwise connect to any secure websites or servers. 443 is the standard port that all web browsers use to establish SSL connections. That's where you get the encrypted end-to-end connection from your browser to a site like a bank. Non-encrypted sites use port 80 for regular http traffic.
If you read the link I provided in my initial post and read the quote you know you are wrong!
If you learn TCP/IP you know you are wrong.
A client (web browser) request a port from the "usually" OS own TCP stack, and in old days only ports from 1025 to around 5000 could be used, nowadays it gets port from 49152 to 65535. They are kept untill the connection closes. The client then contacts the server (https server) which obviously needs to be on a specified port on a specified ip-address (in this case 443) for the client to know who to contact. Now they have established a connection and the server sends whatever data the client wants (or doesn't wants). Then it is closed (there are stuff like keep-alive which reuses the same connection, but that is beyond this post)
As the remote server never initiates a connection to the client, the client does not need to keep a port open.
If you however run your own server, or use p2p software, or two-way communicating software (like skype or some kind of messenger) then you need a port open for listening so the remote party are able to initiate the connection.
If you learn TCP/IP you know you are wrong.
A client (web browser) request a port from the "usually" OS own TCP stack, and in old days only ports from 1025 to around 5000 could be used, nowadays it gets port from 49152 to 65535. They are kept untill the connection closes. The client then contacts the server (https server) which obviously needs to be on a specified port on a specified ip-address (in this case 443) for the client to know who to contact. Now they have established a connection and the server sends whatever data the client wants (or doesn't wants). Then it is closed (there are stuff like keep-alive which reuses the same connection, but that is beyond this post)
As the remote server never initiates a connection to the client, the client does not need to keep a port open.
If you however run your own server, or use p2p software, or two-way communicating software (like skype or some kind of messenger) then you need a port open for listening so the remote party are able to initiate the connection.
You want proof, here it is, a little snitch deny connection on port 443, yahoo is https.
Attachments
It proves what I am saying, and that you don't know what is asked in the first post. What little snitch is blocking is the outbound connection to the server on port 443 (i.e. the destination port). Not the port on the client side (source port). If you want to close port 443 on the client, https will still work just fine. Shields up is showing the open ports on the client.
There is some serious misunderstanding going on here.
You will be able to browse https sites, because your browser, inside the firewall, will initiate the conversation.
What ShieldsUp seems to be saying is that it can see port 443 open from OUTSIDE your LAN.
If you're not running a secure-web server or something of the sort on a machine on your LAN, that's odd. Close it, just for your peace of mind. If you find that breaks some application, then you can always open it again.
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I think I found it:
on my Uverse firewall settings port 443 is open, this is a router/receiver for my 2nd TV
Why is your TV listening for a secure connection?
+1, good to know there are plenty of easy targets out there
As Superhai has said, I'd imagine your Uverse firewall has an "Allow remote management" option if you disable that it should stop listening on port 443.
I imagine this is open on your UVerse box so that if you suddenly get an urge to record some show, you can log-in from Starbucks and schedule the recording.
Odd that they wouldn't do that with a website, and have the Uverse box talk to some web service (outbound, not inbound). (I don't have Uverse.)
Odd that they wouldn't do that with a website, and have the Uverse box talk to some web service (outbound, not inbound). (I don't have Uverse.)