Port 4840OPC UA TCP

OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) is a machine-to-machine communication protocol for industrial automation developed by the OPC Foundation. It is designed to facilitate the secure and reliable exchange of data in industrial control systems, supporting complex data modeling while remaining platform-independent..

transport
tcp · udp

2 transports registered

in transit
cleartext

payload readable on path

assignment
official

registered with iana

risk
4/10

caution

lookups
26,568

rank 59 of 993 · top 6%

Technical Details

what runs on :4840

OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) is an industry-standard communication protocol that enables secure, platform-independent exchange of industrial data. It serves as a successor to older OPC specifications, combining their functionalities and adding cross-platform and security enhancements. OPC UA abstracts hardware interfaces and provides a unified, object-oriented data model supporting complex system requirements.

Communication is primarily handled over TCP for reliable data transfer. Port 4840 is the default TCP port utilized for establishing OPC UA binary TCP connections, enabling efficient transmission of data. OPC UA supports additional transport mappings including Web Services bindings; however, TCP binary is commonly preferred due to performance benefits in real-time industrial contexts.

Designed for scalability, OPC UA can operate on embedded devices, factory floor PCs, and cloud environments. It enables not just data acquisition but also command/control interactions within SCADA, MES, and IoT systems. Its information modeling capabilities allow for rich semantic data representation that facilitates interoperability across multi-vendor industrial solutions.

Security Information

exposure of :4840

risk score

4/ 10caution

worth attention. how exposed you are depends on configuration — don't leave it reachable from the internet without a reason.

network services averages 3.9 across 604 ports — this one sits 0.1 above.

in transit

cleartext

credentials and payloads are readable by anyone on path

assignment

official

registered with iana for this service — scanners fingerprint it by number

reachable over

tcp · udp

udp is connectionless — source addresses are trivially spoofed and it is a reflection favourite

security overview

Common Vulnerabilities:

  • Improper authentication or lack of security configurations can expose the server to unauthorized access.
  • Implementation flaws may lead to buffer overflows or denial-of-service conditions.
  • If security policies are disabled or improperly configured, data interception and man-in-the-middle attacks may occur.
  • Legacy systems may not implement the latest OPC UA security features, creating attack surfaces.

Common Mitigations:

  • Always enable and enforce strong authentication and authorization policies.
  • Utilize built-in OPC UA encryption and signing to ensure data confidentiality and integrity.
  • Keep OPC UA server and client implementations updated to address known bugs and vulnerabilities.
  • Employ network segmentation and strict firewall rules, limiting access to trusted hosts.
  • Conduct regular security assessments and disable unnecessary services or endpoints on the OPC UA servers.

the 8 most looked-up other ports in network services — 604 ports carry that label.

risk mix of the 8 listed

  • caution100%

0 of 8 encrypted