Loading...
SIP over TLS
Port 5061 is primarily used for Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) signaling over Transport Layer Security (TLS), offering encrypted communication channels for establishing and managing Voice over IP (VoIP) sessions. This secures call setups, modifications, and teardowns, providing confidentiality and integrity for signaling data between clients and servers..
Port 5061 is designated by IANA as the official port for SIP traffic transmitted over TLS. This protocol facilitates initiating, modifying, and terminating multimedia communication sessions such as voice and video calls over IP networks. Utilizing TLS, SIP exchanges on this port benefit from encrypted signaling, protecting sensitive information including caller identity and call metadata from interception.
By operating over TLS, the SIP protocol on port 5061 provides authentication, confidentiality, and data integrity for signaling messages. Clients, servers, and proxy servers negotiate TLS sessions prior to SIP message transmission, employing X.509 certificates for mutual or server-only authentication. This process adds overhead compared to plain SIP (commonly on port 5060), but significantly strengthens signaling security.
Implementations using SIP over TLS are prevalent in enterprise VoIP deployments, unified communications platforms, and IP-based telephony systems requiring secure signaling. It is integrated with other media protocols like RTP (for media streams) which might traverse different ports, while SIP signaling initiates and controls the entire session lifecycle over 5061.