Port 749Kerberos Admin
**Kerberos administration** typically uses port 749 to perform administrative tasks such as managing principals, policies, and key databases within a Kerberos authentication infrastructure. This port facilitates secure and centralized identity management for distributed network environments..
- transport
- tcp · udp
- in transit
- cleartext
- assignment
- official
- risk
- 2/10
- lookups
- 23,624
2 transports registered
payload readable on path
registered with iana
safe
rank 82 of 993 · top 8%
Technical Details
what runs on :749Kerberos is a network authentication protocol that uses secret-key cryptography to provide strong authentication for client/server applications. Port 749 is designated specifically for Kerberos administration—enabling management of the Key Distribution Center (KDC), including operations like creating, modifying, or deleting principals and key policies.
Communication on port 749 usually occurs between administrative clients (like kadmin) and the Kerberos administration server. This service can support multiple operations, such as adding users, setting password policies, or exporting keytabs, which are essential in handling authentication across the domain securely. The admin interface exposes these management capabilities via a dedicated port in order to separate sensitive management traffic from general authentication traffic (commonly over ports 88 TCP/UDP)
In operation, port 749 supports both UDP and TCP. The choice of transport can depend on environment and implementation specifics, with TCP preferred for reliability when exchanging bulk or sensitive administrative commands, while UDP may be used for quick queries.
Security Information
exposure of :749risk score
2/ 10safe
routine exposure. this port is rarely the way in on its own — keep it patched and logged and move on.
security averages 3.8 across 216 ports — this one sits 1.8 below.
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:
- Exposure of port 749 without sufficient access control can allow attackers to attempt unauthorized administrative actions.
- If strong authentication is not enforced, malicious actors may perform brute-force attacks or privilege escalations.
- Lack of encryption means administrative commands and credentials may be intercepted via Man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks.
- Exploitable flaws in older Kerberos implementations can potentially be leveraged to manipulate database contents or disrupt the authentication infrastructure.
Common Mitigations:
- Restrict access to port 749 using firewalls and network segmentation, limiting exposure to trusted admin hosts.
- Use strong authentication methods, such as enforcing secure key policies and multi-factor authentication.
- Upgrade to versions of Kerberos that support encrypted admin traffic (e.g., over TLS) or use VPNs to protect management sessions.
- Regularly monitor and audit admin operations to detect anomalies.
- Apply timely patches to mitigate known software vulnerabilities.
Related Ports
the 8 most looked-up other ports in security — 216 ports carry that label.
| port | service | risk | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| :8881 | Atlasz Secure Server | TCP | Web Services | caution | 67.6k |
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| :8291 | Winbox MikroTik Admin | TCP | Security | caution | 62.9k |
| :3268 | Microsoft Global Catalog (GC) | TCPUDP | Security | caution | 54.6k |
| :135 | Microsoft EPMAP | TCPUDP | Security | caution | 51.9k |
| :3128 | Squid Proxy HTTP | TCP | Web Services | caution | 45.8k |
| :8080 | HTTP Alternate | TCPtls | Web Services | caution | 44.9k |
| :7000 | Vuze HTTPS Tracker | TCPtls | Security | caution | 28.9k |
risk mix of the 8 listed
- caution100%
3 of 8 encrypted