WHATPORT(2121) whatport.net WHATPORT(2121)
2121

Alternate FTP / FTP proxy

FTP's unprivileged twin — where an FTP server or FTP proxy lands when it cannot bind port 21.

TCP IANA registry

Description

IANA registers 2121 as SCIENTIA-SSDB, but that is not what runs there. In practice 2121 is the conventional alternate FTP port: it is above 1024, so a daemon can bind it without root, and it is where FTP proxies land — Nmap names the port ccproxy-ftp after CCProxy's FTP proxy service. It is common enough to matter, open on roughly 0.6% of scanned hosts, well ahead of everything around it. A connection returns a normal FTP banner, and the protocol is RFC 959 FTP with all of its properties intact.

Exposed to the internet?

Expose with care

Same rules as port 21: cleartext credentials unless the session negotiates AUTH TLS (RFC 4217), and an open FTP proxy here can be abused to relay traffic. Moving FTP off 21 hides it from nobody.

Check it yourself

$ printf 'QUIT\r\n' | nc -v TARGET 2121

See also

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