# WHATPORT(6000)

## NAME

port 6000 — X11 (display :0) — An X server accepting TCP connections on display :0 — the classic "your desktop is open" finding.

Protocol: TCP  
IANA registry

## DESCRIPTION

IANA assigns 6000-6063 to `x11`, the X Window System, one port per display: 6000 is display :0, 6001 is :1, and so on. An X server that has not been told otherwise listens on TCP as well as its Unix socket, and access is decided by a host list (xhost) or a MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 token in ~/.Xauthority. Modern distributions start the server with `-nolisten tcp`, so an open 6000 means someone explicitly re-enabled TCP — usually to make remote GUI apps work without SSH X forwarding.

## EXPOSURE

**Do not expose.** An X client can read the whole screen, grab the clipboard, and inject synthetic keystrokes. With `xhost +` there is no authentication at all, and the protocol is cleartext regardless — use `ssh -X` instead.

## CHECK

```sh
xdpyinfo -display TARGET:0
```

## SEE ALSO

- docs — [X.Org — Xserver(1) manual page (-nolisten, xhost, authorization)](https://xorg.freedesktop.org/archive/current/doc/man/man1/Xserver.1.xhtml) (xorg.freedesktop.org)
- iana — [IANA port registry — 6000-6063 (x11)](https://www.iana.org/assignments/service-names-port-numbers/service-names-port-numbers.xhtml?search=x11) (iana.org)
- docs — [xorg/xserver](https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xorg/xserver) (gitlab.freedesktop.org)

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HTML: <https://whatport.net/6000/> · JSON: <https://whatport.net/6000.json> · full dataset: <https://whatport.net/ports.json>