# WHATPORT(83)

## NAME

port 83 — MIT ML Device — Registered as 'MIT ML Device' — a 1980s assignment with no surviving protocol behind it.

Protocol: TCP  
IANA registry

## DESCRIPTION

IANA registers port 83 as 'mit-ml-dev — MIT ML Device', assigned to David Reed, on TCP and UDP. It dates to the early port assignments and has no RFC, no public specification, and no implementation you will encounter. As with 81 and 82, real listeners on 83 are almost always an extra HTTP server, proxy or admin interface parked on a free low port. Identify it by fingerprinting the service rather than by trusting the registry name.

## EXPOSURE

**Expose with care.** The registered protocol is a historical artifact; anything answering here is unidentified and typically unencrypted HTTP.

## CHECK

```sh
curl -sSI --max-time 5 http://TARGET:83/
```

## SEE ALSO

- iana — [IANA Service Name and Transport Protocol Port Number Registry](https://www.iana.org/assignments/service-names-port-numbers/service-names-port-numbers.xhtml) (iana.org)

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HTML: <https://whatport.net/83/> · JSON: <https://whatport.net/83.json> · full dataset: <https://whatport.net/ports.json>