# WHATPORT(8500)

## NAME

port 8500 — HashiCorp Consul HTTP API (IANA: fmtp) — Consul's HTTP API and web UI — the port most people mean when they say "Consul".

Protocol: TCP  
IANA registry

## DESCRIPTION

IANA registers 8500 as fmtp, EUROCONTROL's Flight Message Transfer Protocol, from 2003; almost every listener you will actually meet is Consul, whose documentation lists 8500 as "The HTTP API". That API serves the service catalog, the key/value store, health checks and the built-in web UI, and it is unauthenticated unless ACLs are explicitly enabled. It travels with 8300, 8301/8302 and 8600 on a Consul server. A quick GET of /v1/status/leader identifies it in one request.

## EXPOSURE

**Do not expose.** With default (ACL-less) configuration this API hands out the whole catalog and KV store, and accepts writes. Bind it to a private address, turn on ACLs and TLS, and reach it over a VPN.

## CHECK

```sh
curl -s http://TARGET:8500/v1/status/leader
```

## SEE ALSO

- docs — [Consul — Required ports](https://developer.hashicorp.com/consul/docs/reference/architecture/ports) (developer.hashicorp.com)
- source — [HashiCorp Consul source repository](https://github.com/hashicorp/consul) (github.com)
- 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/8500/> · JSON: <https://whatport.net/8500.json> · full dataset: <https://whatport.net/ports.json>