# WHATPORT(903)

## NAME

port 903 — VMware remote console (legacy) — IANA: ideafarm-panic — The remote-console partner to VMware's 902 on older ESX and GSX/Server hosts; IANA registers it as ideafarm-panic.

Protocol: TCP  
IANA: ideafarm-panic

## DESCRIPTION

Older VMware products — ESX 3.x and 4.x, GSX Server and VMware Server — carried remote console traffic on 903 alongside the authentication daemon on 902. Current vSphere consolidates console and MKS traffic onto 902 and 443, so 903 now shows up mainly on legacy hosts that were never retired. The IANA registration, ideafarm-panic, is an unrelated legacy assignment with no public specification, and nmap's service table additionally labels 903 iss-console-mgr after ISS RealSecure's console manager. Three plausible names, so identify this one by what is next to it on the host.

## EXPOSURE

**Do not expose.** If it is the VMware console port, it is a virtual-machine console plane on a hypervisor old enough to be out of support — the worst of both problems. Keep it on a management network.

## CHECK

```sh
nc -vz -w 3 TARGET 903
```

## SEE ALSO

- iana — [IANA port registry — 903](https://www.iana.org/assignments/service-names-port-numbers/service-names-port-numbers.xhtml?search=903) (iana.org)
- source — [nmap-services (903/tcp iss-console-mgr | ideafarm-panic)](https://github.com/nmap/nmap/blob/master/nmap-services) (github.com)

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