Port 179 (BGP)

Border Gateway Protocol sessions between routers (ISPs, data centers, Calico and MetalLB in Kubernetes).

Well-known (system) port, 0-1023 TCP Network infrastructure Expose only to trusted sources

What port 179 is used for

Border Gateway Protocol sessions between routers (ISPs, data centers, Calico and MetalLB in Kubernetes).

Expose only to trusted sources. Accept BGP only from configured neighbors; use TCP-AO or MD5 passwords and the GTSM (TTL security) check.

Service nameProtoDescriptionAssigneeReference

bgp TCP Border Gateway Protocol Kirk Lougheed -

bgp UDP Border Gateway Protocol Kirk Lougheed -

bgp SCTP BGP Randall Stewart RFC 9260

Registry dates for this port: last modified 2022-02-07.

Linux: is anything listening on TCP 179?

sudo ss -tlnp 'sport = :179'

Linux / macOS: which process owns the port

sudo lsof -nP -i :179

Older Linux / BSD (net-tools)

sudo netstat -tlnp | grep ':179 '

Windows (Command Prompt)

netstat -ano | findstr :179

Windows (PowerShell)

Get-NetTCPConnection -LocalPort 179 -State Listen | Select LocalAddress,OwningProcess

From another machine

nc -vz -w 5 HOST 179

From Windows

Test-NetConnection HOST -Port 179

Replace 203.0.113.10 with the address or network you trust. With ufw, make sure the default incoming policy is deny.

ufw (one trusted source)

sudo ufw allow from 203.0.113.10 to any port 179 proto tcp

iptables

sudo iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 179 -s 203.0.113.10 -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 179 -j DROP

nftables

sudo nft add rule inet filter input ip saddr 203.0.113.10 tcp dport 179 accept
sudo nft add rule inet filter input tcp dport 179 drop

Windows Firewall

New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName 'TCP 179 trusted' -Direction Inbound -Protocol TCP -LocalPort 179 -RemoteAddress 203.0.113.10 -Action Allow

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Assignment data: IANA port number registry (public domain), retrieved 2026-11-10.