Port 8546 (Ethereum WebSocket RPC)

WebSocket JSON-RPC of Geth and other Ethereum clients.

Registered (user) port, 1024-49151 TCP Peer-to-peer Do not expose to the internet

What port 8546 is used for

WebSocket JSON-RPC of Geth and other Ethereum clients.

Do not expose to the internet. Same as 8545.

Port 8546 is in the registered range and has no IANA assignment. The usage above is unofficial but widespread.

Linux: is anything listening on TCP 8546?

sudo ss -tlnp 'sport = :8546'

Linux / macOS: which process owns the port

sudo lsof -nP -i :8546

Older Linux / BSD (net-tools)

sudo netstat -tlnp | grep ':8546 '

Windows (Command Prompt)

netstat -ano | findstr :8546

Windows (PowerShell)

Get-NetTCPConnection -LocalPort 8546 -State Listen | Select LocalAddress,OwningProcess

From another machine

nc -vz -w 5 HOST 8546

From Windows

Test-NetConnection HOST -Port 8546

ufw

sudo ufw deny 8546/tcp

iptables

sudo iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 8546 -j DROP

nftables

sudo nft add rule inet filter input tcp dport 8546 drop

Windows Firewall

New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName 'Block TCP 8546' -Direction Inbound -Protocol TCP -LocalPort 8546 -Action Block

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