Port 1457: Valisys License Manager — A registered port for industrial software licensing

Port 1457 is officially registered with IANA for valisys-lm (Valisys License Manager), a licensing service for Valisys tolerance management and quality inspection software.¹²

You'll almost never see traffic on this port unless you're in a manufacturing environment running Valisys software.

What Is the Registered Port Range?

Port 1457 belongs to the registered ports range (1024-49151). Unlike well-known ports (0-1023) which require special privileges, registered ports can be used by regular applications. Companies and developers can request a port number from IANA, and it's assigned on a first-come, first-served basis.³

Once assigned, the port stays registered—even if the software becomes obscure or discontinued. Port 1457 is one of thousands of these permanent reservations.

What Is Valisys?

Valisys is tolerance management and quality inspection software, originally developed by Tecnomatix Technologies (later acquired by Siemens). It's used in manufacturing to manage dimensional tolerances and quality control for CAD models.⁴

The Valisys License Manager uses port 1457 to handle licensing for this software—communicating between the application and a license server to verify that users have valid licenses.

Security Considerations

Some older security databases flagged port 1457 as potentially associated with malware.⁵ This doesn't mean the Valisys License Manager itself is malicious—it means that, like any port, it could theoretically be used by malware pretending to be legitimate software.

If you see unexpected traffic on port 1457 and you're not running Valisys software, investigate it.

How to Check What's Listening on Port 1457

On Linux or macOS:

sudo lsof -i :1457
# or
sudo netstat -tulpn | grep 1457

On Windows:

netstat -ano | findstr :1457

If something is listening and you don't recognize it, check the process ID to identify the application.

Why Unassigned and Obscure Ports Matter

The registered port range contains thousands of ports like 1457—officially assigned to specific applications that most people will never encounter. These ports matter because:

• They prevent conflicts — If two applications randomly chose the same port, they'd collide. Registration prevents this.
• They document intent — Even if Valisys software is rare, the IANA registry preserves the knowledge that port 1457 belongs to it.
• They create a permanent namespace — Port numbers are a finite resource (65,535 total), but large enough that we'll never run out. Every registered port is a small permanent claim in that space.

Port 1457 exists in the registry, waiting. Most networks will never see it used. But if you're running Valisys software in a manufacturing plant, this port carries the quiet work of license verification—checking permissions so that quality control software can run.

Related Ports

Other software licensing ports in nearby ranges include ports used by FlexLM, HASP, and other license management systems—each doing the same job for different applications.