Port 1215 sits in the registered ports range, officially assigned to a piece of software most network engineers have never heard of: scanSTAT 1.0, a brain imaging tool from UCLA.
What Port 1215 Carries
Port 1215 (both TCP and UDP) is registered to scanSTAT 1.0, software designed to open socket connections to MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scanners and import live brain imaging data as it's being acquired.12
This isn't network scanning. This is medical imaging flowing across the network in real-time—the inside of someone's brain, rendered as data packets, arriving on port 1215 where analysis software waits to process it.
The Registered Ports Range
Port 1215 falls within the registered ports range (1024-49151). These ports are assigned by IANA to specific services upon application by organizations or developers who need a standardized port for their protocol or application.3
Unlike well-known ports (0-1023) which require privileged access, registered ports can be bound by regular user applications. Unlike dynamic/ephemeral ports (49152-65535) which are temporary, registered ports are meant to be consistently used by their assigned service.
The Story Behind Port 1215
scanSTAT was developed by Mark S. Cohen and William L. Scheding at UCLA's Brain Mapping Center. William Scheding registered port 1215 with IANA for the protocol.14
The software was designed to solve a specific problem: researchers needed to analyze MRI data as it was being collected, not hours later after the scan finished. scanSTAT opens a network connection to the scanner and streams the data in real-time, allowing immediate processing and quality checks during the scanning session.
This is what the port system was designed for—not just web browsers and email servers, but any application that needs reliable network communication. Port 1215 serves brain research.
Why This Port Probably Isn't Active On Your System
Unless you're running MRI analysis software at a medical research facility, port 1215 is almost certainly not in use on your network. This is a highly specialized application serving a narrow scientific purpose.
The registration exists so that when scanSTAT is deployed, it has a standardized port number that won't conflict with other services. Medical imaging equipment in different hospitals and research centers can all use port 1215 for this protocol without collision.
Security Considerations
Some security databases have flagged port 1215 as potentially associated with malware.5 This doesn't mean scanSTAT itself is malicious—it means that at some point, malware was observed using this port for communication.
Attackers don't ask permission before using ports. Any port, whether officially assigned or not, can be abused. If you see unexpected traffic on port 1215 and you're not running brain imaging software, investigate.
How to Check What's Using Port 1215
On Linux or macOS:
On Windows:
If nothing returns, the port is not currently in use. If something is listening and it's not scanSTAT (which you'd know about), find out what it is.
Why Unassigned and Specialized Ports Matter
The port system works because there are 65,535 ports available. Not every port needs to serve millions of users. Port 1215 might only be active on a few dozen machines worldwide at any given moment, all of them in medical research settings.
But those researchers need it. They need a standardized number that won't conflict with their other network services. They need to configure firewalls knowing that port 1215 means "MRI data stream" and nothing else.
The Internet is built from 65,535 doors. Some lead to massive data centers serving billions of requests. Some lead to a single MRI scanner in a research lab, streaming the image of a brain to a computer three feet away. Both matter.
Related Ports
- Port 104: DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) - the standard protocol for medical imaging
- Port 2761: DICOM over TLS - encrypted medical imaging
- Port 11112: DICOM unencrypted - alternative medical imaging port
Frequently Asked Questions About Port 1215
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