Port 832: NETCONF over SOAP over HTTPS — The protocol that never was

What Port 832 Was Supposed to Be

Port 832 sits in the well-known ports range (0-1023), the most controlled section of the port number space. IANA assigned it in 2009 to carry NETCONF over SOAP over HTTPS—a network configuration protocol wrapped in web services technology, secured with TLS.¹

NETCONF (Network Configuration Protocol) is real and widely used. It's how network administrators configure routers, switches, and other infrastructure devices. Port 830 carries NETCONF over SSH and sees genuine traffic every day.²

But NETCONF over SOAP? That's a different story.

The Protocol Nobody Used

RFC 4743 defined how to run NETCONF over SOAP in 2006.³ The idea was to use the Simple Object Access Protocol—the enterprise web services standard of that era—as a transport for network configuration commands.

It made sense on paper. SOAP was everywhere in enterprise systems. Using it for NETCONF meant reusing existing infrastructure, riding on familiar protocols, integrating with corporate web services.

Except almost nobody implemented it. By 2012, the working group reported "very little (if any) implementations and deployment."⁴ The protocol existed. The RFC was published. The port was assigned. But the traffic never came.

The Ghost in the Registry

For 15 years, port 832 sat in the IANA registry, officially assigned to a service that barely existed. A placeholder. A promise unfulfilled. A door that nobody ever knocked on.

In 2024, RFC 9900 made it official: ports 831, 832, and 833 (the entire NETCONF over SOAP family) were released.⁵ The RFCs were marked Historic—the Internet's polite way of saying "this didn't work out."

The ports are now unassigned again. Available for something else. Waiting for a protocol that people might actually use.

What This Port Teaches

Port 832's story is a reminder: assignment doesn't mean deployment. The well-known ports range is supposed to be reserved for critical services, but even there you'll find ghosts—protocols that seemed important at the time, that got official blessing, that still never found their audience.

NETCONF succeeded. SOAP succeeded (for a while). But NETCONF over SOAP? That was a combination nobody wanted. Sometimes the sum of two good ideas is nothing at all.

Why Unassigned Ports Matter

The well-known ports range is finite—only 1024 numbers. Every assignment is a bet on what the Internet needs. When a protocol fails to deploy, releasing the port isn't just housekeeping. It's admitting the bet didn't pay off and making room for something that might.

Port 832 is available again. Ready for the next protocol. The next idea. The next thing someone thinks the Internet needs.

Maybe this time the traffic will come.

Checking What's Listening

Even though port 832 has no standard service, you can check if anything on your system is using it:

Linux/macOS:

sudo lsof -i :832
netstat -an | grep 832

Windows:

netstat -ano | findstr :832

If something appears, it's either custom software or possibly malicious. There's no legitimate standard service that should be listening here.