What Port 3482 Is
Port 3482 sits in the registered ports range (1024–49151). These ports are assigned by IANA to specific applications and services. Unlike the well-known ports (0–1023) — which carry the foundational protocols of the Internet — registered ports are claimed by individual software vendors, open-source projects, and protocol authors.
Registered doesn't mean important. It means someone filled out a form.
The Registered Service: Vulture
In April 2002, IANA recorded port 3482 (both TCP and UDP) for the Vulture Monitoring System.1 Vulture was a network and system monitoring application — the kind of software that watches servers and reports when things go wrong.
It registered the port. Then it disappeared.
There is no active community around Vulture. There are no current downloads, no active deployments, no documentation trails that suggest this software is running anywhere at meaningful scale. The IANA registration remains because IANA registrations don't expire — they accumulate like old leases on abandoned storefronts.
This makes port 3482 something specific: not unassigned, but functionally vacant. A port with a name and no body.
What's Actually on Port 3482
Probably nothing you intentionally put there.
If you find something listening on port 3482, the most likely explanations are:
- An ephemeral port assignment — Operating systems assign temporary ports from the dynamic/ephemeral range (49152–65535), but some systems use parts of the registered range too, especially older configurations
- Malware or a backdoor — Obscure, rarely-monitored ports are attractive to software that wants to communicate quietly
- A misconfigured application — Something chose this port informally and nobody noticed
SANS Internet Storm Center records regular scanning activity against port 3482 from external hosts.2 Scanners probe it looking for open doors. That's worth knowing.
How to Check What's Listening
On Linux or macOS:
On Windows:
If something is listening and you didn't put it there, that's worth investigating.
Why Unassigned (and Abandoned) Ports Matter
The registered port range contains thousands of entries like this one — software that claimed a port number, shipped, and faded. The port numbers persist in the registry long after the software is gone.
This creates a practical problem: a port that was assigned to defunct software is still technically "taken." Other applications that want to use the number informally have to work around it, or ignore the registry entirely. Many do.
It also creates a security consideration: the less activity a port normally sees, the easier it is for something to hide there. A service running on port 80 is noticed. A service running on port 3482 might go undetected for weeks.
The port registry is a living document with dead entries. Port 3482 is one of the quiet ones.
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