Port 3322: Active Networks — Reserved for a Protocol That Never Shipped

What Port 3322 Is

Port 3322 sits in the registered port range (1024-49151). These ports are assigned by IANA to specific services and applications, though registration doesn't guarantee a protocol is actually in use.

IANA lists port 3322 under the service name active-net, assigned to Active Networks. Both TCP and UDP are listed. ¹

The Active Networks Story

Active Networks was a DARPA-funded research initiative from the mid-to-late 1990s. The central idea was radical: instead of packets carrying only data, they would carry executable code that network nodes would run as the packet passed through. Routers wouldn't just forward traffic; they would compute.

It was the kind of idea that looks brilliant on a whiteboard and brutal in production. The security implications alone were severe. A programmable network is also an attack surface the size of the entire Internet. The research produced papers and prototypes, but Active Networks never became infrastructure. ²

At some point during this era, someone registered port 3322 with IANA for the protocol. The registration outlasted the project.

Current Reality

In practice, port 3322 is unoccupied. No widely deployed software claims it. GRC's port database has no documentation for it. ³ SpeedGuide lists it but notes no active services. ⁴

Some security databases flag the port as having been used by trojans or malware in the past. This is common for any port in this range that sits unclaimed — abandoned ports are occasionally squatted by malware that needs a home. If you see traffic on port 3322, that's worth investigating.

What to Do if You See Port 3322 Open

Check what process is listening:

Linux / macOS:

sudo ss -tlnp | grep 3322
# or
sudo lsof -i :3322

Windows:

netstat -aon | findstr :3322

Then look up the process ID to identify the application. If nothing you recognize is responsible, treat it as suspicious.

Why Unassigned Ports Matter

The registered port range contains 48,128 ports. Many are occupied by protocols you use every day. Many others are registered for projects that never shipped, standards that were superseded, or software that was abandoned. Port 3322 is one of the latter.

These ghost registrations are part of why port scanning matters. An open port on your machine isn't always a known service. Sometimes it's something forgotten, something squatted, or something that shouldn't be there.