122
Summary
- // if you see it open
- No port-122-specific scanning or exposure telemetry found. A listener on 122 would be discoverable by broad 0-1023 sweeps, but there is no evidence of active use or exploitation. No specific malware family is confirmed tied to it; one legacy mirror notes 122 is routinely checked against trojan port lists as a matter of course.
- // analyst note
- A low-numbered well-known entry with essentially no documented modern usage — treat a responsive port 122 as unusual and investigate rather than assuming a standard service.
About port 122/tcp.
Port 122/tcp is registered with IANA under the service name smakynet, description "SMAKYNET," with both the assignee and contact listed as Pierre Arnaud (recorded in the registry as [Pierre_Arnaud]). The entry is dual-registered, appearing identically on both 122/tcp and 122/udp in the IANA Service Name and Transport Protocol Port Number Registry. The Registration Date, Modification Date, and Reference columns are blank in the source registry, so no RFC or specification is cited and no assignment date is recorded — those fields stay empty rather than being filled with invented values. Unlike many well-known ports, SMAKYNET has no publicly documented protocol specification, wire format, or reference implementation that could be located: the port databases that mention 122 (SpeedGuide, auditmypc, t1shopper, adminsub.net, and similar mirrors) all restate the same bare IANA registry line without adding independent technical detail, which suggests they are scraping the registry rather than documenting real-world usage. For an analyst, the practical picture is that port 122 is a low-numbered well-known registry entry with essentially no observed modern deployment. No specific software, vendor product, or malware family could be confidently tied to it, and no port-122-specific scanning or exposure telemetry was found. A listener on 122 would be discoverable by internet-wide scanners that sweep the 0–1023 range, but there is no evidence it is actively used or exploited today; a responsive port 122 is best treated as unusual and worth a closer look rather than a routine service.
- IANA assignment
smakynet— "SMAKYNET"; assignee and contact both Pierre Arnaud ([Pierre_Arnaud]); Reference column blank (no RFC cited); dual-registered 122/tcp + 122/udp [Confirmed] — IANA Service Name and Transport Protocol Port Number Registry; local cached registry CSV lines 313 (tcp) / 314 (udp)- Registration / Modification date
- blank in the source registry — recorded as null, not fabricated [Confirmed] — IANA registry (blank columns)
- Range class
- well-known (0–1023) [Confirmed]
Primary use
registered for a service named "SMAKYNET"; no public protocol specification, wire format, or reference implementation located
Common software / vendor product
none identified in use; no currently-maintained product found that implements port 122
Malware / abuse associations
none specifically confirmed; a legacy port-warning mirror notes 122 is routinely checked against trojan port lists as a matter of course, not because a specific trojan is tied to it
Exposure / scanning
no port-122-specific Shodan/Censys/honeypot telemetry found; a listener on 122 would be discoverable by broad low-port sweeps, but actual exposure is unquantified [Unknown]
- Secondary contact detail
- one third-party mirror lists a personal contact email address for Pierre Arnaud (not reproduced here); it is not on the current IANA page and is treated as a secondary-source detail, not IANA-verified [Likely] — http://www.t1shopper.com/tools/port-number/122/
- Analyst note
- A low-numbered well-known entry with essentially no documented modern usage — treat a responsive port 122 as unusual and investigate rather than assuming a standard service.
About port 122/udp.
Port 122/udp is registered with IANA as smakynet with the description "SMAKYNET," assignee Pierre Arnaud, and a blank reference field. The registration is a dual TCP/UDP assignment: 122/tcp carries the identical service name, description, and assignee, so this is a standard paired IANA entry rather than a UDP-only or asymmetric one. Beyond the registration itself, SMAKYNET is essentially undocumented in the public record — no RFC, no vendor specification, and no protocol description was found for what the service actually does or how it frames its traffic on the wire, and the IANA row carries no registration or modification date to anchor it in time. The name is generally understood to trace to the SMAKY family of computers designed by Jean-Daniel Nicoud's lab in Switzerland, with which Pierre Arnaud was associated, but no authoritative source ties that lineage to a live protocol on this port. No software, daemon, or vendor implementation using SMAKYNET on 122/udp was identified. One low-authority aggregator (portsmaster.org) claims port 122 is "used for SSH"; that claim is unsupported by IANA, contradicted by the registered name, and is treated as unreliable — it is not adopted here. There is likewise no evidence of routine internet-wide scanning, malware association, or documented abuse tied specifically to 122/udp. For an analyst, a responsive 122/udp is best treated as an unusual, effectively-obsolete registration: verify what is actually listening rather than assuming any well-known behavior. As a generic protocol-class caveat (not a fact about SMAKYNET), UDP services, when present, can be exposed unauthenticated attack surface or leveraged for reflection/amplification, so an unexpected UDP listener here warrants inspection.
- IANA assignment
smakynet— "SMAKYNET"; reference (blank — no RFC cited in IANA registry); assignee Pierre Arnaud; dual-registered 122/tcp + 122/udp [Confirmed] — IANA Service Names and Port Numbers Registry- Range class
- well-known (0–1023) [Confirmed]
- Registration/modification date
- blank in the IANA registry (no date field populated for this row); left Unknown per no-fabrication rule [Unknown] — IANA registry row (local cache + iana.org)
- IANA reference / RFC
- none listed — left blank (never invent an RFC reference) [Confirmed] — IANA registry
- Prevalence
- nmap-services observed open-frequency 122/udp ≈ 0.000428 (very low — roughly 4 in 10,000 scanned hosts in the nmap-services sample); the dual-registered 122/tcp side is rarer at ≈ 0.000063 [Confirmed] — nmap-services dataset
- Related ports
- 122/tcp (identical dual registration)
Primary use
IANA-registered name-only entry; no publicly documented protocol specification, RFC, or vendor page describing SMAKYNET's function was found. Name likely traces to the SMAKY computer family associated with the assignee, but no source ties it to a live protocol on this port
Common software / implementations
none identified — no daemon or vendor implementation using SMAKYNET on 122/udp was found in registry mirrors or general search [Unknown]
Security implications
no documented scanning, malware, or abuse history specific to 122/udp. The portsmaster.org "SSH" claim is unsupported and rejected. Generic UDP caveat only: an unexpected UDP listener is unauthenticated attack surface / potential reflection vector — a protocol-class note, not a SMAKYNET-specific fact
Typically seen on
no known deployment base; effectively an obsolete/undocumented registration — a responsive port is an anomaly worth verifying
- Analyst note
- Treat SMAKYNET on 122/udp as an undocumented, effectively-obsolete registration. Do not assume any well-known behavior (it is not SSH); verify the actual listener.
Service assignments.
| Name | Protocol | Description | Open frequency |
|---|---|---|---|
| smakynet | UDP | — | 0.04% |
| smakynet | TCP | — | 0.01% |
Service assignments from the IANA Service Name and Transport Protocol Port Number Registry, with open-frequency data from nmap-services.