217

Port 217/tcp is registered with IANA under the service name dbase, description "dBASE Unix," with Don Gibson listed as both assignee and contact. The registry entry is unusually sparse: no Registration Date, Modification Date, IANA Reference (RFC), Service Code, or Assignment Notes are populated in the cached Service Names and Port Numbers registry, and none of those are invented here — they are recorded as blank/null as-is. The assignment is dual-registered: 217/udp carries the identical service name, description, and contact, immediately below the tcp row in the registry file. The name and description point to dBASE, the once-dominant PC/desktop database product from Ashton-Tate (later Borland/dBASE Inc.), specifically a Unix-hosted networking or multiuser component, though no protocol specification, RFC, or vendor manual documenting the wire format was located. No currently maintained software was found listening on this port, and no CVEs, malware associations, or scanning/exposure telemetry reference it. One unconfirmed claim — that Wikipedia's port list labels 217/tcp as IPX — surfaced from a single low-reliability summarization pass, was not corroborated on re-check, and is excluded from the recorded facts rather than treated as fact. Given the well-known range (0–1023) placement, this is very likely a legacy 1980s–90s assignment, but that inference is not sourced to a dated record and is not presented as fact.

IANA assignment

dbase — "dBASE Unix"; assignee/contact Don Gibson; dual-registered 217/tcp + 217/udp with identical name/description/contact [Confirmed] — the IANA Service Name and Transport Protocol Port Number Registry-537

IANA Reference (RFC)

blank in the registry — not recorded/invented [Confirmed] — the IANA Service Name and Transport Protocol Port Number Registry

Registration/Modification Date

blank in the registry; no independently dated source found for this legacy assignment [Unknown] — the IANA Service Name and Transport Protocol Port Number Registry; https://www.iana.org/assignments/service-names-port-numbers/service-names-port-numbers.xml

Range class

well-known (0–1023) [Confirmed]

Primary use

reserved for dBASE's Unix-hosted networking/multiuser component; no protocol spec or RFC documents the wire format [Likely] — https://www.iana.org/assignments/service-names-port-numbers/service-names-port-numbers.xml; http://www.t1shopper.com/tools/port-number/217/

Security implications

no CVEs, malware associations, or scanning/exposure telemetry found for this port in this pass; treated as a legacy, rarely-seen assignment, not evidence of safety

Current software/prevalence

no currently maintained software found listening on 217/tcp today [Unknown] — no citation (absence of findings)

Discrepancy note

a single WebFetch summarization of a long Wikipedia table returned an uncorroborated "IPX" label for 217/tcp, conflicting with the IANA dbase registration; not corroborated on re-check and excluded from recorded facts [Unknown — excluded, not asserted]

Port 217/udp is registered with IANA under the service name dbase, described as "dBASE Unix," with Don Gibson listed as both assignee and contact and a blank Reference field — no RFC or other standards document ever defined dbase's wire protocol. The registration is dual with 217/tcp, which carries the identical service name, description, and contact, a common IANA pattern for early vendor registrations that reserved a port pair before the assignee committed to a single transport. dBASE was one of the dominant PC database products of the 1980s (originally Ashton-Tate, later Borland); "dBASE Unix" was Ashton-Tate/Borland's Unix port of that product line, and this registration almost certainly reserved a port for a client-server or file-locking component of that Unix release rather than for a broadly interoperable protocol. No registration or modification date survives in the cached IANA registry row, and none should be invented. Modern evidence of the port's use is essentially absent: no CVEs, no scanning-index prominence, and no current software was found actively listening on 217/udp in this research pass; one secondary port-lookup site explicitly denies any trojan/virus association, though that is a single unconfirmed source rather than an authoritative clearance. Practically, 217/udp is a dormant legacy vendor registration — a response on this port today would be unusual and worth investigating as a misconfiguration, an unrelated ephemeral-port collision, or a genuine (rare) leftover dBASE Unix installation, rather than as evidence of an active, broadly-deployed dBASE service.

IANA assignment

dbase — "dBASE Unix"; reference (blank — no RFC cited in IANA registry); assignee/contact [Don_Gibson]; dual-registered 217/tcp + 217/udp [Confirmed] — the IANA Service Name and Transport Protocol Port Number Registry (paired row :536); https://www.iana.org/assignments/service-names-port-numbers/service-names-port-numbers.txt

Range class

well-known (0–1023) [Confirmed]

Registration/modification dates

blank in the cached IANA registry row — not fabricated [Confirmed] — the IANA Service Name and Transport Protocol Port Number Registry

Related ports

217/tcp (same dbase / "dBASE Unix" IANA registration, same assignee/contact) [Confirmed] — the IANA Service Name and Transport Protocol Port Number Registry

Primary use

legacy vendor-registered port for dBASE Unix, the Unix port of the dBASE database product (Ashton-Tate, later Borland); not defined by an RFC

Security implications / malware association

one secondary source (auditmypc.com) explicitly marks the port "Virus / Trojan: No"; no other source confirms or refutes a specific malware/trojan tie, and no CVEs were found against this port

Typically seen on

no current software or deployment pattern identified in this research pass [Unknown]

Current usage/prevalence

no nmap-services frequency data or scanning-index (Shodan/Censys) prominence found; presumed negligible given dBASE's legacy status, but this is an inference, not a measurement [Unknown]