Updates to NETCONF Transport Port Numbers
Extracted elements (5)
Consistent with Section 8.2 of RFC 6335, only port numbers are de-assigned rather than service names. This preserves registry hygiene while freeing scarce port number resources, since service names are considered separately from port assignments.
Ports 831, 832, and 833 were originally assigned for NETCONF over BEEP and NETCONF over SOAP, but those protocols were never deployed in production. The corresponding RFCs (RFC 4743 and RFC 4744) have been marked Historic, making the port reservations unnecessary and releasing scarce port number resources.
Existing configurations that associate the released port numbers (831, 832, 833) with the service names 'netconf-beep' and 'netconfsoaphttp' must be reassessed and updated. There are no known implementations or deployments relying on these port numbers.
RFC 9900 de-assigns TCP and UDP port 832 from 'netconfsoaphttp' (NETCONF for SOAP over HTTPS, RFC 4743) and TCP and UDP port 833 from 'netconfsoapbeep' (NETCONF for SOAP over BEEP, RFC 4743). Service names are retained; notes are added to ports 832 and 833 indicating they were released by RFC 9900.
RFC 9900 does not describe any protocol and therefore introduces no new security vulnerabilities. The de-assignment of unused port numbers has no security impact.