NETCONF port updates: Updates to NETCONF Transport Port Numbers

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                      M. Boucadair
Request for Comments: 9900                                        Orange
Category: Standards Track                                  December 2025
ISSN: 2070-1721


               Updates to NETCONF Transport Port Numbers

Abstract

   This document releases IANA-assigned port numbers for services
   related to the Network Configuration Protocol (NETCONF) that have not
   been in use in production networks.

Status of This Memo

   This is an Internet Standards Track document.

   This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
   (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
   received public review and has been approved for publication by the
   Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Further information on
   Internet Standards is available in Section 2 of RFC 7841.

   Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
   and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
   https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9900.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2025 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction
   2.  Operational Considerations
   3.  Security Considerations
   4.  IANA Considerations
     4.1.  NETCONF over BEEP Service
     4.2.  NETCONF over SOAP Service
   5.  References
     5.1.  Normative References
     5.2.  Informative References
   Acknowledgments
   Author's Address

1.  Introduction

   The "Service Name and Transport Protocol Port Number Registry"
   [IANA-SERVICE] records several NETCONF-related port and service name
   assignments such as 830 for NETCONF over Secure Shell (SSH)
   [RFC6242], 831 for NETCONF over the Blocks Extensible Exchange
   Protocol (BEEP) [RFC4744], 832 for NETCONF over the Simple Object
   Access Protocol (SOAP) [RFC4743], 4334 for NETCONF Call Home
   [RFC8071], and 6513 for NETCONF over Transport Layer Security (TLS)
   [RFC7589][NETCONF-over-TLS].

   However, three of these assignments (831, 832, and 833) are for
   protocols that are not deployed, and the relevant RFCs ([RFC4743] and
   [RFC4744]) have been marked Historic.  All these assignments are thus
   no longer required to support these services.

   This document de-assigns these unused port numbers.

   Consistent with Section 8.2 of [RFC6335], this document does not de-
   assign service names; only port numbers are de-assigned for better
   usage of available scarce resources.

2.  Operational Considerations

   There are no known implementations and deployments of protocols that
   rely upon the port numbers released back by this document.

   Existing configurations (if any) that associate the released port
   numbers with the service names "netconf-beep" and "netconfsoaphttp"
   need to be reassessed and updated according to the actions in
   Section 4.

   Other than that, there are no new operations or manageability
   requirements introduced by this document.

3.  Security Considerations

   This document does not describe any protocol.  As such, this document
   does not introduce any new security vulnerability.

4.  IANA Considerations

   Per this document, IANA has updated the "Service Name and Transport
   Protocol Port Number Registry" [IANA-SERVICE] as specified in the
   following subsections.

   De-assigned allocations are marked per Section 8.2 of [RFC6335].
   These actions are not repeated here.

4.1.  NETCONF over BEEP Service

   OLD:

   +==============+=============+===========+=============+===========+
   | Service Name | Port Number | Transport | Description | Reference |
   |              |             |  Protocol |             |           |
   +==============+=============+===========+=============+===========+
   | netconf-beep |     831     |    tcp    | NETCONF     | [RFC4744] |
   |              |             |           | over BEEP   |           |
   +--------------+-------------+-----------+-------------+-----------+
   | netconf-beep |     831     |    udp    | NETCONF     | [RFC4744] |
   |              |             |           | over BEEP   |           |
   +--------------+-------------+-----------+-------------+-----------+

                                 Table 1

   NEW:

   +==============+=============+===========+=============+===========+
   | Service Name | Port Number | Transport | Description | Reference |
   |              |             |  Protocol |             |           |
   +==============+=============+===========+=============+===========+
   | netconf-beep |             |           | NETCONF     | [RFC4744] |
   |              |             |           | over BEEP   |  RFC 9900 |
   +--------------+-------------+-----------+-------------+-----------+

                                 Table 2

   A note has been added to 831 to indicate that the port number used to
   be assigned to NETCONF over BEEP but was released by RFC 9900.

4.2.  NETCONF over SOAP Service

   OLD:

    +=================+========+===========+=============+===========+
    | Service Name    |  Port  | Transport | Description | Reference |
    |                 | Number |  Protocol |             |           |
    +=================+========+===========+=============+===========+
    | netconfsoaphttp |  832   |    tcp    | NETCONF for | [RFC4743] |
    |                 |        |           | SOAP over   |           |
    |                 |        |           | HTTPS       |           |
    +-----------------+--------+-----------+-------------+-----------+
    | netconfsoaphttp |  832   |    udp    | NETCONF for | [RFC4743] |
    |                 |        |           | SOAP over   |           |
    |                 |        |           | HTTPS       |           |
    +-----------------+--------+-----------+-------------+-----------+
    | netconfsoapbeep |  833   |    tcp    | NETCONF for | [RFC4743] |
    |                 |        |           | SOAP over   |           |
    |                 |        |           | BEEP        |           |
    +-----------------+--------+-----------+-------------+-----------+
    | netconfsoapbeep |  833   |    udp    | NETCONF for | [RFC4743] |
    |                 |        |           | SOAP over   |           |
    |                 |        |           | BEEP        |           |
    +-----------------+--------+-----------+-------------+-----------+

                                 Table 3

   NEW:

    +=================+========+===========+=============+===========+
    | Service Name    |  Port  | Transport | Description | Reference |
    |                 | Number |  Protocol |             |           |
    +=================+========+===========+=============+===========+
    | netconfsoaphttp |        |           | NETCONF for | [RFC4743] |
    |                 |        |           | SOAP over   |  RFC 9900 |
    |                 |        |           | HTTPS       |           |
    +-----------------+--------+-----------+-------------+-----------+
    | netconfsoapbeep |        |           | NETCONF for | [RFC4743] |
    |                 |        |           | SOAP over   |  RFC 9900 |
    |                 |        |           | BEEP        |           |
    +-----------------+--------+-----------+-------------+-----------+

                                 Table 4

   A note has been added to 832 and 833 to indicate that the port
   numbers used to be assigned to NETCONF over SOAP but were released by
   RFC 9900.

5.  References

5.1.  Normative References

   [RFC6335]  Cotton, M., Eggert, L., Touch, J., Westerlund, M., and S.
              Cheshire, "Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA)
              Procedures for the Management of the Service Name and
              Transport Protocol Port Number Registry", BCP 165,
              RFC 6335, DOI 10.17487/RFC6335, August 2011,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6335>.

5.2.  Informative References

   [IANA-SERVICE]
              IANA, "Service Name and Transport Protocol Port Number
              Registry", <https://www.iana.org/assignments/service-
              names-port-numbers>.

   [NETCONF-over-TLS]
              Turner, S. and R. Housley, "Updates to Using the NETCONF
              Protocol over Transport Layer Security (TLS) with Mutual
              X.509 Authentication", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft,
              draft-ietf-netconf-over-tls13-04, 18 January 2024,
              <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-netconf-
              over-tls13-04>.

   [RFC4743]  Goddard, T., "Using NETCONF over the Simple Object Access
              Protocol (SOAP)", RFC 4743, DOI 10.17487/RFC4743, December
              2006, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4743>.

   [RFC4744]  Lear, E. and K. Crozier, "Using the NETCONF Protocol over
              the Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol (BEEP)", RFC 4744,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC4744, December 2006,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4744>.

   [RFC6242]  Wasserman, M., "Using the NETCONF Protocol over Secure
              Shell (SSH)", RFC 6242, DOI 10.17487/RFC6242, June 2011,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6242>.

   [RFC7589]  Badra, M., Luchuk, A., and J. Schoenwaelder, "Using the
              NETCONF Protocol over Transport Layer Security (TLS) with
              Mutual X.509 Authentication", RFC 7589,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC7589, June 2015,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7589>.

   [RFC8071]  Watsen, K., "NETCONF Call Home and RESTCONF Call Home",
              RFC 8071, DOI 10.17487/RFC8071, February 2017,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8071>.

Acknowledgments

   Thanks to Amanda Baber and Zahed Sarker for the guidance.  Thanks to
   Tom Petch for the comments.

   Thanks to Kent Watsen for the Shepherd review, Mahesh Jethanandani
   for the AD review, Bernie Volz for the INTDIR review, Roni Even for
   Gen-ART review, Barry Leiba for ARTART review, Dhruv Dhody for the
   OPSDIR review, Michael Tüxen for TSVART review, and Joe Touch for the
   port review.

   Thanks to Gorry Fairhurst for the IESG review.

Author's Address

   Mohamed Boucadair
   Orange
   Email: mohamed.boucadair@orange.com