NNTP

NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol) is a protocol used for reading and posting articles on Usenet. It allows users to access, distribute, and manage news articles across a network. NNTP operates over TCP/IP and is primarily used by news servers and clients.

What is NNTP

Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) is a protocol used for the distribution, inquiry, retrieval, and posting of news articles using a reliable stream-based transmission of news articles over the Internet. NNTP was developed to facilitate the exchange of Usenet articles between servers and clients, allowing users to read and post articles in newsgroups.

Usenet, a distributed discussion system, relies on NNTP to manage the flow of articles between servers and clients. NNTP operates over TCP/IP, typically using port 119, and provides a standardized way for news servers to communicate with each other and with client applications. This protocol supports various commands for retrieving articles, posting new articles, and managing newsgroups.

Historically, NNTP was introduced in the early 1980s as a replacement for the older UUCP (Unix-to-Unix Copy Protocol) system, which was less efficient for transferring news articles over the growing Internet. NNTP's design allows for more efficient and reliable communication, making it a crucial component of Usenet's infrastructure. Despite the decline in Usenet's popularity with the rise of modern social media and forums, NNTP remains in use for certain niche applications and communities.

NNTP runs on TCP and UDP port 119 and is official IANA port.

Security risk

If port 119 is open and the NNTP service is running, it could be exploited by attackers to distribute malicious content or spam. Unauthorized access to the NNTP service could also lead to data breaches or misuse of the server for illegal activities. Proper security measures, such as authentication and access controls, are essential to mitigate these risks.

In our UFW tutorial you can follow instructions how you can configure UFW to close port 119. Use StackChanges to monitor if the NNTP port is closed and stays closed. StackChanges will send an alert if port 119 is open again.