Port 80
HTTP
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) facilitates communication between web browsers and servers, enabling retrieval of web content such as HTML pages, images, and other resources. It is the foundation of data exchange on the World Wide Web, operating primarily over TCP port 80 in plaintext. Despite being widely used, its lack of encryption exposes data transmissions to various network-based threats..
Technical Details
HTTP, or Hypertext Transfer Protocol, is an application-layer protocol in the Internet protocol suite designed primarily for distributed, collaborative, and hypermedia information systems. It is the fundamental protocol used by the World Wide Web for transmitting web pages and related content between clients and servers.
HTTP functions through a client–server model where a client (such as a web browser) sends an HTTP request message to a server hosting a website, which then returns an HTTP response with the requested data or an error. The protocol is stateless, meaning that each request–response pair is independent; however, mechanisms like cookies and sessions are employed to maintain stateful information.
HTTP utilizes methods such as GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, and others to specify desired actions on resources. The protocol initially relied on plaintext transmission over TCP port 80, making it simple yet vulnerable. To address this, secure variants such as HTTPS (HTTP over SSL/TLS) operate over port 443 to provide confidentiality, integrity, and authentication.