full-disclosure - explorer.exe on port 1024 tcp

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From: joel at helgeson.com (Joel R. Helgeson)
Subject: explorer.exe on port 1024 tcp

Can anyone tell me why I would be seeing explorer.exe on windows XP pro
listening on port 1024 tcp?

1024 is a restricted port, I don't think that MS would ever use it
legitamately. I'm thinking it's a trojan horse or something. In googling the
problem, I discovered other users that are asking the same question with no
answers.  MS Site is no help.

I went to the machine and telnetted to 127.0.0.1:1024 and it opened a
connection where I couldn't type anything, so it IS listening.  I copied
explorer.exe off the machine, and scanned it with an AV pkg, no virus.  I
ran spyware cleanup utilities to no avial.

Below is the output from fport on the machine... I have examined hundreds of
other XP machines and none respond on port 1024 TCP & 123 UDP.

FPort v2.0 - TCP/IP Process to Port Mapper
Copyright 2000 by Foundstone, Inc.
http://www.foundstone.com

Pid   Process            Port  Proto Path
432   Explorer       ->  1024  TCP   C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE
432   Explorer       ->  123   UDP   C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE
4     System         ->  123   UDP

Any insight into this would be appreciated.

Joel R. Helgeson

"Give a man fire, and he'll be warm for a day; set a man on fire, and he'll
be warm for the rest of his life."