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Port 5173 Vite dev · TCP

Vite's development server (and therefore most modern React, Vue and Svelte projects).

Port5173
TransportTCP
ServiceVite dev
CategoryDevelopment servers
Rangeregistered (1024–49151)
EncryptedNo, plaintext
ExposureLoopback or the host's own network only

What runs on port 5173

Vite's development server (and therefore most modern React, Vue and Svelte projects). Localhost only unless --host is given; the production build is static files served by something else, so 5173 should never appear on a server.

Software that uses it: Vite · SvelteKit, Nuxt 3, Astro (in dev)

Should port 5173 be open?

Loopback or the host's own network only. The service should listen on 127.0.0.1 (or a Unix socket) and be reached by a reverse proxy or by the application on the same host. If it answers on a public address, that is a misconfiguration.

Check port 5173

# on the host: is anything listening, and which process?
ss -ltnp 'sport = :5173'
sudo lsof -i :5173

# from another machine: is it reachable?
nc -zv host 5173
nmap -p 5173 host
curl -v telnet://host:5173      # raw TCP connect test, Ctrl-C to leave

A port that answers from the internet when it should not is the finding; nmap from a machine outside your network (or a VPS) is the honest test, because scans from inside the LAN pass the firewall you are trying to verify.

Allow or block port 5173

# ufw (Ubuntu/Debian)
sudo ufw allow from 10.0.0.0/8 to any port 5173 proto tcp
sudo ufw deny 5173/tcp

# nftables
nft add rule inet filter input ip saddr 10.0.0.0/8 tcp dport 5173 accept
nft add rule inet filter input tcp dport 5173 drop

# iptables (legacy)
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 5173 -s 10.0.0.0/8 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 5173 -j DROP

# firewalld
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-rich-rule='rule family=ipv4 source address=10.0.0.0/8 port port=5173 protocol=tcp accept'

Replace 10.0.0.0/8 with the networks that need access. Allowing by source address is the rule that matters; "allow 5173" with no source is just "open".

Putting it behind nginx

server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name app.example.com;
    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:5173;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto https;
    }
}

Then make the application listen on 127.0.0.1:5173 only. Test which location block a request hits with the nginx location tester.

Related ports

Part of the port number reference. Ports are 16-bit numbers; see also the subnet calculator and the packet decoder, which shows ports inside TCP and UDP headers.

Questions

Is port 5173 TCP or UDP?

TCP. Vite dev is a connection-oriented protocol; there is no UDP service on 5173 by default (a scanner reporting UDP 5173 open is usually seeing a filtered port).

Is port 5173 encrypted?

No, plaintext. Anything sent over it can be read by whoever is on the path, so it belongs on a trusted network or inside a VPN or SSH tunnel.

How do I check whether port 5173 is open?

On the server, ss -ltnp (or -lunp for UDP) shows whether something listens on 5173 and which process. From another machine, nc -zv host 5173 or nmap -p 5173 host tests reachability. "Open" in a scan means something answered; a firewall usually makes the port filtered (no answer) rather than closed (RST).

Can Vite dev run on a different port?

Yes; the number is a convention, not a requirement. Changing it reduces log noise from scanners but does not add security, and every client, firewall rule and monitoring check then needs the new number. Keep the default unless you have a concrete reason.