---
title: "Exposed Services & Port Scanning — Lemwatch Help"
description: "Identify open ports and exposed services on your server."
canonical: "https://lemwatch.com/help/exposed-services"
source: "https://lemwatch.com"
---

# Exposed Services & Port Scanning

> Identify open ports and exposed services on your server.

## Exposed Services & Port Scanning

 LemWatch checks which services and ports are visible on your server's IP address, helping you identify potential security risks.

### What Gets Checked

- Open ports — Which TCP ports are accepting connections (80, 443, 22, 3306, etc.)

- Running services — What software is responding on each port (Apache, Nginx, MySQL, SSH)

- Service versions — Detected software versions (which may have known vulnerabilities)

- Known vulnerabilities — CVEs associated with detected service versions

- Risk assessment — Overall risk level based on exposed services

### Risk Levels

 Level — Description —

 **Low** — Only expected ports open (80, 443) —

 **Medium** — Admin ports open (22/SSH) but properly configured —

 **High** — Database ports exposed (3306, 5432) or outdated services —

 **Critical** — Known vulnerabilities in exposed services —

### Common Issues

- Database ports open — MySQL (3306), PostgreSQL (5432), MongoDB (27017) should never be publicly accessible

- FTP port open — Port 21 is insecure; use SFTP (port 22) instead

- Admin panels exposed — phpMyAdmin, cPanel, or custom admin on public ports

- Outdated software — Running old versions of Apache, Nginx, or OpenSSH with known CVEs

### How to Fix

- Close unnecessary ports — Use firewall rules (iptables, ufw, or cloud security groups)

- Update software — Patch services to the latest versions

- Use VPN for admin access — Don't expose SSH, databases, or admin panels publicly

- Move databases behind a firewall — Database servers should only accept connections from your application servers


## Related

- [Help centre](https://lemwatch.com/help)
- [Understanding Your Security Grade](https://lemwatch.com/help/security-grade)
- [Security Headers Explained](https://lemwatch.com/help/security-headers)
- [Malware & Threat Detection](https://lemwatch.com/help/malware-detection)
- [Certificate Transparency Monitoring](https://lemwatch.com/help/certificate-transparency)
- [HTML Validation Checks](https://lemwatch.com/help/html-validation)
- [Lemwatch pricing](https://lemwatch.com/pricing)
- [Filter Presets](https://lemwatch.com/help/filter-presets)