The page loaded, confirming her suspicion. Port 5357 was used by Windows for . It was a protocol designed to help devices find each other on a network—printers announcing their presence, laptops looking for scanners. But as HackTricks noted, it was often the Achilles' heel of lazy network configurations.
Nmap scans using -sV will usually identify it as http with the service Microsoft HTTPAPI httpd 2.0 . :
Attackers can craft valid WS-Discovery SOAP requests to force the service to dump device metadata. This data often includes: Computer hostnames Unique Device UUIDs Exact Windows build versions port 5357 hacktricks
Related searches (suggested terms): port 5357 WSD, WSD SOAP GetDeviceInformation, disable WSD Windows, nmap http-wsd-discover
curl http://<target>:5357/
By looking up the service name discovered during enumeration, the penetration tester was able to identify that this specific HTTPAPI service was vulnerable to a known exploit. In this particular VAPT, the tester successfully used a Metasploit module to compromise the system. The report confirmed the exploit worked reliably, granting a high level of access to the target.
Port 5357 itself does not frequently suffer from direct remote code execution (RCE) flaws. However, it is an essential piece of a broader lateral movement strategy. Information Disclosure The page loaded, confirming her suspicion
Port 5357 is commonly used for the Web Services Dynamic Discovery (WS-Discovery) provider host. Windows operating systems utilize this port to locate other devices, such as printers and network shares, on a local network using the Web Services on Devices (WSD) API.
curl -v http://10.10.10.5:5357/
WSDAPI facilitates a "plug-and-play" network experience. It typically utilizes: : HTTP-based communication. TCP Port 5358 : HTTPS-based communication (secure channel). UDP Port 3702 : Multicast discovery (WS-Discovery).