HoneyPorts

HoneyPorts is a sneaky and handy tool that can create fake ports to lure out hackers attempting to infiltrate into your machine. It runs minimized to the tray and displays notifications as soon as the ports are scanned. It can be used but those who want to test security flaws or port scanners.

.NET Framework and WinPcap must be installed on the computer to get this application up and running without any issues. Needless to say, due to the security risks involved, it also requires administrative privileges to bypass the firewall and User Account Control prompts.

The main app window resembles the standard .NET Framework forms, adding little of its own. On the other hand, the options are neatly organized and shouldn't impose any difficulties to those inexperienced with dummy port creators.

The port list can be populated with as many ports as you want. They can be added by specifying a display name, port number, protocol (TCP or UDP) and fake server, either DATETIME, ECHO, HTTP, HTTPS, SMTP, SMTPSSL, SSH, or none.

HoneyPorts gets minimized to the system tray and shows notifications whenever it detects a new host trying to establish a connection. It's important to know that the program must remain active to keep the honey ports alive. Events are recorded in the central panel, where you can check out the date and time, IP address of the intruder, port number, and event type.

IP addresses can be copied to the Clipboard. Any port can be removed from the list if you change your mind while the remaining list can be exported to file and later imported. Moreover, you can run statistics to find out the number of entries and average time between them.

When it comes to HoneyPorts settings, you can disable systray minimization or hide messages, change the default DoS count and time, set a new SMTP host, as well as create a whitelist with IP addresses and ports, among others.

Although HoneyPorts hasn't been updated for a long time, it worked smoothly in our tests. The tool had a great response time at identifying incoming connections and remained low on system resources usage. Its interface looks rudimentary and may scare off some users, but the program comes packed with a reliable set of options for creating fake ports and notifying you whenever others look into them.