Is it safe to open
Management interfaces give full control of the system. Make them reachable only from an admin network or VPN, change default credentials and keep the software patched.
How to open port 8728
Open to everyone
# Linux iptables iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 8728 -j ACCEPT # Ubuntu ufw ufw allow 8728/tcp # firewalld firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8728/tcp && firewall-cmd --reload # MikroTik /ip firewall filter add chain=input protocol=tcp dst-port=8728 action=accept place-before=0 comment="port 8728" # Windows (PowerShell) New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Port 8728 TCP" -Direction Inbound -Protocol TCP -LocalPort 8728 -Action Allow
Only for your addresses
# allow only one address or network (replace 203.0.113.0/24) iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 8728 -s 203.0.113.0/24 -j ACCEPT iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 8728 -j DROP ufw allow from 203.0.113.0/24 to any port 8728 proto tcp /ip firewall filter add chain=input protocol=tcp dst-port=8728 src-address=203.0.113.0/24 action=accept /ip firewall filter add chain=input protocol=tcp dst-port=8728 action=drop
If the server is behind a router, you also need a port forward (dst-nat). Behind ISP CGNAT (100.64.0.0/10 on the WAN) forwarding will not help: you need a public IP or a VPN.
What is listening
Check on the server
# what listens on the port ss -lntup | grep ':8728 ' netstat -ano | findstr :8728 # Windows lsof -i :8728 # macOS # test from another machine nc -vz example.com 8728