What are ports 5060 and 5061 used for?
Ports 5060 and 5061 are SIP, the signalling protocol of IP telephony. SIP sets up, changes and ends calls: it registers phones, rings the other side and negotiates how the audio will be sent. 5060 is plain SIP and 5061 is SIP over TLS.
SIP carries only the call set-up. The voice itself travels separately as RTP, on UDP ports the two ends agree during set-up, which is why a call can connect and still have no audio, or audio in one direction only, when a firewall or NAT device passes 5060 but not the media ports. Plain SIP on 5060 exposes who is calling whom, and lets an attacker who can reach it try to register as an extension and place calls at the owner's expense (toll fraud).
Are ports 5060 and 5061 TCP or UDP?
Both. SIP on 5060 runs over UDP or TCP, with UDP the traditional choice for phones. SIP over TLS on 5061 uses TCP.
What is the secure version of SIP on port 5060?
SIP over TLS on port 5061 encrypts the signalling. The audio needs its own protection, SRTP, because it does not travel inside the SIP connection. A secure deployment uses both.
Port 5060 vs port 5061: what is the difference?
Port 5060 is SIP in clear text, over UDP or TCP. Port 5061 is SIP inside TLS, so call set-up, phone numbers and credentials are encrypted. Neither carries the voice itself.
Which CompTIA exams list ports 5060 and 5061?
CompTIA lists ports 5060 and 5061 by number in the Network+ objectives; the A+ Core 1 port list does not include them.
- Network+ N10-009: objective 1.4 (Networking Concepts), listed as “Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), 5060/5061”.
The quoted text is how the objectives document lists the port. The exam puts the port in a scenario, such as a firewall rule or a failed connection; it does not only ask for the number.
Check yourself: a practice question
Written by CertSprint for this page. It is not taken from any exam.
IP phones register and ring normally, but when a call is answered neither side hears anything. The firewall allows UDP and TCP 5060. What is most likely blocked?
- The RTP media ports negotiated during call set-up
- TCP 25
- The DHCP relay
- UDP 123
Show the answer
A. The RTP media ports negotiated during call set-up. Signalling on 5060 works, which is why the phones ring. The audio is a separate RTP stream on other UDP ports, and those are being dropped.
Sources: IANA Service Name and Transport Protocol Port Number Registry: port 5060; RFC 3261: SIP: Session Initiation Protocol; RFC 3550: RTP: A Transport Protocol for Real-Time Applications; RFC 3711: The Secure Real-time Transport Protocol (SRTP). The port number and how each exam lists it come from CompTIA's exam objectives, linked from the study plans above. The explanation and the question are CertSprint's own, checked against these sources on 12 November 2026.