9418 Git-protocol TCP

What it's for

Port 9418 is the default port for Git's own native protocol (git://), a lightweight, fast transport for cloning and fetching repository data. It predates the now-far-more-common approach of accessing Git repositories over HTTPS or SSH, and offered lower overhead for read-only access in the era before those alternatives became universal.

Protocol basics

The Git protocol runs over TCP with a minimal handshake designed purely for efficient data transfer — notably, it has no built-in authentication or encryption at all, which makes it suitable only for read-only, public access (like anonymously cloning an open-source project) rather than anything requiring write access or confidentiality. This limitation is exactly why most Git hosting today defaults to HTTPS or SSH instead, both of which support authentication and encryption that the plain git:// protocol never had.