Node.js EACCES error when listening on most ports

Question

I'm testing out an app (hopefully to run on heroku, but am having issues locally as well). It's giving me an EACCES error when it runs http.Server.listen() - but it only occurs on some ports.

So, locally I'm running:

joe@joebuntu:~$ node
> var h = require('http').createServer();
> h.listen(900);
Error: EACCES, Permission denied
    at Server._doListen (net.js:1062:5)
    at net.js:1033:14
    at Object.lookup (dns.js:132:45)
    at Server.listen (net.js:1027:20)
    at [object Context]:1:3
    at Interface.<anonymous> (repl.js:150:22)
    at Interface.emit (events.js:42:17)
    at Interface._onLine (readline.js:132:10)
    at Interface._line (readline.js:387:8)
    at Interface._ttyWrite (readline.js:564:14)

I don't have anything running on port 900 (or any of the other 20 ports I've tried), so this should work. The weird part is that it does work on some ports. For instance, port 3000 works perfectly.

What would cause this?

Update 1:

I figured out that on my local computer, the EACCES error is coming because I have to run node as root in order to bind to those certain ports. I don't know why this happens, but using sudo fixes it. However, this doesn't explain how I would fix it on Heroku. There is no way to run as root on Heroku, so how can I listen on port 80?

Answer 1

Running on your workstation

As a general rule, processes running without root privileges cannot bind to ports below 1024.

So try a higher port, or run with elevated privileges via sudo. You can downgrade privileges after you have bound to the low port using process.setgid and process.setuid.

Running on heroku

When running your apps on heroku you have to use the port as specified in the PORT environment variable.

See http://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/node-js

const server = require('http').createServer();
const port = process.env.PORT || 3000;

server.listen(port, () => console.log(`Listening on ${port}`));

Answer 2

Non-privileged user (not root) can't open a listening socket on ports below 1024.

Answer 3

Check this reference link:

Give Safe User Permission To Use Port 80

Remember, we do NOT want to run your applications as the root user, but there is a hitch: your safe user does not have permission to use the default HTTP port (80). You goal is to be able to publish a website that visitors can use by navigating to an easy to use URL like http://ip:port/

Unfortunately, unless you sign on as root, you’ll normally have to use a URL like http://ip:port - where port number > 1024.

A lot of people get stuck here, but the solution is easy. There a few options but this is the one I like. Type the following commands:

sudo apt-get install libcap2-bin
sudo setcap cap_net_bind_service=+ep `readlink -f \`which node\``

Now, when you tell a Node application that you want it to run on port 80, it will not complain.

Answer 4

On Windows System, restarting the service "Host Network Service", resolved the issue.

Answer 5

#Windows

Another one reason - maybe your port has been excluded by some reasons.

So, try open CMD (command line) under admin rights and run :

1. net stop winnat
2. net start winnat

In my case it was enough.

Solution found here : https://medium.com/@Bartleby/ports-are-not-available-listen-tcp-0-0-0-0-3000-165892441b9d

Answer 6

Another approach is to make port redirection:

sudo iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i eth0 -p tcp --dport 900 -j REDIRECT --to-port 3000

And run your server on >1024 port:

require('http').createServer().listen(3000);

ps the same could be done for https(443) port by the way.

Answer 7

OMG!! In my case I was doing ....listen(ip, port) instead of ...listen(port, ip) and that was throwing up the error msg: Error: listen EACCES localhost

I was using port numbers >= 3000 and even tried with admin access. Nothing worked out. Then with a closer relook, I noticed the issue. Changed it to ...listen(port, ip) and everything started working fine!!

Just calling this out in case if its useful to someone else...

Answer 8

It means node is not able to listen on defined port. Change it to something like 1234 or 2000 or 3000 and restart your server.

Answer 9

I got this error on my mac because it ran the apache server by default using the same port as the one used by the node server which in my case was the port 80. All I had to do is stop it with sudo apachectl stop

Hope this helps someone.

Answer 10

I got this error on my mac too. I use npm run dev to run my Nodejs app in Windows and it works fine. But I got this error on my mac - error given was: Error: bind EACCES null:80.

One way to solve this is to run it with root access. You may use sudo npm run dev and will need you to put in your password.

It is generally preferable to serve your application on a non privileged port, such as 3000, which will work without root permissions.

reference: Node.js EACCES error when listening on http 80 port (permission denied)

Answer 11

I had a similar problem that it was denying to run on port 8080, but also any other.

Turns out, it was because the env.local file it read contained comments after the variable names like:

PORT=8080 # The port the server runs at

And it interpreted it like that, trying to use port "8080 # The port the server runs at", which is obviously an invalid port (-1). Removing the comments entirely solved it.

Using Windows 10 and Git Bash by the way.

---

I know it's not exactly the problem described here, but it might help someone out there. I landed on this question searching for the problem for my answer, so... maybe?

Answer 12

Remember if you use sudo to bind to port 80 and are using the env variables PORT & NODE_ENV you must reexport those vars as you are now under root profile and not your user profile. So, to get this to work on my Mac i did the following:

sudo su
export NODE_ENV=production
export PORT=80
docpad run

Answer 13

this happens if the port you are trying to locally host on is portfowarded

Answer 14

Try authbind:

http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/hardy/man1/authbind.1.html

After installing, you can add a file with the name of the port number you want to use in the following folder: /etc/authbind/byport/

Give it 500 permissions using chmod and change the ownership to the user you want to run the program under.

After that, do "authbind node ..." as that user in your project.

Answer 15

My error is resolved using (On Windows)

app.set('PORT', 4000 || process.env.PORT);

app.listen(app.get('PORT'), <IP4 address> , () => {
    console.log("Server is running at " + app.get('PORT'));
});

Allow the NodeJS app to access the network in Windows Firewall.

Answer 16

My error got resolved just by changing port number in server.js Specially in this line

const port = process.env.PORT || 8085;

I changed my port number to 8085 from 8080.

Hope it helps.

Answer 17

For me this issue affected all hosts and all ports on Windows in PowerShell.

Disabling Network Interfaces fixed the issue.

I had WiFi and an Ethernet connection and disabling the Ethernet Interface fixed this issue.

Open "Network Connections" to view your interfaces. Right-click and select "Disable".

Answer 18

This means the port is used somewhere else. so, you need to try another one or stop using the old port.

Answer 19

restart was not enough! The only way to solve the problem is by the following:

You have to kill the service which run at that port.

at cmd, run as admin, then type : netstat -aon | find /i "listening"

Then, you will get a list with the active service, search for the port that is running at 4200n and use the process id which is the last column to kill it by

: taskkill /F /PID 2652

Answer 20

After trying many different ways, re-installing IIS on my windows solved the problem.

Answer 21

The same issue happened to me. You need to check out your server.js file where you are setting your listening port. Change port number wisely in all places, and it will solve your issue hopefully.

Answer 22

For me, it was just an error in the .env file. I deleted the comma at the end of each line and it was solved.

Before:

HOST=127.0.0.1,

After:

HOST=127.0.0.1

Answer 23

Spoiler alert: This answer may seems little funny.

I have spent more than 10 minutes to find out the root cause for this error in my system. I used this : PORT=2000; in my .env file.

Hope you already find it out. I had used a semicolon after declaring PORT number :'( I removed the extra sign and it started working.

I know this may not be answer for this question but hope it helps others who have faced same problem.

Answer 24

For me, the issue was exiting my node application before without closing the express running server.