What is using port 6379 on my Mac?

Port 6379 is the default for Redis. A listener means a local Redis server is running, usually started by Homebrew or Docker. Run lsof -i :6379 to confirm.

Is it safe to kill the process on port 6379?

Yes for macOS. Redis is an in-memory store, so stopping it is low-risk, though data not yet persisted to disk is lost. Prefer brew services stop redis for a clean shutdown.

Should port 6379 be exposed to the internet?

No. Redis has no authentication by default, so an exposed 6379 port is a serious risk and a frequent target for attacks. Keep it on localhost.

Port 6379: What's Using It and Is It Safe to Kill?

Port 6379 is the default port for Redis, the in-memory data store often used for caching, sessions, and queues. A listener on 6379 means a local Redis server, almost always one you started for development.

What typically listens on port 6379

Redis: The default redis-server port. Homebrew’s redis formula and Docker images use it.
Docker and dev environments: Containers map Redis to 6379 on the host.

Homebrew’s Redis is configured to bind to localhost, so it’s reachable from your Mac but not the network. That isn’t universal: upstream Redis and most Docker images don’t bind to localhost by default and instead rely on protected mode to refuse unauthenticated remote connections.

Is it safe to kill?

For macOS, yes. Redis keeps data in memory, so stopping it is low-risk, though anything not yet written to disk is lost. For a clean shutdown:

brew services stop redis

Killing the PID directly is also fine for a dev cache, but the graceful stop lets Redis save first.

Is it suspicious?

On a machine where you do development, no. The important check is exposure: Redis ships with no authentication by default, so a 6379 listener reachable from outside your machine is a well-known and serious risk. Confirm it’s bound to localhost.

How to find what’s on port 6379 on macOS

lsof -i :6379

To stop a stuck process by PID:

kill $(lsof -ti :6379)

Portie shows port 6379 alongside the redis-server process in its live view, so you can confirm whether your cache is running and which install owns it.