TCP/IP swiss army knife. Simple (yet powerful!) Unix utility that reads and writes data across network connections, using TCP or UDP.
Netcat as a Client
Connect to some port of some host:
nc <host> <port>
- your STDIN is sent to the host
- anything that comes back across network is sent to your STDOUT
- this continues indefinitely, until the network side closes (not until EOF on STDIN like many other apps)
Test remote HTTP server:
nc google.com 80
GET / HTTP/1.0
(press Enter two times after the GET line)
Check UDP port is open (telnet does not work for UDP ports) but keep in mind that you never know for sure what’s the state if you don’t get anything back (https://serverfault.com/questions/416205/testing-udp-port-connectivity):
$ netcat -vu vpn.ist.ac.at 1194
Connection to vpn.ist.ac.at 1194 port [udp/openvpn] succeeded!
Be verbose, make sure no data (zero) is sent to the port you connect to and time out after 3 seconds:
nc -vzw3 host.tld 21-25
Change source port / address (ex. to evade a FW):
nc -p 16000 host.tld 22 # 16000 is the local port
nc -s 1.2.3.4 host.tld 8181 # 1.2.3.4 is the local source address
Netcat as a Server
Listen for an incoming connection on some port:
nc -l -p <port>
Send a directory over the network:
.. host A (receiving data)
nc -l -p 1234 | tar xvf -
.. host B (sending data)
tar cf - </some/dir> | nc -w 3 <hostA> 1234
Send a whole partition over the network:
.. host A (receiving data)
nc -l -p 1234 | dd of=backup_sda1
.. host B (sending data)
dd if=/dev/sda1 | nc -w 3 <hostA> 1234
Run a command (potentially dangerous!); ex. open a shell access:
.. host A (server)
nc -l -p 9999 -e /bin/bash
.. host B (client)
nc hostA 9999