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Netcat Command

Netcat (nc) is a networking utility that can act as a client or server for reading and writing data across TCP and UDP connections. It has many features that allow it to function as a port scanner, simple proxy, file transfer tool, and more. As a "network Swiss army knife", nc is useful for network debugging, security auditing, and other tasks. It provides flexibility through various command line options to control ports, IP versions, timeouts, and more.

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Francis Densil Raj
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220 views

Netcat Command

Netcat (nc) is a networking utility that can act as a client or server for reading and writing data across TCP and UDP connections. It has many features that allow it to function as a port scanner, simple proxy, file transfer tool, and more. As a "network Swiss army knife", nc is useful for network debugging, security auditing, and other tasks. It provides flexibility through various command line options to control ports, IP versions, timeouts, and more.

Uploaded by

Francis Densil Raj
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Netcat command

Introduction
• ncat or nc is networking utility with functionality
similar to cat command but for network.
• It  is a general purpose CLI tool for reading, writing,
redirecting data across a network.
• It is  designed to be a reliable back-end tool that can
be used with scripts or other programs. 
• It’s also a great tool for network debugging, as it can
create any kind of connect one can need.
• ncat/nc can be a port scanning tool,
• a security tool
• a monitoring tool 
• a simple TCP proxy. 
• Since it has so many features, it is known as a
network Swiss army knife.
• It’s one of those tools that every System Admin
should know & master.
• System admins can use it audit their system
security
• they can use it find the ports that are opened &
then secure them.
• Admins can also use it as a client for auditing web
servers, telnet servers, mail servers and so on.
• with ‘nc’ we can control every character sent & can
also view the responses to sent queries.
Command Line Options

• Option Usage
• -u The -u option tells nc to work in UDP mode. If -
u is not present, nc will be using TCP.
• -l The -l option tells nc to listen for incoming
connections, which makes it a server process.
• -h The -h option displays a help screen.
• -e filename The -e option tells nc to execute the a
file named with the filename parameter after a
client connection.
• -c string The -c option tells nc to pass the contents
of string to /bin/sh -c for execution after a client
connection.
• -i seconds The -i option defines the delay interval
used by nc when sending lines or scanning ports.
• -q seconds The -q option tells nc to wait the specified
number of seconds before quitting after getting
an EOF in standard input. If the value is negative,
nc will wait forever.
• -v The -v option tells nc to produce verbose output.
• -vvThe -vv option tells nc to produce even more
verbose output than the -v option.
• -z The -z option tells nc to use zero-I/O mode, which
is used when performing port scanning.
• -r The -r option tells nc to use random local and
remote ports, which might be good for testing.
• -o file The -o option tells nc to save the hex
dump of network traffic to file, which might be
handy for debugging.
• -n The -n option tells nc to use IP addresses (numeric)
only.
• -p port The -p option tells nc which port number to
use.
• -b The -b option tells nc to allow UDP broadcasts.
• -C The -C option tells nc to send CRLF as line-ending.
• -T type The -T option allows nc to set the type
of the TOS (Type Of Service) flag.
• -g gateway The -g option allows you to specify the
route that the packets will take through the
network. we can learn more about Source
Routing here.
• -G number The value of the -G option allows you
to specify the value of the source routing
pointer. we can learn more about the Source
Routing pointer here.
• -s address The -s option allows you to specify the
local source address that will be used in the nc
command.
• -t The -t option is used for enabling telnet
negotiation.
Using netcat as a Client
• The most common use of netcat is to act as a client
for a server process.
• This is mostly used for troubleshooting network
servers and network connections
• providing nc with just a hostname or IP address and
a port number will make netcat act as the telnet
utility
• # nc localhost port_number
• # nc 127.0.0.1 1234
Using netcat as a Server

• nc will accept connections at a given port and act as


a server when you execute it with the -l option
• # nc -l -p 1234
• In another terminal window, connect a client to the
server with nc
• # nc 127.0.0.1 1234
Using netcat for Port Scanning
• Netcat can be used for port scanning as a naive
version of nmap with the -z option.
• The command that follows scans the localhost,
which has an IP address of 127.0.0.1, using a range
of port numbers from 1 to 30 (1-30)
• # nc –v –w 2 –z 127.0.0.1 80 – scan single port
• # nc –v –w 2 –z 127.0.0.1 80 81 – scan multiple port
• # nc –v –w 2 –z 127.0.0.1 1-30 – scan range of port
Use Netcat to Transfer Files
• The netcat utility can also be used to transfer files.
Client side
• $ cat testfile
Hello World
Server side
Filename>test
To run the server:
$ nc -l port_no > test

To run the client:


cat testfile | nc localhost port_no

$ cat test
Netcat Supports Timeouts

• There are cases when we do not want a connection to


remain open forever.
• In that case, through ‘-w’ option we can specify the
timeout in a connection.
• after the seconds specified along with -w flag, the
connection between the client and server is terminated.
• Server :
• nc -l port_no

• Client :
• $ nc -w 10 localhost port_no
• The connection above would be terminated after 10
seconds.
Netcat Supports IPV6 Connectivity

• The flag -4 or -6 specifies that netcat utility should use


which type of addresses.
• -4 forces nc to use IPV4 address while -6 forces nc to use
IPV6 address.
• Server :

• $ nc -4 -l port_no
• Client :

• $ nc -4 localhost port_no
• $ netstat | grep port_no
• tcp
• Server :

• $ nc -6 -l port_no
• Client :

• $ nc -6 localhost port_no

• $ netstat | grep port_no

• tcp6
Force Netcat Server to Stay Up
• If the netcat client is connected to the server and then after sometime
the client is disconnected then normally netcat server also terminates.

• Server :

• $ nc -l port_no
• Client :

• $ nc localhost port_no
• ^C
• Server :

• $ nc -l port_no
•$
• So, in the above example we see that as soon as the client got
disconnected the server was also terminated.
• This behavior can be controlled by using the -k flag at the
server side to force the server to stay up even after the client
has disconnected.

• Server :

• $ nc -k -l port_no
• Client :

• $ nc localhost port_no
• ^C
• Server :

• $ nc -k -l port_no
• So we see that by using the -k option the server remains up
even if the client got disconnected.

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