Netcat command examples (nc) (linux)

A list of linux netcat command examples helping you to become a network master. Share files, send commands, streaming server, and many others...

Summary

[I] Presentation

*What is netcat

Netcat command is a networking command-line tool in Linux. It works like a port scanning tool, a security tool, or a network monitoring tool. It is an important utility for system administrators to be aware of and is often referred to as the Swiss army knife of networking tools.

Moer specifically, it is an unix utility which reads and writes data across network connections using TCP or UDP protocol. It is designed to be a reliable “back-end” tool that can be used directly or easily driven by other programs and scripts. At the same time it is a feature-rich network debugging and exploration tool, since it can create almost any kind of connection you would need and has several interesting built-in capabilities.

*Installation

With the following command, you will be able to install the netcat utility:

computer@linux:#
sudo apt install netcat netcat

Alternatively, you may try the following command (kali linux):

computer@linux:#
sudo apt install netcat netcat-traditional

[II] Usage

*Chat between client and server

server@linux:#
nc -l -p 1234
client@linux:#
nc 192.168.X.Y 1234

*Telnet server

server@linux:#
nc -l -p 1234 -e /bin/sh
client@linux:#
nc 192.168.X.Y 1234

[Troubleshoot] if not working, try:

server@linux:#
/bin/nc.traditional -l -p 1234 -e /bin/sh

*Remote command execution

server@linux:#
nc -l -p 1234
client@linux:#
ls | nc 192.168.X.Y 1234

*Video stream server

As a prerequisite: mplayer should be installed on client.

client@linux:#
apt-get install mplayer

Launch stream server on video.mp4

server@linux:#
cat video.mp4 | nc -l -p 1234
client@linux:#
nc 192.168.X.Y 1234 | mplayer -vo x11 -cache 3000 -

*File transfer

sender@linux:#
cat superfile.txt | nc -l -p 1234
receiver@linux:#
nc 192.168.X.Y 1234 > received.txt

*File transfer with progress bar

As a prerequisite: pv should be installed on sender.

sender@linux:#
apt-get install pv

Perform file tansfer

sender@linux:#
cat superfile.txt | pv -b | nc -l -p 1234"
receiver@linux:#
nc 192.168.X.Y 1234 > received.txt"

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