Linux Network Tools - Netcat

Netcat (nc)

Sometimes it is useful to listen to a port a monitor what requests/data are being sent to it.

TCP

Open a client to port 7000 on localhost. Type something and hit enter to send a message. If the client is unable to make a connection then it will close.

$ nc localhost 7000
Hello from the client.

Add the -l optiont to listen to port 7000 on localhost.

$ nc -l 7000

UDP

Use the -u option to send to UDP packets.

$ netcat -u localhost 7000

Use the UDP and listen options together to create a simple UDP server.

$ netcat -lu 7000

Port scan with Netcat

The -z option performs a scan. The -v option give a verbose output.

netcat -zv localhost 80

Connection to 127.0.0.1 80 port [tcp/*] succeeded!

We can also use a range of ports. Another useful option is -n which tells nc to not resolve the IP address using DNS. You have to use the IP address. This improves performance.

$ netcat -zvn 127.0.0.1 1-1000

nc sends messages to standard error. In order to pipe the results to another program, we need to redirect standard error to standard output via 2>&1. We can then filter the results with grep.

$ netcat -zvn 127.0.0.1 1-1000 2>&1 | grep succeeded

Connection to 127.0.0.1 80 port [tcp/*] succeeded!

Using files with Netcat

Put received messages into a file.

$ nc -l 7000 > output.txt

Send file from client to server.

$ nc localhost 7000 < message.txt

You can even serve html files with netcat and access it with your browser.

$ nc -l 7000 < index.html

Timeout

-w keep connection open for x seconds.

nc -w 10 localhost 7000

-k flag forces it to stay open forever, even after the client logs off.

nc -lk 7000

IPV4 and IPV6

-4 IPV4 address

$ nc -4 -l 7000

-6 IPV6 address

$ nc -6 -l 7000

Proxying

mkfifo make first in, first out named pipe. Pipes are generally unidirectional. This allows the proxy to send and receive data from the target server. We can access www.mchaver.com:80 via localhost:7000.

$ mkfifo bidirectional
$ nc -l 7000 0<bidirectional | nc www.mchaver.com 80 1>bidirectional

Alternatives

Python

python -m SimpleHTTPServer 7000