Netcat
Netcat is a networking utility which reads and writes data
across network connections, using the TCP/IP 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.
Netcat is a rewrite of the original netcat with support for
IPv6 and an enhanced support for UDP.
Netcat has three main modes of functionality. These
are the
connect mode, the listen mode, and the tunnel mode.
The
most common mode is the connect mode, which for example allows the
output of a locally called command to be redirected for example to a
remote netcat listening or to any other kind of daemon waiting for a
connection.
On the other hand, the listen mode can be used to obtain some kind of
stream of data from a remote site.
The
most new feature is the tunnel mode, which is a powerful and reliable
mode that allows tunneling a remote site towards any other remote site,
allowing to specify for example from which interface create the
connection and from which port.
Features include:
- Outbound and inbound connections, TCP or UDP, to or from
any ports
- Featured
tunneling mode which allows also special tunneling such as UDP to TCP,
with the possibility of specifying all network parameters (source
port/interface, listening port/interface, and the remote host allowed
to connect to the tunnel
- Built-in port-scanning capabilities, with randomizer
- Advanced
usage options, such as buffered send-mode (one line every N seconds),
and hexdump (to stderr or to a specified file) of trasmitted and
received data
- Optional RFC854 telnet codes parser and responder
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Last Updated Tuesday, March 06 2012 @ 02:29 PM EST
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