Netcat

This simple utility reads and writes data across TCP or UDP network connections. It is designed to be a reliable back-end tool to use directly or easily drive 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, including port binding to accept incoming connections.

The original Netcat was released by Hobbit in 1995, but it hasn't been maintained despite its popularity. It can sometimes even be hard to find a copy of the v1.10 source code. The flexibility and usefulness of this tool prompted the Nmap Project to produce Ncat, a modern reimplementation which supports SSL, IPv6, SOCKS and http proxies, connection brokering, and more. Other takes on this classic tool include the amazingly versatile Socat, OpenBSD's nc, Cryptcat, Netcat6, pnetcat, SBD, and so-called GNU Netcat. For downloads and more information, visit the Netcat homepage.

Popularity
#8, 4
Latest release
  • 1.10
  • March 20, 1996 (28 years ago)
Links
Rating
★★★★½ (10)
★★★★★
60% ★★★★
40% ★★★
0% ★★
0%
0%
Outdated/incomplete?

Screenshot

Comments

★★★★★ N4rKm4N

Long live netcat! One that swiss knife is the best. It's 2019 and we will forever use it!

WOW the antispam!

★★★★★ Nice

Thanks to dev it's a very good tool ! Can be used on alls Windows, 7,8,10 :)

★★★★★ L1S3R

☪☪☪ Thanks to developer ❤☣❤☣❤ ツツツツツヅヅヅヅヅヅヅ ☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠

★★★★★ sm0k3.net

Very cool tool for linux administration & pentesting issues. The tool is "old" and simple, but still is actual and useful. Thanks to developer!

★★★★ harris

I have been using netcat for ages and works great in IPv4 environments. Do you guys use it also in IPv6 networks? I know about the v6 version (nc6) but I'm not sure how stable it is in IPv6 cases. I have seen some people having issues with nc6.

no rating "><img src=1 onerror=alert(1)>

Good one..simple but powerful ...and the one i like most is the backdooring capabilities

★★★★★ 李先生

The venerable nc relives as ncat and this is a serious update. It retains all of the old functionality and adds several nice features such as group chatting complete with a server. Use this tool when you need to know for sure what a port is communicating back to you.

★★★★ Lampk

This is a very powerful tools for network security detection I'd ever used.

★★★★ sagnik betal

Good one..simple but powerful ...and the one i like most is the backdooring capabilities

no rating chenghao0511

netcat-1.12 -e (ctrl+c terminate cmd.exe) netcat-1.13 -C same as -L netcat-1.14 after tran exit netcat-1.15 -u -e cmd.exe

★★★★★ Adam

Amazing program. NC can be used for anything and it's so simple and easy to use!

no rating Justin

I should mention ncat (coded by the author of nmap), which is a rewrite of netcat.

★★★★ Jon Lucenius

The venerable nc relives as ncat and this is a serious update. It retains all of the old functionality and adds several nice features such as group chatting complete with a server. Use this tool when you need to know for sure what a port is communicating back to you.

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