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In computing, netcat is a network utility for reading from and writing to network connections on either TCP or UDP. It is designed in a thin and simple way, which makes it easy to incorporate in larger applications. Because of its versatility, netcat is also called the "TCP/IP Swiss Army knife".
Variants
The original version of netcat is a UNIX program. Its author is known only as *Hobbit*.
Netcat is fully POSIX compatible and there exist several implementations, including a rewrite from scratch known as GNU netcat, which is maintained by Giovanni Giacobbi and a MS-Windows version of netcat created by Chris Wysopal. Also, an encrypted version of netcat named Cryptcat is available for use when security is of concern. Andreas Bischoff has ported the Windows version to Windows CE (Pocket PC and Handheld PC).
On some systems, modified versions or similar utilities go by the command name(s) nc, ncat, pnetcat, socat, sock, socket, spd.
Security Risks
Netcat can be detected and flagged up as a security risk by virus scanners and spyware removal software, which may simplistically categorise it as a remote administration application, or treat it as a hacking tool which may have been planted by malicious software. Such warnings from security software do not however take into account its many legitimate uses as a flexible network data transfer tool. However, concerns may be justfied in so far as netcat can serve as a tool for undesirable activity such as port scanning or as a vehicle with which to attack vulnerabilities, and can be configured to allow unsecured remote access to a system.
Notes
See Also
External links
- nc(1) man page via OpenBSD
- netcat.sourceforge.net GNU netcat
- www.vulnwatch.org/netcat/ Netcat for Windows
- prt.fernuni-hagen.de/~bischoff/wince/Andreas_WINCE_stuff.html#netcat Netcat for Windows CE (PocketPC)]
- Using Netcat for backup
Network-related software | Unix software | Windows software | System administration | Network management
"Netcat"