NC(1)							    BSD General Commands Manual 						     NC(1)

NAME

     nc -- arbitrary TCP and UDP connections and listens

SYNOPSIS

     nc [-46bCDdFhklNnrStUuvZz] [-I length] [-i interval] [-M ttl] [-m minttl] [-O length] [-P proxy_username] [-p source_port] [-q seconds]
	[-s source] [-T keyword] [-V rtable] [-W recvlimit] [-w timeout] [-X proxy_protocol] [-x proxy_address[:port]] [-Z peercertfile]
	[destination] [port]

DESCRIPTION

     The nc (or netcat) utility is used for just about anything under the sun involving TCP, UDP, or UNIX-domain sockets.  It can open TCP connec-
     tions, send UDP packets, listen on arbitrary TCP and UDP ports, do port scanning, and deal with both IPv4 and IPv6.  Unlike telnet(1), nc
     scripts nicely, and separates error messages onto standard error instead of sending them to standard output, as telnet(1) does with some.

     Common uses include:

	   o   simple TCP proxies
	   o   shell-script based HTTP clients and servers
	   o   network daemon testing
	   o   a SOCKS or HTTP ProxyCommand for ssh(1)
	   o   and much, much more

     The options are as follows:

     -4      Forces nc to use IPv4 addresses only.

     -6      Forces nc to use IPv6 addresses only.

     -b      Allow broadcast.

     -C      Send CRLF as line-ending.	Each line feed (LF) character from the input data is translated into CR+LF before being written to the
	     socket.  Line feed characters that are already preceded with a carriage return (CR) are not translated.  Received data is not
	     affected.

     -D      Enable debugging on the socket.

     -d      Do not attempt to read from stdin.

     -F      Pass the first connected socket using sendmsg(2) to stdout and exit.  This is useful in conjunction with -X to have nc perform con-
	     nection setup with a proxy but then leave the rest of the connection to another program (e.g. ssh(1) using the ssh_config(5)
	     ProxyUseFdpass option).

     -h      Prints out nc help.

     -I length
	     Specifies the size of the TCP receive buffer.

     -i interval
	     Specifies a delay time interval between lines of text sent and received.  Also causes a delay time between connections to multiple
	     ports.

     -k      Forces nc to stay listening for another connection after its current connection is completed.  It is an error to use this option
	     without the -l option.  When used together with the -u option, the server socket is not connected and it can receive UDP datagrams
	     from multiple hosts.

     -l      Used to specify that nc should listen for an incoming connection rather than initiate a connection to a remote host.  The destination
	     and port to listen on can be specified either as non-optional arguments, or with options -s and -p respctively.  It is an error to
	     use -l in conjunction with the -z option.	Additionally, any timeouts specified with the -w option are ignored.

     -M ttl  Set the TTL / hop limit of outgoing packets.

     -m minttl
	     Ask the kernel to drop incoming packets whose TTL / hop limit is under minttl.

     -N      shutdown(2) the network socket after EOF on the input.  Some servers require this to finish their work.

     -n      Do not do any DNS or service lookups on any specified addresses, hostnames or ports.

     -O length
	     Specifies the size of the TCP send buffer.

     -P proxy_username
	     Specifies a username to present to a proxy server that requires authentication.  If no username is specified then authentication will
	     not be attempted.	Proxy authentication is only supported for HTTP CONNECT proxies at present.

     -p source_port
	     Specifies the source port nc should use, subject to privilege restrictions and availability.

     -q seconds
	     after EOF on stdin, wait the specified number of seconds and then quit. If seconds is negative, wait forever (default).  Specifying a
	     non-negative seconds implies -N.

     -r      Specifies that source and/or destination ports should be chosen randomly instead of sequentially within a range or in the order that
	     the system assigns them.

     -S      Enables the RFC 2385 TCP MD5 signature option.

     -s source
	     Specifies the IP of the interface which is used to send the packets.  For UNIX-domain datagram sockets, specifies the local temporary
	     socket file to create and use so that datagrams can be received.

     -T keyword
	     Change IPv4 TOS value.  keyword may be one of critical, inetcontrol, lowcost, lowdelay, netcontrol, throughput, reliability, or one
	     of the DiffServ Code Points: ef, af11 ... af43, cs0 ... cs7; or a number in either hex or decimal.

     -t      Causes nc to send RFC 854 DON'T and WON'T responses to RFC 854 DO and WILL requests.  This makes it possible to use nc to script tel-
	     net sessions.

     -U      Specifies to use UNIX-domain sockets.

     -u      Use UDP instead of the default option of TCP.  For UNIX-domain sockets, use a datagram socket instead of a stream socket.	If a
	     UNIX-domain socket is used, a temporary receiving socket is created in /tmp unless the -s flag is given.

     -V rtable
	     Set the routing table to be used.

     -v      Have nc give more verbose output.

     -W recvlimit
	     Terminate after receiving recvlimit packets from the network.

     -w timeout
	     Connections which cannot be established or are idle timeout after timeout seconds.  The -w flag has no effect on the -l option, i.e.
	     nc will listen forever for a connection, with or without the -w flag.  The default is no timeout.

     -X proxy_protocol
	     Requests that nc should use the specified protocol when talking to the proxy server.  Supported protocols are ``4'' (SOCKS v.4),
	     ``5'' (SOCKS v.5) and ``connect'' (HTTPS proxy).  If the protocol is not specified, SOCKS version 5 is used.

     -x proxy_address[:port]
	     Requests that nc should connect to destination using a proxy at proxy_address and port.  If port is not specified, the well-known
	     port for the proxy protocol is used (1080 for SOCKS, 3128 for HTTPS).  An IPv6 address can be specified unambiguously by enclosing
	     proxy_address in square brackets.

     -Z      DCCP mode.

     -z      Specifies that nc should just scan for listening daemons, without sending any data to them.  It is an error to use this option in
	     conjunction with the -l option.

     destination can be a numerical IP address or a symbolic hostname (unless the -n option is given).	In general, a destination must be speci-
     fied, unless the -l option is given (in which case the local host is used).  For UNIX-domain sockets, a destination is required and is the
     socket path to connect to (or listen on if the -l option is given).

     port can be a specified as a numeric port number, or as a service name.  Ports may be specified in a range of the form nn-mm.  In general, a
     destination port must be specified, unless the -U option is given.

CLIENT
/SERVER MODEL
     It is quite simple to build a very basic client/server model using nc.  On one console, start nc listening on a specific port for a connec-
     tion.  For example:

	   $ nc -l 1234

     nc is now listening on port 1234 for a connection.  On a second console (or a second machine), connect to the machine and port being listened
     on:

	   $ nc 127.0.0.1 1234

     There should now be a connection between the ports.  Anything typed at the second console will be concatenated to the first, and vice-versa.
     After the connection has been set up, nc does not really care which side is being used as a 'server' and which side is being used as a
     'client'.	The connection may be terminated using an EOF ('^D').

     There is no -c or -e option in this netcat, but you still can execute a command after connection being established by redirecting file
     descriptors. Be cautious here because opening a port and let anyone connected execute arbitrary command on your site is DANGEROUS. If you
     really need to do this, here is an example:

     On 'server' side:

	   $ rm -f /tmp/f; mkfifo /tmp/f
	   $ cat /tmp/f | /bin/sh -i 2>&1 | nc -l 127.0.0.1 1234 > /tmp/f

     On 'client' side:

	   $ nc host.example.com 1234
	   $ (shell prompt from host.example.com)

     By doing this, you create a fifo at /tmp/f and make nc listen at port 1234 of address 127.0.0.1 on 'server' side, when a 'client' establishes
     a connection successfully to that port, /bin/sh gets executed on 'server' side and the shell prompt is given to 'client' side.

     When connection is terminated, nc quits as well. Use -k if you want it keep listening, but if the command quits this option won't restart it
     or keep nc running. Also don't forget to remove the file descriptor once you don't need it anymore:

	   $ rm -f /tmp/f

DATA TRANSFER

     The example in the previous section can be expanded to build a basic data transfer model.	Any information input into one end of the connec-
     tion will be output to the other end, and input and output can be easily captured in order to emulate file transfer.

     Start by using nc to listen on a specific port, with output captured into a file:

	   $ nc -l 1234 > filename.out

     Using a second machine, connect to the listening nc process, feeding it the file which is to be transferred:

	   $ nc -N host.example.com 1234 < filename.in

     After the file has been transferred, the connection will close automatically.

TALKING TO SERVERS

     It is sometimes useful to talk to servers ``by hand'' rather than through a user interface.  It can aid in troubleshooting, when it might be
     necessary to verify what data a server is sending in response to commands issued by the client.  For example, to retrieve the home page of a
     web site:

	   $ printf "GET / HTTP/1.0

" | nc host.example.com 80

     Note that this also displays the headers sent by the web server.  They can be filtered, using a tool such as sed(1), if necessary.

     More complicated examples can be built up when the user knows the format of requests required by the server.  As another example, an email
     may be submitted to an SMTP server using:

	   $ nc [-C] localhost 25 << EOF
	   HELO host.example.com
	   MAIL FROM:<user@host.example.com>
	   RCPT TO:<user2@host.example.com>
	   DATA
	   Body of email.
	   .
	   QUIT
	   EOF

PORT SCANNING

     It may be useful to know which ports are open and running services on a target machine.  The -z flag can be used to tell nc to report open
     ports, rather than initiate a connection. Usually it's useful to turn on verbose output to stderr by use this option in conjunction with -v
     option.

     For example:

	   $ nc -zv host.example.com 20-30
	   Connection to host.example.com 22 port [tcp/ssh] succeeded!
	   Connection to host.example.com 25 port [tcp/smtp] succeeded!

     The port range was specified to limit the search to ports 20 - 30, and is scanned by increasing order.

     You can also specify a list of ports to scan, for example:

	   $ nc -zv host.example.com 80 20 22
	   nc: connect to host.example.com 80 (tcp) failed: Connection refused
	   nc: connect to host.example.com 20 (tcp) failed: Connection refused
	   Connection to host.example.com port [tcp/ssh] succeeded!

     The ports are scanned by the order you given.

     Alternatively, it might be useful to know which server software is running, and which versions.  This information is often contained within
     the greeting banners.  In order to retrieve these, it is necessary to first make a connection, and then break the connection when the banner
     has been retrieved.  This can be accomplished by specifying a small timeout with the -w flag, or perhaps by issuing a "QUIT" command to the
     server:

	   $ echo "QUIT" | nc host.example.com 20-30
	   SSH-1.99-OpenSSH_3.6.1p2
	   Protocol mismatch.
	   220 host.example.com IMS SMTP Receiver Version 0.84 Ready

EXAMPLES

     Open a TCP connection to port 42 of host.example.com, using port 31337 as the source port, with a timeout of 5 seconds:

	   $ nc -p 31337 -w 5 host.example.com 42

     Open a UDP connection to port 53 of host.example.com:

	   $ nc -u host.example.com 53

     Open a TCP connection to port 42 of host.example.com using 10.1.2.3 as the IP for the local end of the connection:

	   $ nc -s 10.1.2.3 host.example.com 42

     Create and listen on a UNIX-domain stream socket:

	   $ nc -lU /var/tmp/dsocket

     Connect to port 42 of host.example.com via an HTTP proxy at 10.2.3.4, port 8080.  This example could also be used by ssh(1); see the
     ProxyCommand directive in ssh_config(5) for more information.

	   $ nc -x10.2.3.4:8080 -Xconnect host.example.com 42

     The same example again, this time enabling proxy authentication with username ``ruser'' if the proxy requires it:

	   $ nc -x10.2.3.4:8080 -Xconnect -Pruser host.example.com 42

SEE ALSO

     cat(1), ssh(1)

AUTHORS

     Original implementation by *Hobbit* <hobbit@avian.org>.
     Rewritten with IPv6 support by Eric Jackson <ericj@monkey.org>.
     Modified for Debian port by Aron Xu <aron@debian.org>.

CAVEATS

     UDP port scans using the -uz combination of flags will always report success irrespective of the target machine's state.  However, in con-
     junction with a traffic sniffer either on the target machine or an intermediary device, the -uz combination could be useful for communica-
     tions diagnostics.  Note that the amount of UDP traffic generated may be limited either due to hardware resources and/or configuration set-
     tings.

BSD
								   July 15, 2017							       BSD