Usage of Telnet,Netcat,Socat,Cryptcat,SSH,SCP

Introduction

I am going to explain these tools with examples, these tools provide interactive communication with another host. Every tool has there different advantages, check their manual using man command for more.

Telnet

Telnet is a network protocol works on port 23, it provides a command-line interface to communicate with another host

Mostly it used in port testing, we can use telnet for banner grabbing, I will cover it later in this blog series.

To connect to host/server using telnet

# telnet -h

# telnet <hostname> <port>

example

# telnet 198.137.0.4 1234

Netcat/nc

Its most useful utility for our use, It can open TCP connections, send UDP packets, listen on arbitrary TCP and UDP ports. And it’s better than telnet for communication with another device.

# nc -h

Lets start a netcat listner in terminal

# nc -lvvp 1337
nc -nlvvp 1337
Listening on 0.0.0.0 1337

Now its listening connection on host ip and 1337 port, lets connect it using another host or you can use another terminal tab just for satisfaction.

usage: nc <hostip> <port>
# nc 192.168.43.209 1337

try to chat with another host using terminal

Cryptcat

The formula behind crypcat is: cryptcat = netcat + encryption. It’s a netcat variant that provides encryption over TCP/UDP communication with another host…

Let’s play with it…………..

# cryptcat -h

start cryptcat listner

# cryptcat -lv -p 1337
listening on [any] 1337 ...

Ok, so it’s listening on 1337 let’s connect using another terminal or host.

# cryptcat 192.168.43.209 1337

Now chat with another host

We can set -k parameter to make our communication password protected

Ok let’s try encrypted bind shell using cryptcat


# cryptcat -k hacker -l -p 1337 0<myfifo | /bin/bash 1>myfifo

Now connect with it using another host

# cryptcat -k hacker 192.168.43.209 1337

You can execute commands on another host site and

SSH and SCP

SSH (Secure Shell) is a cryptographic network protocol for operating network services securely over an unsecured network. Typical applications include remote command-line, login, and remote command execution, but any network service can be secured with SSH. We use it mostly to provide remote access to another host securely over an unencrypted network

SCP(Secure Copy Protocol) copies files between hosts on a network, ssh for data transfer, and uses the same authentication and provides the same security as ssh.

To connect an ssh client with a host which is running sshd (ssh server) .

# ssh -h
ssh user@host (and enter a password for connection)

example:

# ssh hacker@10.10.10.134

and enter a password, or we can include ssh password also in the same line

# sshpass -p "hahanoob" ssh hacker@10.10.10.134

We can also run GUI based commands from Remote SSH. How??


# ssh hacker@10.10.10.134 "DISPLAY=:0 no hup chrome"

or

# ssh -X  hacker@10.10.10.134  firefox

To copy files over ssh we have to use scp

# scp -h
scp <filename> user@host:/filepath

example

# scp badguy.txt hacker@10.10.10.134:/home/mrw0r57

To download file

# scp hacker@10.10.10.134:/home/mrw0r57/badguy.txt /home/myuser

Conclusion

Learn these utilities by practical, we are going to use them in upcoming blog posts