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List:       best-of-security
Subject:    BoS: New tool available: Netcat
From:       *Hobbit* <hobbit () avian ! org>
Date:       1995-10-28 17:40:21
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[Potentially interesting to this group since it helps facilitate bug testing,
port scanning, address spoofing, buffer overflowing, or what have you.]

Netcat 1.0 is the initial release of a simple Unix utility which reads and
writes data across network connections, using TCP or UDP 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.

Some of netcat's major features are:

        Outbound or inbound connections, TCP or UDP, to or from any ports
        Full DNS forward/reverse checking, with appropriate warnings
        Ability to use any local source port
        Ability to use any locally-configured network source address
        Built-in port-scanning capabilities, with randomizer
        Built-in loose source-routing capability
        Can read command line arguments from standard input
        Slow-send mode, one line every N seconds
        Optional ability to let another program service inbound connections

A very short list of potential uses:

        Script backends
        Scanning ports and inventorying services
        Backup handlers
        File transfers
        Server testing and simulation
        Firewall testing
        Proxy gatewaying
        Network performance testing
        Address spoofing tests
        Protecting X servers
        1001 other uses you'll likely come up with

Netcat is a product of Avian Research, and is freely available in full source
form with no restrictions save an obligation to give credit where due.  Get
it via anonymous FTP at avian.org:/src/hacks/nc100.tgz which is a gzipped
tar file.  Other distribution formats can be accomodated upon request.
It is also mirrored at the following [faster] sites:

        zippy.telcom.arizona.edu:/pub/mirrors/avian.org/hacks/nc100.tgz
        ftp.sterling.com/mirrors/avian.org/src/hacks/nc100.tgz

_H* 951010

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