Problem
Is there a method to fast bind to a TCP port/IP address and have everything printed to STDOUT? I have a simple debugging solution that writes to 127.0.0.1:4444, and I’d like to be able to use bash to bind a port and report everything that comes across. Is there a simple way to accomplish this?
Asked by Naftuli Kay
Solution #1
$ nc -k -l 4444 > filename.out
see nc(1)
Answered by Nikolai Fetissov
Solution #2
Simply because you requested how to accomplish it in bash, despite the fact that the netcat response is perfectly valid:
$ exec 3<>/dev/tcp/127.0.0.1/4444
$ cat <&3
Answered by Diego Torres Milano
Solution #3
That’s exactly how you expected it to work:
nc -k -l 4444 |bash
and then you
echo "ls" >/dev/tcp/127.0.0.1/4444
Then you’ll see the output of bash’s listing.
[An Important Security Notice] Of course, leaving anything like this running on your computer opens the door to all kinds of attacks because orders may be issued from any user account on any machine in your network. This has no security (authentication, identification) and sends all communicated commands over the network unencrypted, making it exceedingly easy to abuse.
Answered by luk
Solution #4
Adding a ncat answer that @Freedom Ben mentioned:
ncat -k -l 127.0.0.1 4444
and a description of the choices from man ncat:
-k, --keep-open Accept multiple connections in listen mode
-l, --listen Bind and listen for incoming connections
Answered by Kilokahn
Post is based on https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4739196/simple-socket-server-in-bash