Working with Remote Shells Using Netcat

Mahran Al-Zyoud
|
17 steps

Kali

Microsoft

- **Virtualization Software:** Oracle VirtualBox 7.1.4 - **Host Operating System:** Windows 11 - **Guest Operating Systems:** Kali Linux & Windows 10 - **Last Updated:** November 2024 - **Created by**: Mahran Al-Zyoud. For any improvements, corrections, or suggestions, please feel free to contact me at [mahran.alzyoud@gmail.com](mailto:mahran.alzyoud@gmail.com). Your feedback is appreciated!

Make sure that your Kali and Windows 10 VMs are running

Get the IP address of your Kali VM. This IP address should be part of the **RedTeamNet** Internal Network. Mine as shown below is 192.168.168.22

Launch a new instance of the Terminal by right-clicking on its icon as shown below.

Within Kali Linux, there are sets of pre-loaded Windows binary files that are useful to ethical hackers and penetration testers. One of these Windows-based binaries is Netcat for Windows. \ Let’s set up a Python-based web server on our Kali Linux virtual machine to transfer the Netcat file to the target system. On Kali Linux, use the commands shown below to set up a web server within the Windows binaries directory. Once the Python web server is running within the /usr/share/windows-binaries directory, any user that connects to Kali Linux on port 8080 will be able to view and download files from the directory.

Login to Windows 10 VM and get its IP address to confirm that it has one from the **RedTeamNet** Internal Network. Mine as shown below is 192.168.168.23

Launch a browser (e.g. Microsoft Edge) in the Windows 10 VM. Go to this URL: http://KALI_IP_ADDRESS:LISTENING_PORT. Replace KALI_IP_ADDRESS with your Kali VM's IP address, and if you followed step 4 above, use 8080 as the LISTENING_PORT. Click on **nc.exe** to download it.

When the download completes, click "**Show in folder**"

Right-click the downloaded file (nc) and select "**Copy**"

Go to C:\\Windows\\System32 and right-click there then select "**Paste**"

Click "**Continue**" **Note**: After downloading the file, you can quit the Python web server by pressing **Ctrl + Z** on the keyboard.

To set up a Netcat listener on port 1234, use the following commands on Kali Linux: [[nc -nlvp 1234]] - \-n: to use the IP address only and not perform Domain Name System (DNS) queries - \-l: to listen for incoming connections - \-v: to use the verbose mode - \-p: to specify the listening port number

on Windows 10 VM, open Command Prompt and use the following commands to establish a Netcat connection to Kali Linux: [[nc -nv KALI_IP_ADDRESS LISTENING_PORT]] Replace KALI_IP_ADDRESS with your Kali VM's IP address, and if you followed step 4 above, use 8080 as the LISTENING_PORT.

Here is what happens after the connection is established.

On Kali, I typed a message and pressed [[Enter]]

Looking into Windows 10 VM, I found the message delivered from Kali VM.

Let's try sending a message from Windows 10 to Kali

Looking into Kali VM, I found the message delivered from Windows 10 VM.