Ubuntu – Is it possible to encrypt the communications via netcat

command linenetcat

I know that its possible to chat in linux terminal using netcat. I want to know whether it is possible to encrypt the netcat communications.

I did chat by listening on PC-1

nc -l 1234

And connecting to my IP on the other machine.

nc $IP 1234

Best Answer

It's possible - however I don't think nc does this itself: echo "Words" | gpg -e will produce an encrypted version on stdout; you can specify a receiving user as per usual.
If you pipe this to another copy of gpg as gpg -d then it asks for a passphrase - this will be remembered for a period, so enabling a conversation.

Therefore, echo "words" | gpg -e | nc target 4321 will send, and nc -l 4321 | gpg -d will listen.

Also, see this question which is similar.

Related Solutions

Netcat Chat – How to Build a Simple Chat Using Netcat

You can do something like this.

Assume Alice is the server. She types:

mawk -W interactive '$0="Alice: "$0' | nc -l -p <port_number> <ip_of_alice>

Then Bob connects to that server. He types:

mawk -W interactive '$0="Bob: "$0' | nc <ip_of_alice> <port_number>

The mawk lines just adds the prepending name of the person to the "chat". We need -W interactive to set unbuffered writes to stdout and line buffered reads from stdin.

Now Alice types Hi Bob and sees:

Hi Bob

Bob sees:

Alice: Hi Bob

Bob types Hi Alice and sees:

Alice: Hi Bob
Hi Alice

Alice sees:

Hi Bob
Bob: Hi Alice

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Netcat Chat – How to Build a Simple Chat Using Netcat

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