netcat
TCP/IP swiss army knife
Platforms: Linux · Last verified September 6, 2026
A simple Unix utility which reads and writes data across network connections using TCP or UDP protocol. It is designed to be a reliable “back-end” tool that can be used directly or easily driven by other programs and scripts. At the same time it is a feature-rich network debugging and exploration tool, since it can create almost any kind of connection you would need and has several interesting built-in capabilities.
Only use this tool against systems you own or are explicitly authorized to test — see the disclaimer.
Getting started
See the official Kali tool page and upstream homepage linked above for installation and usage details.