Editing Netcat (section)

{{Short description|Computer networking utility}}
{{Lowercase}}
{{Redirect|Ncat||NCAT (disambiguation){{!}}NCAT}}
{{Infobox software
| name = netcat
| logo = 
| screenshot = [[File:Netcat.png|frameless]]
| caption = The {{code|netcat}} command
| author = <nowiki>*Hobbit*</nowiki>
| developer = Avian Research
| released = {{Start date and age|1995|10|28}}<ref>{{cite web
| url=https://seclists.org/bugtraq/1995/Oct/28
| title=New tool available: Netcat
| author=Hobbit
| date=1995-10-28
| work=[[Bugtraq]] mailing list
| access-date=2019-06-05}}</ref>
| latest_release_version = 1.10
| latest_release_date = {{Start date and age|1996|03||df=yes}}
| operating_system = [[Unix]] and [[Unix-like]], [[DOS]], [[Microsoft Windows]], [[Windows CE]]
| genre = [[Computer network|Network]] [[Utility software|utility]]
| license = Original version: custom, [[Permissive free software licence|permissive]] license<br />GNU version: [[GNU General Public License|GPL]]<br />OpenBSD version: [[BSD licenses|BSD]]
| website = {{URL|nc110.sourceforge.io}}
| discontinued = yes
}}

'''netcat''' (often abbreviated to '''nc''') is a computer networking utility for reading from and writing to network connections using [[Transmission Control Protocol|TCP]] or [[User Datagram Protocol|UDP]]. The [[command (computing)|command]] is designed to be a dependable [[front and back ends|back-end]] 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 investigation tool, since it can produce almost any kind of connection its user could need and has a number of built-in capabilities.

It is able to perform [[Port scanner|port scanning]], [[File transfer|file transferring]] and port listening.