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I recently finished an internship in a large company. I wanted to install netcat to troubleshoot networking issues between windows and docker containers I was

I recently finished an internship in a large company. I wanted to install netcat to troubleshoot networking issues between windows and docker containers I was running. Right when it was downloaded from scoop, it got deleted and I got a scary automated email. My manager called me immediately, in the end it was cleared quickly but I did learn to be very carefull about what I try to download. At first I didn't understand why netcat was being detected by the AV but then I remembered it can be used to set up a reverse shell.

Aissen 4y ago
Any programmer that knows how to code (and you seemed to have docker installed, so I'm sure you do too) should be able to create their own reverse shell from a few minutes to a couple of hours. Hence the blocking of netcat in this context (developer workstation) makes no sense.
- mberning 4y ago
  Or so many other tools. If you can open a socket, you can transfer data.
- unmole 4y ago
  I once worked for a large telecom equipment vendor whose IT policies banned the installation of dangerous software like Wireshark.
Anunayj 4y ago
Gosh netcat binaries on Windows get picked up by Windows Defender as malacious, it's so infuriating.