wolfcat

wolfcat is a barebones netcat clone that runs on top of a TLS session based on WolfSSL.

Building

git clone https://github.com/mattia-moffa/wolfcat.git
cd wolfcat
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make

If WolfSSL is installed in a non-standard path, you can specify it via cmake .. -DWOLFSSL_ROOT=/path/to/wolfssl.

Installing

sudo make install

Usage

Usage: wolfcat [OPTIONS...] <hostname> <port>

<hostname> is an IPv4 address, an IPv6 address or a hostname.
<port> is a TCP port number.

Available options:
    -h                      Print this help message.
    -k                      After a connection is terminated, listen for another
                            one. Requires -l.
    -l                      Listen for incoming connections (server mode).
                            In this mode, <hostname> and <port> identify the
                            interface and port to listen on.
    --ca-cert <filename>    Use this CA certificate. Use this option multiple
                            times to specify multiple certificates.
    --ca-cert-dir <dirname> Scan directory  <dirname> for CA certificates.
    --cert <filename>       Use this server certificate. Requires -l.
    --key <filename>        Use this server private key. Requires -l.

Example

# On the server side:
wolfcat -l localhost 5000 --ca-cert ca-cert.pem --cert cert.pem --key key.pem

# On the client side:
echo "Hello world!" | wolfcat localhost 5000 --ca-cert ca-cert.pem

After this, the server will print Hello world! to standard output and both peers will exit. It is also possible to instruct the server to listen for more clients instead with the -k option.

The same effect can also be achieved in the opposite direction:

# On the server side:
echo "Hello world!" | wolfcat -l localhost 5000 --ca-cert ca-cert.pem --cert cert.pem --key key.pem

# On the client side:
wolfcat localhost 5000 --ca-cert ca-cert.pem

In this second case, the client will immediately print Hello world! to standard output and both peers will exit.