calebstewart/pwncat

Health v2 · maintenance only

Flags: archived

Adoption not part of the score

2917 stars · 292 forks observed · 2026-08-28

What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-30, confidence not recorded

pwncat is a post-exploitation platform and handler for reverse and bind shells, written in Python. It wraps raw shell communication with an SSH-like interactive experience and automates enumeration, privilege escalation, and implant deployment on remote targets.

Use cases

• handle a reverse shell from a compromised host with a full pty
• upgrade a dumb bind shell into an interactive session like ssh
• enumerate a Linux target for privilege escalation vectors
• automate persistence and implant installation on a target
• keep terminal settings like TERM and window size synced with a remote shell
• run post-exploitation modules against a remote shell during a red team engagement

When to choose

• you need an interactive, feature-rich handler for reverse or bind shells on Linux targets
• you want automated enumeration and privilege escalation suggestions from a shell session
• you want ssh-like ergonomics (pty, raw mode, vim/nano support) over a raw shell

When to avoid

• you need stable, production-grade Windows target support (currently alpha)
• you only need a simple netcat-style listener without automation
• you need a GUI or team-collaboration C2 framework rather than a single-operator CLI tool

Facets

cli-tool · maturity active

security penetration-testing cli workflow-automation security penetration-testing developer-tools python cli windows reverse-shell bind-shell post-exploitation red-team privilege-escalation pty implant command-line linux

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