socat - Multipurpose relay
Abstract
what: "netcat++" (extended design, new implementation)
OS: AIX, BSD, HP-UX, Linux, Solaris e.a. (UNIX)
lic: GPL2
inst: tar x...; ./configure; make; make install
doc: README; socat.html, socat.1; xio.help
ui: command line
exa: socat TCP6-LISTEN:8080,reuseaddr,fork PROXY:proxy:www.domain.com:80
keyw: tcp, udp, ipv6, raw ip, unix-socket, pty, pipe, listen, socks4, socks4a,
proxy-connect, ssl-client, filedescriptor, readline, stdio,
exec, system, file, open, tail -f, termios, setsockopt, chroot,
fork, perm, owner, trace, dump, dgram, ext3, resolver, datagram,
multicast, broadcast, interface, socket, sctp, generic, ioctl
What's new?
2012/05/14: A heap based buffer overflow vulnerability has been found with data that happens to be output on the READLINE address. Successful exploitation may allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the socat process (
advisory). Fixed versions are
1.7.2.1 and
2.0.0-b5. Patches are available in the
download area.
2011/12/05: socat version 1.7.2.0 allows tun/tap interfaces without IP address and introduces options
openssl-compress and
max-children. It fixes 18 bugs and has 11 changes for improved platform support, especially for Mac OS X Lion, DragonFly, and Android.
2011/05/29: Michael Terzo provided a
patch that fixes the compile error of socat 2.0.0 up to b4 on non-Linux systems.
2010/10/03: Vitali Shukela provided a
patch that allows to use the original target address of an accepted connection in a socks or proxy address.
2010/08/02: A stack overflow vulnerability has been fixed that could be triggered when command line arguments were longer than 512 bytes. Fixed versions are
1.7.1.3 and
2.0.0-b4. See
socat security advisory 2 for details.
2008/11/01: a public
git repository containing socat 1.6.0.0 and all later releases is available.
Get it!
Many actual Linux and BSD distributions already provide socat; for other distributions and for some commercial UNIX platforms, precompiled socat packages are available too, so search the internet if you dont¢¥t want to bother with compiling it yourself.