Sending a string to an IP in Python

Question

What's the equivalent, in Python of:

echo 'blah' | netcat 123.123.123.123 6666

I found this answer but I can imagine there is a simpler way, isn't there one?

Answer 1

If you only hace to do what you asked, I'd use popen:

import subprocess

test_cmd = 'echo \'blah\' | netcat 123.123.123.123 6666'

process = subprocess.Popen(test_cmd, shell=True, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
err = process.stderr.read()
print(str(err))

It should work, but I didn't test it. Anyway, this shall give you an idea about what you have to do.

My answer works for a unix based distro. If you're looking for a cross-platform solution, your provided link should do the trick.

Another way that I find it useful:

import socket


class Netcat:

    def __init__(self, ip, port):
        self.buff = ""
        self.socket = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
        self.socket.connect((ip, port))

    def read(self, length = 1024):
        """ Read 1024 bytes off the socket """
        return self.socket.recv(length)

    def read_until(self, data):

        """ Read data into the buffer until we have data """
        while not data in self.buff:
            self.buff += self.socket.recv(1024)

        pos = self.buff.find(data)
        rval = self.buff[:pos + len(data)]
        self.buff = self.buff[pos + len(data):]

        return rval

    def write(self, data):
        self.socket.send(data)

    def close(self):
        self.socket.close()

After you created the class, just use it as you need:

from netcat import Netcat

# start a new Netcat() instance
nc = Netcat('127.0.0.1', 53121)

# get to the prompt
nc.read_until('>')

# start a new note
nc.write('new' + '\n')
nc.read_until('>')

# set note 0 with the payload
nc.write('set' + '\n')
nc.read_until('id:')

If you compare your provided link with this solution, you'll see that you have to you sockets, one way or another. So I don't think there's any other simpler way for doing what you need.