i'm very new to netcat and don't know how to do alot of stuff, one of them is having it start/run at a specific time how do i do that?

I fail to see how asking about how to have netcat start at a specific time implies malicious intent. Simply asking about how to use a tool does not imply anything other than a desire to learn.

Netcat can be used for multiple tasks that are not malicious. for example: Used with dd to transfer a disk image for forensic purposes.

But to answer kthc's question:

A more elegant way is to add a reg key:

reg add hklm\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\run /v listener /t reg_sz /d "nc -l –d -p 4321 -e cmd.exe"

Basically what the “reg” command does is add a new entry in the registry. An entry consists of a name, data type and value. In this case we have added new entry called “listener” using “/v”, with a data type of ascii that ends with a null character through “/t” (The Z in REG_SZ refers to the null character) and specified the value with “/d”.

Note that the command is enclosed in quotes as there are spaces in the string. Also note the additional “-d” option specified in the Netcat command string. This tells Netcat to run in the background. This is a feature of the Windows version of Netcat.

Also on XP you might want to use  "SCHTASKS" if you are having difficulty with "AT".

....begin shameless plug....

I wrote a document on netcat a while back. It can be found at

http://www.learnsecurityonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=168&Itemid=46

and on:

http://www.infosecwriters.com/texts.php?op=display&id=573

It covers most of what netcat is capable of. Netcat can do more but hey, you need to figure some things out for yourself.

---end shameless plug....

Dean

I simply don't see the point in starting netcat at a "specific" time for learning purposes ... why just don't start netcat when needed or permanently start as dean explained?

And I never said that just using netcat implies malicious intent. The malicious intent I was thinking of is the one above.

But hey, the important thing is that kthc got the answer he was looking for.

Cheers ChrisG. 

Yeah, it's not a bad place at all. I hear the irc channel is pretty damn cool