nc:tldr:9c6b5
The command nc -v -z ${ip_address} ${port}
is a command-line instruction written in Shell or Bash scripting language. Here's an explanation of each element of the command:
-
nc
: This stands for "netcat" and refers to a utility program used for reading, writing, redirecting, and manipulating network connections. It can be used as a TCP/IP swiss army knife. -
-v
: This option enables verbose output, displaying more details during the execution of the command. -
-z
: This option specifies thatnc
should only scan for listening daemons, without sending any data. -
${ip_address}
: This is a placeholder that should be replaced with the actual IP address you want to scan. The IP address can be either an IPv4 or IPv6 address. -
${port}
: This is also a placeholder that should be replaced with the specific port number you want to check for listening services. Ports are used to identify specific services running on a server. For instance, HTTP commonly uses port 80, whereas HTTPS uses port 443.
In summary, using this command will execute a network scan on the specified IP address and port to check if there is a listening service. The verbose mode will provide detailed output about the connection attempt.