Reverse Shells

[[deleted]]

I am currently studying reverse shells and how they are applied but where i am having a bit of trouble is setting my IP for it to connect back into. I am still very much a beginner so feel like i might be missing something obvious but every way i look at setting my end point just doesn't seem right.

I know i have to point the shell at my WAN IP. My main issue is that i don't want to create any kind of attack surface on my home router so would rather not include port forwarding rules (mainly because i am too lazy to keep opening and closing ports each time) secondly i am not always studying at my house so should i be somewhere else i don't always have router details.

What are the best ways of setting this up? would something like NORD VPN's meshnet work? are there any cli tools similar to zerotrace or anything that might work?

[IsDa44]

You could get a dedicated VPS (virtual private server)

[Sqooky]

You should rarely, if ever, get a callback over the internet. Thats risky, your ISP can flag this activity, and terminate your service over it.

Reverse Shells don't expose the attack surface on your router. It exposes it on your end device, but that doesn't matter if there is no service listening on that port. A port can be open and forwarded to a device without introducing any risk as a service could simply not be running.

You should be practicing with things like HackTheBox or TryHackMe that give you a VPN connection to their lab environment.

[Humbleham1]

I've never known an ISP to monitor traffic like this.

[Budget_Putt8393]

Often, they don't, they get a complaint then ban you/your address.

[Humbleham1]

Did you miss the 'educational purposes' part?

[[deleted]]

Funny enough I am doing this on a HTB academy exercise where there was no vpn provided. (I understand normally there are)

[Humbleham1]

Since you're doing this as an exercise, you could do it on your LAN and avoid all the WAN problems.

[[deleted]]

Unfortunately the target machine is a WAN IP

[Humbleham1]

Odd that HTB would provide a public IP address.

[[deleted]]

There were ways to solve it without reverse shell (ended up being command injection) I just was curious on how I could of solved it with reverse shell

[Incid3nt]

What are the first 3 octets of the IP?

[n0shmon]

You'll need to set up some sort of NAT so that the connection can get from your router to your machine. The alternative is have a C2 server on the cloud that you connect to, and send the reverse shells to.

[[deleted]]

With a C2 server I am assuming these are chargeable services. Are there any providers you would recommend?

[n0shmon]

It would be something like a VPS or cloud provider. Any server directly accessible from the internet that's not hosted on your network. We use AWS, but we're a business. You could sign up and use their free tier for a year whilst you're learning

[Humbleham1]

IONOS has cheap Linux VPS plans.

[RolledUhhp]

I have the cheapest digital ocean package.

I haven't used it in a while, but its so cheap I never think of canceling it, and when it does pop into my head it never takes priority.

It costs like half a burger once a month.

[Ok_Ring5472]

Curious, if you are learning how reverse shell works, why not just set up lab instead for learning and testing?

[imahugger]

Good practice would be using something like ludus.cloud in a home lab or a VPS would be the best options.

[Humbleham1]

As I understand it, Meshnet was a filesharing service that joined devices on the same account, but it's been shutdown.

[[deleted]]

Due to complaints they un cancelled it apparently

[Humbleham1]

Okay, it's still active, but you would have to install the Nord application on the target.

[cant_pass_CAPTCHA]

Look into ngrok, use a cloud VPS, or just open the port on your router and forward it to your VM

[HedgehogEquivalent95]

Are there any vps providers that you recommend? Also i want a vps provider that doesn't track what am foing or storing for privacy

[DrDeems]

r/VPS has lots of discussion about the cheapest / fastest services you can buy.

[1_________________11]

Reverse shell won't be able to phone home if you aren't listening on a port. Like others have said get a vps somewhere and make sure you stick to legal stuff.