Shell shoveling

Shell shoveling, in network security, refers to the act of redirecting the input and output of a shell to a service so that it can be remotely accessed.^[1]

In computing, the most basic method of interfacing with the operating system is the shell. On Microsoft Windows based systems, this is a program called cmd.exe or COMMAND.COM. On Unix or Unix-like systems, it may be any of a variety of programs such as bash, ksh, etc. This program accepts commands typed from a prompt and executes them, usually in real time, displaying the results to what is referred to as standard output, usually a monitor or screen.

In the shell shoveling process, one of these programs is set to run (perhaps silently or without notifying someone observing the computer) accepting input from a remote system and redirecting output to the same remote system; therefore the operator of the shoveled shell is able to operate the computer as if they were present at the console.^[2]

References[]

^ Stuart McClure; Joel Scambray (March 20, 2000), "'Inside-out' security", InfoWorld, vol. 22, no. 12, p. 49
^ Tipton, Harold F.; Krause, Micki (2007), Information Security Management Handbook (6th ed.), CRC Press, p. 2839, ISBN 978-1-4200-1358-0

Kanclirz, Jan (2008), Netcat Power Tools, Syngress, p. 170, ISBN 978-1-59749-257-7, archived from the original on 2013-10-02

[1] Stuart McClure; Joel Scambray (March 20, 2000), "'Inside-out' security", InfoWorld, vol. 22, no. 12, p. 49

[2] Tipton, Harold F.; Krause, Micki (2007), Information Security Management Handbook (6th ed.), CRC Press, p. 2839, ISBN 978-1-4200-1358-0

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