rshelld listens on a port and on connection runs a command with its input/output redirected to the socket. The distinguishing feature, compared to e.g. netcat, is support for terminal emulation. When running an interactive shell, such as cmd.exe or powershell.exe, this means colors and special keys (e.g., Arrow Up for command history) are working.
Note that rshelld is not related to rsh (the precursor to ssh) in any way, except in the general sense of both being remote shells, so an rsh client will NOT be able to talk to an rshelld server.
Download rshelld.exe from the Releases page.
Usage: rshelld [OPTION]...
Listen for TCP connections and run shell with input/output connected to socket.
Options:
-c cmdline Program with arguments to run upon connection.
Use "quotes" if command line contains spaces. Default: cmd.exe
-g Listen on all interfaces (0.0.0.0).
Default: Listen only on localhost (127.0.0.1).
-p port Listen on the specified port. Default: 8023
-s WxH Terminal size in characters. Default: 80x24
-h, --help Display this help and exit
Examples:
rshelld Listen on port 8023 on localhost only, run cmd.exe
rshelld -p 1234 -g Listen on port 1234 on all interfaces, run cmd.exe
rshelld -c powershell Run powershell.exe instead of cmd.exe
On the client side, make sure local echo and line editing are turned off.
- For PuTTY, in the main Session pane choose Raw for Connection Type, and in the Terminal pane choose Force Off for both Local Echo and Local Line Editing.
- For Linux console, including WSL, use
stty raw -echo; nc localhost 8023; stty saneortelnet localhost 8023.
All data is passed in plaintext (no encryption), so it is advisable to only use rshelld on localhost. This is the default, which can be overridden with the -g option. The envisioned use case is to use another tool, such as SSH, that does encryption and port forwarding, and forward the rshelld listening port over that secure connection.
Windows 10 1809 (32- or 64-bit) or later is required. rshelld uses the Windows Pseudoconsole API that first appeared in this version.
rshelld uses the CreatePseudoConsole function from the Windows Pseudoconsole API to create a pseudo-terminal (PTY) in which the shell executes. This API does the heavy lifting to convert the shell's console I/O into terminal escape sequences. rshelld sends and receives these escape sequences over a TCP socket.
MIT