Breaking Down A Python Reverse Shell One-Liner

Manipulating File Descriptors to Obtain Remote Code Execution

Hello, World! In this article, we will dissect the most popular Python reverse shell one-liner that is used in ethical hacking to obtain remote command execution on a target machine. We will go through the one-liner, line-by-line, to understand how we can use built-in Python modules and how we manipulate Linux file descriptors to achieve remote access to a machine. Let’s do it!

This is the one-liner we will discuss:

And this is the prettified version of the one-liner above that will we refer to throughout this article:

The Reverse Shell

Establishing a Connection