gnu-netcat breaks on various ports

[elieux]

While netcat localhost http and netcat localhost smtp work fine, for example netcat localhost imap (as well as netcat localhost 143) fails:

$ netcat localhost imap
assertion "dst->netnum == servent->s_port" failed: file "network.c", line 226, function: netcat_getport
Aborted (core dumped)

This is different from the case when the port is just closed:

$ netcat localhost 42
assertion "ret == 0" failed: file "core.c", line 372, function: core_tcp_connect
Aborted (core dumped)

[CoolOppo]

This isn't a solution for gnu-netcat, but you can grab a build of Ncat, which should support everything gnu-netcat does, as well as actually working, since it's been updated within the past 12 years, unlike gnu-netcat. 😉

https://nmap.org/download.html

[pmalhaire]

I am facing the same issue .. wondering if I should fix netcat or use the workaround proposed ?