Windows 10 Reverse Shell Fails to be Established

Bug Description

pwncat terminates with the error connection failed: channel receive timed out: b'' a few seconds after receiving a connection from a Windows 10 reverse shell

pwncat version

$ pwncat --version
0.4.3

Target System (aka “victim”)

The system in question is “Algernon” from Offensive Security Proving Grounds

Steps to Reproduce

1. 
2. Run exploit for RCE vulnerability in SmarterMail: https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/49216
3. 

Expected Behavior

pwncat should establish a fully-interactive (Windows) reverse shell

Screenshots

As shown in the following screenshot, netcat successfully receives the reverse powershell shell.

[fsacer]

ah cool, well maybe there is no need for that staged C2, I though I could just use pwncat to handle multiple nc sessions, since there isn’t any good tools for that afaik

[calebstewart]

Windows support is currently in a… precarious state… pwncat utilized a staged C2 which is currently to disk. Windows Defender has a detection specifically for pwncat and blocks it from executing, which is my initial thought when I see problems like this.

There could also be other issues. For example, many Windows shell implementations do not actually provide full STDIO access for the shell. A lot of them line buffer the IO, which will break pwncat when it tries to spawn the C2 (assuming that the C2 isn’t blocked by Defender).

I need to revisit the Windows implementation within pwncat soon, but haven’t had the time.