hacktricks/network-services-pentesting/pentesting-irc.md

# 194,6667,6660-7000 - Pentesting IRC

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## Basic Information

IRC, initially a **plain text protocol**, was assigned **194/TCP** by IANA but is commonly run on **6667/TCP** and similar ports to avoid needing **root privileges** for operation.

A **nickname** is all that's needed to connect to a server. Following connection, the server performs a reverse-DNS lookup on the user's IP.

Users are divided into **operators**, who need a **username** and **password** for more access, and regular **users**. Operators have varying levels of privileges, with administrators at the top.

**Default ports:** 194, 6667, 6660-7000

```
PORT     STATE SERVICE
6667/tcp open  irc
```

## Enumeration

### Banner

IRC can support **TLS**.

```bash
nc -vn <IP> <PORT>
openssl s_client -connect <IP>:<PORT> -quiet
```

### Manual

Here you can see how to connect and access the IRC using some **random nickname** and then enumerate some interesting info. You can learn more commands of IRC [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_Internet\_Relay\_Chat\_commands#USERIP).

```bash
#Connection with random nickname
USER ran213eqdw123 0 * ran213eqdw123
NICK ran213eqdw123
#If a PING :<random> is responded you need to send
#PONG :<received random>

VERSION
HELP
INFO
LINKS
HELPOP USERCMDS
HELPOP OPERCMDS
OPERATOR CAPA
ADMIN      #Admin info
USERS      #Current number of users
TIME       #Server's time
STATS a    #Only operators should be able to run this
NAMES      #List channel names and usernames inside of each channel -> Nombre del canal y nombre de las personas que estan dentro
LIST       #List channel names along with channel banner
WHOIS <USERNAME>      #WHOIS a username
USERHOST <USERNAME>   #If available, get hostname of a user
USERIP <USERNAME>     #If available, get ip of a user
JOIN <CHANNEL_NAME>   #Connect to a channel

#Operator creds Brute-Force
OPER <USERNAME> <PASSWORD>
```

You can, also, atttempt to login to the server with a password. The default password for ngIRCd is `wealllikedebian`.

```bash
PASS wealllikedebian
NICK patrick
USER test1 test2 <IP> :test3
```

### **Find and scan IRC services**

```bash
nmap -sV --script irc-botnet-channels,irc-info,irc-unrealircd-backdoor -p 194,6660-7000 <ip>
```

### [Brute Force](../generic-methodologies-and-resources/brute-force.md#irc)

### Shodan

* `looking up your hostname`

<details>

<summary><strong>Learn AWS hacking from zero to hero with</strong> <a href="https://training.hacktricks.xyz/courses/arte"><strong>htARTE (HackTricks AWS Red Team Expert)</strong></a><strong>!</strong></summary>

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* Discover [**The PEASS Family**](https://opensea.io/collection/the-peass-family), our collection of exclusive [**NFTs**](https://opensea.io/collection/the-peass-family)
* **Join the** 💬 [**Discord group**](https://discord.gg/hRep4RUj7f) or the [**telegram group**](https://t.me/peass) or **follow** us on **Twitter** 🐦 [**@carlospolopm**](https://twitter.com/hacktricks_live)**.**
* **Share your hacking tricks by submitting PRs to the** [**HackTricks**](https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks) and [**HackTricks Cloud**](https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks-cloud) github repos.

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