Radare can be run locally, or it can be started as a server process which is controlled by a local radare2 process. This is possible because everything uses radare's IO subsystem which abstracts access to system(), cmd() and all basic IO operations so to work over a network.
Help for commands useful for remote access to radare:
[0x00405a04]> =?
|Usage: =[:!+-=hH] [...] # radare remote command execution protocol
|
rap commands:
| = list all open connections
| =<[fd] cmd send output of local command to remote fd
| =[fd] cmd exec cmd at remote 'fd' (last open is default one)
| =! cmd run command via r_io_system
| =+ [proto://]host add host (default=rap://, tcp://, udp://)
| =-[fd] remove all hosts or host 'fd'
| ==[fd] open remote session with host 'fd', 'q' to quit
| =!= disable remote cmd mode
| !=! enable remote cmd mode
|
rap server:
| =:port listen on given port using rap protocol (o rap://9999)
| =&:port start rap server in background
| =:host:port cmd run 'cmd' command on remote server
|
http server:
| =h port listen for http connections (r2 -qc=H /bin/ls)
| =h- stop background webserver
| =h* restart current webserver
| =h& port start http server in background)
| =H port launch browser and listen for http
| =H& port launch browser and listen for http in background
|
gdbserver:
| =g port file listen on 'port' debugging 'file' using gdbserver
| =g! port file same as above, but debug protocol messages (like gdbserver --remote-debug)
You can learn radare2 remote capabilities by displaying the list of supported IO plugins: radare2 -L.
A little example should make this clearer. A typical remote session might look like this:
At the remote host1:
$ radare2 rap://:1234
At the remote host2:
$ radare2 rap://:1234
At localhost:
$ radare2 -
; Add hosts
[0x004048c5]> =+ rap://<host1>:1234//bin/ls
Connected to: <host1> at port 1234
waiting... ok
[0x004048c5]> =
0 - rap://<host1>:1234//bin/ls
You can open remote files in debug mode (or using any IO plugin) specifying URI when adding hosts:
[0x004048c5]> =+ =+ rap://<host2>:1234/dbg:///bin/ls
Connected to: <host2> at port 1234
waiting... ok
0 - rap://<host1>:1234//bin/ls
1 - rap://<host2>:1234/dbg:///bin/ls
To execute commands on host1:
[0x004048c5]> =0 px
[0x004048c5]> = s 0x666
To open a session with host2:
[0x004048c5]> ==1
fd:6> pi 1
...
fd:6> q
To remove hosts (and close connections):
[0x004048c5]> =-
You can also redirect radare output to a TCP or UDP server (such as nc -l). First, Add the server with '=+ tcp://' or '=+ udp://', then you can redirect the output of a command to be sent to the server:
[0x004048c5]> =+ tcp://<host>:<port>/
Connected to: <host> at port <port>
5 - tcp://<host>:<port>/
[0x004048c5]> =<5 cmd...
The =<' command will send the output from the execution of cmd` to the remote connection number N (or the last one used if no id specified).