Academy
TermAttack

Reconnaissance

The attacker collecting information about the organization, employees and systems to choose a target and plan the attack.

Flow

  1. 1Open-source scanning
  2. 2System scanning
  3. 3Buying information
Related families
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MITRE ATT&CK
TA0043 · Reconnaissance
Sources
5 sources
01

Overview

MITRE ATT&CK treats reconnaissance as the first tactic, in which the attacker gathers information about the target: open sources, domains, employee names, software in use and internet-facing systems. MITRE ATT&CK

Stealer logs shorten reconnaissance: which login addresses the organization uses and which employee’s credentials are exposed can be seen with a single search. Google Cloud (Mandiant)

02

How it works

  1. 1

    Open-source scanning

    The website, social media and registration records are examined. MITRE ATT&CK

  2. 2

    System scanning

    Internet-facing services and their versions are identified. MITRE ATT&CK

  3. 3

    Buying information

    Logs and leak lists are searched by organization name. MITRE ATT&CK

03

Real-world examples

Snowflake: discovery after access

According to Mandiant, after signing in UNC5537 listed all databases and tables with the SHOW TABLES command. In ATT&CK this is classified separately as post-access Discovery. Google Cloud (Mandiant)

04

How to detect it

  • Systematic scanning traffic aimed at internet-facing systems. MITRE ATT&CK
05

What to do

  • Monitor your internet-facing surface and your organization’s presence in logs before the attacker does. MITRE ATT&CK
06

MITRE ATT&CK

07

Related terms

08

Sources

  1. 1Reconnaissance (TA0043) · MITRE ATT&CK
  2. 2Search Open Websites/Domains (T1593) · MITRE ATT&CK
  3. 3Active Scanning (T1595) · MITRE ATT&CK
  4. 4Search Closed Sources (T1597) · MITRE ATT&CK
  5. 5UNC5537 targets Snowflake customer instances · Google Cloud (Mandiant), 2024