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T1046 Network Service Discovery

Adversaries may attempt to get a listing of services running on remote hosts and local network infrastructure devices, including those that may be vulnerable to remote software exploitation. Common methods to acquire this information include port and/or vulnerability scans using tools that are brought onto a system.2

Within cloud environments, adversaries may attempt to discover services running on other cloud hosts. Additionally, if the cloud environment is connected to a on-premises environment, adversaries may be able to identify services running on non-cloud systems as well.

Within macOS environments, adversaries may use the native Bonjour application to discover services running on other macOS hosts within a network. The Bonjour mDNSResponder daemon automatically registers and advertises a host’s registered services on the network. For example, adversaries can use a mDNS query (such as dns-sd -B _ssh._tcp .) to find other systems broadcasting the ssh service.13

Item Value
ID T1046
Sub-techniques
Tactics TA0007
Platforms Containers, IaaS, Linux, Network, Windows, macOS
Version 3.0
Created 31 May 2017
Last Modified 30 March 2023

Procedure Examples

ID Name Description
G0050 APT32 APT32 performed network scanning on the network to search for open ports, services, OS finger-printing, and other vulnerabilities.58
G0087 APT39 APT39 has used CrackMapExec and a custom port scanner known as BLUETORCH for network scanning.4344
G0096 APT41 APT41 used a malware variant called WIDETONE to conduct port scans on specified subnets.34
S0093 Backdoor.Oldrea Backdoor.Oldrea can use a network scanning module to identify ICS-related ports.13
G0135 BackdoorDiplomacy BackdoorDiplomacy has used SMBTouch, a vulnerability scanner, to determine whether a target is vulnerable to EternalBlue malware.39
S0089 BlackEnergy BlackEnergy has conducted port scans on a host.16
G0098 BlackTech BlackTech has used the SNScan tool to find other potential targets on victim networks.65
S1063 Brute Ratel C4 Brute Ratel C4 can conduct port scanning against targeted systems.7
C0018 C0018 During C0018, the threat actors used the SoftPerfect Network Scanner for network scanning.69
S0572 Caterpillar WebShell Caterpillar WebShell has a module to use a port scanner on a system.24
G0114 Chimera Chimera has used the get -b -e -p command for network scanning as well as a custom Python tool packed into a Windows executable named Get.exe to scan IP ranges for HTTP.51
S0020 China Chopper China Chopper‘s server component can spider authentication portals.20
G0080 Cobalt Group Cobalt Group leveraged an open-source tool called SoftPerfect Network Scanner to perform network scanning.454647
S0154 Cobalt Strike Cobalt Strike can perform port scans from an infected host.222123
S0608 Conficker Conficker scans for other machines to infect.37
C0004 CostaRicto During CostaRicto, the threat actors employed nmap and pscan to scan target environments.68
G0105 DarkVishnya DarkVishnya performed port scanning to obtain the list of active services.61
S0363 Empire Empire can perform port scans from an infected host.8
G0037 FIN6 FIN6 used publicly available tools (including Microsoft’s built-in SQL querying tool, osql.exe) to map the internal network and conduct reconnaissance against Active Directory, Structured Query Language (SQL) servers, and NetBIOS.38
G0117 Fox Kitten Fox Kitten has used tools including NMAP to conduct broad scanning to identify open ports.4142
S0061 HDoor HDoor scans to identify open ports on the victim.29
S0698 HermeticWizard HermeticWizard has the ability to scan ports on a compromised network.26
S0601 Hildegard Hildegard has used masscan to look for kubelets in the internal Kubernetes network.14
S0604 Industroyer Industroyer uses a custom port scanner to map out a network.25
S0260 InvisiMole InvisiMole can scan the network for open ports and vulnerable instances of RDP and SMB protocols.31
S0250 Koadic Koadic can scan for open TCP ports on the target network.6
G0032 Lazarus Group Lazarus Group has used nmap from a router VM to scan ports on systems within the restricted segment of an enterprise network.56
G0077 Leafminer Leafminer scanned network services to search for vulnerabilities in the victim system.66
S0532 Lucifer Lucifer can scan for open ports including TCP ports 135 and 1433.18
G0059 Magic Hound Magic Hound has used KPortScan 3.0 to perform SMB, RDP, and LDAP scanning.50
G0045 menuPass menuPass has used tcping.exe, similar to Ping, to probe port status on systems of interest.55
S0233 MURKYTOP MURKYTOP has the capability to scan for open ports on hosts in a connected network.20
G0019 Naikon Naikon has used the LadonGo scanner to scan target networks.57
S0590 NBTscan NBTscan can be used to scan IP networks.45
G0049 OilRig OilRig has used the publicly available tool SoftPerfect Network Scanner as well as a custom tool called GOLDIRONY to conduct network scanning.40
C0014 Operation Wocao During Operation Wocao, threat actors scanned for open ports and used nbtscan to find NETBIOS nameservers.67
S0598 P.A.S. Webshell P.A.S. Webshell can scan networks for open ports and listening services.15
S0683 Peirates Peirates can initiate a port scan against a given IP address.10
S0378 PoshC2 PoshC2 can perform port scans from an infected host.11
S0192 Pupy Pupy has a built-in module for port scanning.9
S0583 Pysa Pysa can perform network reconnaissance using the Advanced Port Scanner tool.30
S0458 Ramsay Ramsay can scan for systems that are vulnerable to the EternalBlue exploit.2728
S0125 Remsec Remsec has a plugin that can perform ARP scanning as well as port scanning.17
G0106 Rocke Rocke conducted scanning for exposed TCP port 7001 as well as SSH and Redis servers.5960
S1073 Royal Royal can scan the network interfaces of targeted systems.32
S0692 SILENTTRINITY SILENTTRINITY can scan for open ports on a compromised machine.12
S0374 SpeakUp SpeakUp checks for availability of specific ports on servers.35
G0039 Suckfly Suckfly the victim’s internal network for hosts with ports 8080, 5900, and 40 open.54
G0139 TeamTNT TeamTNT has used masscan to search for open Docker API ports and Kubernetes clusters.621463 TeamTNT has also used malware that utilizes zmap and zgrab to search for vulnerable services in cloud environments.64
G0027 Threat Group-3390 Threat Group-3390 actors use the Hunter tool to conduct network service discovery for vulnerable systems.4849
G0081 Tropic Trooper Tropic Trooper used pr and an openly available tool to scan for open ports on target systems.5253
S0341 Xbash Xbash can perform port scanning of TCP and UDP ports.19
S0117 XTunnel XTunnel is capable of probing the network for open ports.36
S0412 ZxShell ZxShell can launch port scans.3433

Mitigations

ID Mitigation Description
M1042 Disable or Remove Feature or Program Ensure that unnecessary ports and services are closed to prevent risk of discovery and potential exploitation.
M1031 Network Intrusion Prevention Use network intrusion detection/prevention systems to detect and prevent remote service scans.
M1030 Network Segmentation Ensure proper network segmentation is followed to protect critical servers and devices.

Detection

ID Data Source Data Component
DS0025 Cloud Service Cloud Service Enumeration
DS0017 Command Command Execution
DS0029 Network Traffic Network Traffic Flow

References

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