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T1518 Software Discovery

Adversaries may attempt to get a listing of software and software versions that are installed on a system or in a cloud environment. Adversaries may use the information from Software Discovery during automated discovery to shape follow-on behaviors, including whether or not the adversary fully infects the target and/or attempts specific actions.

Such software may be deployed widely across the environment for configuration management or security reasons, such as Software Deployment Tools, and may allow adversaries broad access to infect devices or move laterally.

Adversaries may attempt to enumerate software for a variety of reasons, such as figuring out what security measures are present or if the compromised system has a version of software that is vulnerable to Exploitation for Privilege Escalation.

Item Value
ID T1518
Sub-techniques T1518.001, T1518.002
Tactics TA0007
Platforms ESXi, IaaS, Linux, Windows, macOS
Version 1.5
Created 16 September 2019
Last Modified 24 October 2025

Procedure Examples

ID Name Description
S0534 Bazar Bazar can query the Registry for installed applications.18
G0060 BRONZE BUTLER BRONZE BUTLER has used tools to enumerate software installed on an infected host.27
S0482 Bundlore Bundlore has the ability to enumerate what browser is being used as well as version information for Safari.21
S0674 CharmPower CharmPower can list the installed applications on a compromised host.6
S0154 Cobalt Strike The Cobalt Strike System Profiler can discover applications through the browser and identify the version of Java the target has.11
S0126 ComRAT ComRAT can check the victim’s default browser to determine which process to inject its communications module into.10
S1153 Cuckoo Stealer
Cuckoo Stealer has the ability to search systems for installed applications.8
S0472 down_new down_new has the ability to gather information on installed applications.27
S0384 Dridex Dridex has collected a list of installed software on the system.12
S0062 DustySky DustySky lists all installed software for the infected machine.7
S0024 Dyre Dyre has the ability to identify installed programs on a compromised host.35
G1001 HEXANE HEXANE has enumerated programs installed on an infected machine.50
S0431 HotCroissant HotCroissant can retrieve a list of applications from the SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths registry key.31
G0100 Inception Inception has enumerated installed software on compromised systems.43
S1245 InvisibleFerret InvisibleFerret has gathered installed programs and running processes.16
S0260 InvisiMole InvisiMole can collect information about installed software used by specific users, software executed on user login, and software executed by each system.2324
C0044 Juicy Mix During Juicy Mix, OilRig used browser data dumper tools to create a list of users with Google Chrome installed.52
S0526 KGH_SPY KGH_SPY can collect information on installed applications.33
S1185 LightSpy If sent the command 16001, LightSpy uses the NSFileManger contentsOfDirectoryAtPath() to enumerate the Applications folder to collect the bundle name, bundle identifier, and version information from each application’s info.plist file. The results are then converted into a JSON blob for exfiltration.26
S1141 LunarWeb LunarWeb can list installed software on compromised systems.13
S0652 MarkiRAT MarkiRAT can check for the Telegram installation directory by enumerating the files on disk.32
S0455 Metamorfo Metamorfo has searched the compromised system for banking applications.23
G0069 MuddyWater MuddyWater has used a PowerShell backdoor to check for Skype connectivity on the target machine.45
G0129 Mustang Panda Mustang Panda has searched the victim system for the InstallUtil.exe program and its version.49
C0016 Operation Dust Storm During Operation Dust Storm, the threat actors deployed a file called DeployJava.js to fingerprint installed software on a victim system prior to exploit delivery.53
C0014 Operation Wocao During Operation Wocao, threat actors collected a list of installed software on the infected system.54
S0229 Orz Orz can gather the victim’s Internet Explorer version.17
S0598 P.A.S. Webshell P.A.S. Webshell can list PHP server configuration details.20
S1228 PUBLOAD PUBLOAD has used several commands executed in sequence via cmd in a short interval to gather software versions including querying Registry keys.22
S0650 QakBot QakBot can enumerate a list of installed programs.34
S1148 Raccoon Stealer Raccoon Stealer is capable of identifying running software on victim machines.2928
S1240 RedLine Stealer RedLine Stealer can get a list of programs on the victim device.36
S0148 RTM RTM can scan victim drives to look for specific banking software on the machine to determine next actions.38
S1099 Samurai Samurai can check for the presence and version of the .NET framework.39
S0445 ShimRatReporter ShimRatReporter gathered a list of installed software on the infected host.1
G1008 SideCopy SideCopy has collected browser information from a compromised host.46
G0121 Sidewinder Sidewinder has used tools to enumerate software installed on an infected host.4748
S0623 Siloscape Siloscape searches for the kubectl binary.5
S1124 SocGholish SocGholish can identify the victim’s browser in order to serve the correct fake update page.25
S0646 SpicyOmelette SpicyOmelette can enumerate running software on a targeted system.14
S1183 StrelaStealer StrelaStealer variants use COM objects to enumerate installed applications from the “AppsFolder” on victim machines.15
S1042 SUGARDUMP SUGARDUMP can identify Chrome, Opera, Edge Chromium, and Firefox browsers, including version number, on a compromised host.9
S1064 SVCReady SVCReady can collect a list of installed software from an infected host.30
S0467 TajMahal TajMahal has the ability to identify the Internet Explorer (IE) version on an infected host.19
G0081 Tropic Trooper Tropic Trooper’s backdoor could list the infected system’s installed software.51
G1017 Volt Typhoon Volt Typhoon has queried the Registry on compromised systems for information on installed software.4140
G0124 Windigo Windigo has used a script to detect installed software on targeted systems.42
G0112 Windshift Windshift has used malware to identify installed software.44
S1065 Woody RAT Woody RAT can collect .NET, PowerShell, and Python information from an infected host.37
S0658 XCSSET XCSSET uses ps aux with the grep command to enumerate common browsers and system processes potentially impacting XCSSET’s exfiltration capabilities.4

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