MITRE ATT&CK / Techniques / T1018

Remote System Discovery

ID
T1018
Tactics
TA0007 Discovery
Platforms
ESXi, Linux, macOS, Network Devices, Windows
Data sources
Process Creation, Network Connection Creation, File Access, Command Execution
Source
attack.mitre.org
MITRE last modified
12 May 2026

Adversaries may attempt to get a listing of other systems by IP address, hostname, or other logical identifier on a network that may be used for Lateral Movement from the current system. Functionality could exist within remote access tools to enable this, but utilities available on the operating system could also be used such as Ping, net view using Net, or, on ESXi servers, esxcli network diag ping.

Adversaries may also analyze data from local host files (ex: C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts or /etc/hosts) or other passive means (such as local Arp cache entries) in order to discover the presence of remote systems in an environment.

Adversaries may also target discovery of network infrastructure as well as leverage Network Device CLI commands on network devices to gather detailed information about systems within a network (e.g. show cdp neighbors, show arp).[1][2]

Detection

Groups (43)

Software (55)

References

  1. US-CERT-TA18-106A
  2. CISA AR21-126A FIVEHANDS May 2021