MITRE ATT&CK / Techniques / T1596

Search Open Technical Databases

ID
T1596
Tactics
TA0043 Reconnaissance
Platforms
PRE
Source
attack.mitre.org
MITRE last modified
25 Oct 2025

Adversaries may search freely available technical databases for information about victims that can be used during targeting. Information about victims may be available in online databases and repositories, such as registrations of domains/certificates as well as public collections of network data/artifacts gathered from traffic and/or scans.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]

Adversaries may search in different open databases depending on what information they seek to gather. Information from these sources may reveal opportunities for other forms of reconnaissance (ex: Phishing for Information or Search Open Websites/Domains), establishing operational resources (ex: Acquire Infrastructure or Compromise Infrastructure), and/or initial access (ex: External Remote Services or Trusted Relationship).

Sub-techniques (5)

Detection

Mitigations (1)

M1056 Pre-compromise

This technique cannot be easily mitigated with preventive controls since it is based on behaviors performed outside of the scope of enterprise defenses and controls. Efforts should focus on minimizing the amount and sensitivity of data available to external parties.

Groups (2)

References

  1. WHOIS
  2. DNS Dumpster
  3. Circl Passive DNS
  4. Medium SSL Cert
  5. SSLShopper Lookup
  6. DigitalShadows CDN
  7. Shodan