MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise
T1596

Search Open Technical Databases

Description

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.(Citation: WHOIS)(Citation: DNS Dumpster)(Citation: Circl Passive DNS)(Citation: Medium SSL Cert)(Citation: SSLShopper Lookup)(Citation: DigitalShadows CDN)(Citation: Shodan) 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](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1598) or [Search Open Websites/Domains](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1593)), establishing operational resources (ex: [Acquire Infrastructure](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1583) or [Compromise Infrastructure](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1584)), and/or initial access (ex: [External Remote Services](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1133) or [Trusted Relationship](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1199)).

Mapped SPARTA techniques

2 techniques

  • REC-0002.01IdentifiersST0001
    addresses
    high

    Spacecraft identifiers (NORAD/COSPAR/ITU/FCC numbers) are gathered primarily from public technical databases (Space-Track, ITU registries, FCC ULS); T1596 'Search Open Technical Databases' directly addresses this collection method.

  • REC-0008.03Known VulnerabilitiesST0001
    addresses
    moderate

    Known-vulnerability data is gathered from open technical databases (NVD, CVE, vendor advisories, exploit-DB); T1596 'Search Open Technical Databases' covers the search-channel side of vulnerability reconnaissance, complementary to T1592.002.

Cite as SafeMode Space, mitre-attack-enterprise T1596.

Built 2026-07-25 from 216 techniques, 334 regulation articles, 125 ENISA controls, 2,610 framework controls, and 90 countermeasures.