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Every technique
T1016.002Detection written

Wi-Fi Discovery

DiscoveryLinux, Windows, macOS

Where this stands

One published detection covers this technique. Every one is unverified — no rule on Siemphony has been executed against real telemetry.

What the technique is

Adversaries may search for information about Wi-Fi networks, such as network names and passwords, on compromised systems. Adversaries may use Wi-Fi information as part of Account Discovery, Remote System Discovery, and other discovery or Credential Access activity to support both ongoing and future campaigns. Adversaries may collect various types of information about Wi-Fi networks from hosts. For example, on Windows names and passwords of all Wi-Fi networks a device has previously connected to may be available through netsh wlan show profiles to enumerate Wi-Fi names and then netsh wlan show profile “Wi-Fi name” key=clear to show a Wi-Fi network’s corresponding password. Additionally, names and other details of locally reachable Wi-Fi networks can be discovered using calls to wlanAPI.dll Native API functions. On Linux, names and passwords of all Wi-Fi-networks a device has previously connected to may be available in files under /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/. On macOS, the password of a known Wi-Fi may be identified with security find-generic-password -wa wifiname (requires admin username/password).

Read it on attack.mitre.org

What MITRE says you would watch

  • AN1280

    Enumeration of saved Wi-Fi profiles and cleartext password retrieval using netsh wlan or API-level access to wlanAPI.dll.

  • AN1281

    File access to NetworkManager connection configs and attempts to read PSK credentials from /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/*.

  • AN1282

    Use of the security command or Keychain API to extract known Wi-Fi passwords for target SSIDs.

Technique names and descriptions © MITRE ATT&CK®, CC BY 4.0. Not endorsed by MITRE.