T1587.004sub-technique of T1587 Develop Capabilities

Exploits

PREnothing on this site yetT1587.004 on attack.mitre.org

Adversaries may develop exploits that can be used during targeting. An exploit takes advantage of a bug or vulnerability in order to cause unintended or unanticipated behavior to occur on computer hardware or software. Rather than finding/modifying exploits from online or purchasing them from exploit vendors, an adversary may develop their own exploits. Adversaries may use information acquired via Vulnerabilities to focus exploit development efforts.
MITRE ATT&CK 19.2, retrieved 2026-09-12

how MITRE says to see it

Detection of Exploits

Much of this activity will take place outside the visibility of the target organization, making detection of this behavior difficult. Detection efforts may be focused on behaviors relating to the use of exploits (i.e.

what reduces it

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.

the rest of T1587

T1587.001 Malware · not covered yet
T1587.002 Code Signing Certificates · not covered yet
T1587.003 Digital Certificates · not covered yet

The description, detection analytics and mitigations are reproduced from MITRE ATT&CK, version 19.2, under its terms of use. The checklists, hunts, labs and everything else linked here are this site’s.