T1596.001sub-technique of T1596 Search Open Technical Databases

DNS/Passive DNS

PREnothing on this site yetT1596.001 on attack.mitre.org

Adversaries may search DNS data for information about victims that can be used during targeting. DNS information may include a variety of details, including registered name servers as well as records that outline addressing for a target’s subdomains, mail servers, and other hosts. Adversaries may search DNS data to gather actionable information.
MITRE ATT&CK 19.2, retrieved 2026-09-12

how MITRE says to see it

Detection of DNS/Passive DNS

Much of this activity may have a very high occurrence and associated false positive rate, as well as potentially taking place outside the visibility of the target organization, making detection difficult for defenders.

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. Efforts should focus on minimizing the amount and sensitivity of data available to external parties.

the rest of T1596

T1596.002 WHOIS · not covered yet
T1596.003 Digital Certificates · not covered yet
T1596.004 CDNs · not covered yet
T1596.005 Scan Databases · 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.