T1614

System Location Discovery

IaaS · Linux · macOS · Windowsnothing on this site yetT1614 on attack.mitre.org

Adversaries may gather information in an attempt to calculate the geographical location of a victim host. Adversaries may use the information from System Location Discovery during automated discovery to shape follow-on behaviors, including whether or not the adversary fully infects the target and/or attempts specific actions.
MITRE ATT&CK 19.2, retrieved 2026-09-12

how MITRE says to see it

Detection Strategy for System Location Discovery

Unusual process or API usage attempting to query system locale, timezone, or keyboard layout (e.g., calls to GetLocaleInfoW, GetTimeZoneInformation). Detection can be enhanced by correlating with processes not typically associated with system configuration queries, such as unknown binaries or scripts.
Detection of commands accessing locale, timezone, or language settings such as 'locale', 'timedatectl', or parsing /etc/timezone. Anomalous execution by unusual users or automation scripts should be flagged.
Detection of system calls or commands accessing system locale (e.g., 'defaults read -g AppleLocale', 'systemsetup -gettimezone'). Correlate with unusual parent processes or execution contexts.
Detection of queries to instance metadata services (e.g., AWS IMDS, Azure Metadata Service) for availability zone, region, or network geolocation details. Correlation with non-management accounts or non-standard workloads may indicate adversary reconnaissance.

sub-techniques

T1614.001 System Language Discovery · not covered yet

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