- Tactics
- Discovery
- Platforms
- ESXi, Linux, macOS, Network Devices, Windows
- Reference
- attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1057
Description
Adversaries may attempt to get information about running processes on a system. Information obtained could be used to gain an understanding of common software/applications running on systems within the network. Administrator or otherwise elevated access may provide better process details. Adversaries may use the information from Process Discovery during automated discovery to shape follow-on behaviors, including whether or not the adversary fully infects the target and/or attempts specific actions.
In Windows environments, adversaries could obtain details on running processes using the Tasklist utility via cmd or Get-Process via PowerShell. Information about processes can also be extracted from the output of Native API calls such as CreateToolhelp32Snapshot. In Mac and Linux, this is accomplished with the ps command. Adversaries may also opt to enumerate processes via /proc. ESXi also supports use of the ps command, as well as esxcli system process list.(Citation: Sygnia ESXi Ransomware 2025)(Citation: Crowdstrike Hypervisor Jackpotting Pt 2 2021)
On network devices, Network Device CLI commands such as show processes can be used to display current running processes.(Citation: US-CERT-TA18-106A)(Citation: show_processes_cisco_cmd)
How GTK Cyber trains on this
GTK Cyber's hands-on training programs cover detection engineering across the MITRE ATT&CK framework, including the Discovery tactic this technique falls under. Our practitioner-led courses focus on building real detections, not just memorizing technique IDs.
Related techniques
- T1007 — System Service Discovery
- T1010 — Application Window Discovery
- T1012 — Query Registry
- T1016 — System Network Configuration Discovery
- T1018 — Remote System Discovery
- T1033 — System Owner/User Discovery
- T1040 — Network Sniffing
- T1046 — Network Service Discovery
- T1049 — System Network Connections Discovery
- T1069 — Permission Groups Discovery
- T1082 — System Information Discovery
- T1083 — File and Directory Discovery