T1593.002_search-engines

Research

Adversaries may use search engines to collect information about victims that can be used during targeting.

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Source SKILL.md: https://github.com/CyberStrikeus/CyberStrike/blob/HEAD/.cyberstrike/skill/mitre_attack/TA0043_reconnaissance/T1593.002_search-engines/SKILL.md

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T1593.002 Search Engines

Sub-technique of: T1593

High-Level Description

Adversaries may use search engines to collect information about victims that can be used during targeting. Search engine services typical crawl online sites to index context and may provide users with specialized syntax to search for specific keywords or specific types of content (i.e. filetypes).

Adversaries may craft various search engine queries depending on what information they seek to gather. Threat actors may use search engines to harvest general information about victims, as well as use specialized queries to look for spillages/leaks of sensitive information such as network details or credentials. Information from these sources may reveal opportunities for other forms of reconnaissance (ex: Phishing for Information or Search Open Technical Databases), establishing operational resources (ex: Establish Accounts or Compromise Accounts), and/or initial access (ex: Valid Accounts or Phishing).

Kill Chain Phase

Reconnaissance (TA0043)

Platforms: PRE

What to Check

Identify if Search Engines technique is applicable to target environment
Check PRE systems for indicators of Search Engines
Verify mitigations are bypassed or absent (1 known mitigations)
Assess detection coverage (1 detection strategies)

How to Test

Manual Testing

Identify Attack Surface: Determine if the target environment is susceptible to Search Engines by examining the target platforms (PRE).
Assess Existing Defenses: Review whether mitigations for T1593.002 are in place. If defenses are absent or misconfigured, this technique may be exploitable.
Execute Test: Use tools and methods described in the MITRE ATT&CK page and external references below.

Note: No Atomic Red Team tests available for this technique. See Atomic Red Team GitHub for updates.

Remediation Guide

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.

Detection

Detection of Search Engines

Risk Assessment

Finding	Severity	Impact
Search Engines technique applicable	High	Reconnaissance

CWE Categories

CWE ID	Title
CWE-200	Exposure of Sensitive Information