Adversaries may attempt to get a listing of software and software versions that are installed on a system or in a cloud environment. Adversaries may use the information from Software Discovery during automated discovery to shape follow-on behaviors, including whether or not the adversary fully infects the target and/or attempts specific actions. Such software may be deployed widely across the environment for configuration management or security reasons, such as Software Deployment Tools, and may allow adversaries broad access to infect devices or move laterally. Adversaries may attempt to enumerate software for a variety of reasons, such as figuring out what security measures are present or if the compromised system has a version of software that is vulnerable to Exploitation for Privilege Escalation.
Adversary uses 'esxcli software vib list' to enumerate installed VIBs, drivers, and modules.
Adversary uses cloud-native APIs or CLI (e.g., AWS Systems Manager, Azure Resource Graph) to list installed software on cloud workloads.
Adversary runs 'system_profiler SPApplicationsDataType' or queries plist files to enumerate software via Terminal or scripts.