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Attack Patterns T1680 — Local Storage Discovery
T1680

Local Storage Discovery

Discovery
TLP:CLEAR

Description

Adversaries may enumerate local drives, disks, and/or volumes and their attributes like total or free space and volume serial number. This can be done to prepare for ransomware-related encryption, to perform Lateral Movement, or as a precursor to Direct Volume Access. On ESXi systems, adversaries may use Hypervisor CLI commands such as `esxcli` to list storage connected to the host as well as `.vmdk` files.(Citation: TrendMicro)(Citation: TrendMicro ESXI Ransomware) On Windows systems, adversaries can use `wmic logicaldisk get` to find information about local network drives. They can also use `Get-PSDrive` in PowerShell to retrieve drives and may additionally use Windows API functions such as `GetDriveType`.(Citation: Trend Micro MUSTANG PANDA PUBLOAD HIUPAN SEPTEMBER 2024)(Citation: Volexity) Linux has commands such as `parted`, `lsblk`, `fdisk`, `lshw`, and `df` that can list information about disk partitions such as size, type, file system types, and free space. The command `diskutil` on MacOS can be used to list disks while `system_profiler SPStorageDataType` can additionally show information such as a volume’s mount path, file system, and the type of drive in the system. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) cloud providers also have commands for storage discovery such as `describe volume` in AWS, `gcloud compute disks list` in GCP, and `az disk list` in Azure.(Citation: AWS docs describe volumes)(Citation: GCP gcloud compute disks list)(Citation: azure az disk)

MITRE ATT&CK Detection Strategies
1

DET0188 Local Storage Discovery via Drive Enumeration and Filesystem Probing
AN0537 Linux

Abnormal use of `lsblk`, `fdisk -l`, `lshw -class disk`, or `parted` by non-admin users or within non-interactive shells suggests suspicious disk enumeration activity.

auditd:SYSCALL auditd:EXECVE
AN0539 ESXi

Use of `esxcli storage` or `vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms` by unusual sessions or through interactive shells unrelated to administrative maintenance tasks.

esxi:hostd esxi:auth
AN0536 Windows

Drive enumeration using PowerShell (`Get-PSDrive`), `wmic logicaldisk`, or Win32 API indicative of local volume enumeration by non-admin users or executed outside of baseline system inventory scripts.

WinEventLog:Sysmon
+1 more analytics

Details

Platforms
Esxi
Iaas
Linux
Macos
Windows
Added
May 2, 2026
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