Techniques › T1614
T1614 System Location Discovery
discovery — IaaS, Linux, macOS, Windows · attack.mitre.org · JSON
1
MITRE detection strategy
4
analytics
0
Sigma rules tagged attack.t1614
0
KEV CVEs mapped here
<p>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.</p><p>Adversaries may attempt to infer the location of a system using various system checks, such as time zone, keyboard layout, and/or language settings. Windows API functions such as <code>GetLocaleInfoW</code> can also be used to determine the locale of the host. In cloud environments, an instance's availability zone may also be discovered by accessing the instance metadata service from the instance.</p><p>Adversaries may also attempt to infer the location of a victim host using IP addressing, such as via online geolocation IP-lookup services.</p>
KEV CVEs mapped to this technique · CTID Mappings Explorer
None. No KEV entry in the public mapping names this technique. Given that 74.7% of KEV has no mapping at all, this says more about the mapping than about the technique.
Detection strategy · ATT&CK Enterprise v19.2
- DET0043 Detection Strategy for System Location Discovery v1.0
AN0119 WindowsUnusual 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.etw:Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Base
GetLocaleInfoW, GetTimeZoneInformation API calls→ DC0021 OS API ExecutionTunable:ParentProcessAllowListTimeWindowAN0120 LinuxDetection 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.Tunable:UserContextAN0121 macOSDetection of system calls or commands accessing system locale (e.g., 'defaults read -g AppleLocale', 'systemsetup -gettimezone'). Correlate with unusual parent processes or execution contexts.Tunable:ExecutionPathAN0122 IaaSDetection 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.azure:vpcflowHTTP requests to 169.254.169.254 or Azure Metadata endpoints→ DC0085 Network Traffic ContentTunable:MetadataQueryAllowList
Sigma rules · SigmaHQ da9bb07d64, tag attack.t1614
No Sigma rule carries this tag. MITRE publishes a detection strategy above, so the behaviour is specified; what is missing is public detection content.
Sub-techniques
| ID | Name | Sigma rules | KEV CVEs |
|---|---|---|---|
| T1614.001 | System Language Discovery | 2 | 0 |