CAPEC Details
Name System Footprinting
Likelyhood of attack Typical severity
Low Low
Summary An adversary engages in active probing and exploration activities to determine security information about a remote target system. Often times adversaries will rely on remote applications that can be probed for system configurations.
Prerequisites The adversary must have logical access to the target network and system.
Solutions Keep patches up to date by installing weekly or daily if possible. Identify programs that may be used to acquire peripheral information and block them by using a software restriction policy or tools that restrict program execution by using a process allowlist.
Related CAPECS
CAPEC ID Description
CAPEC-169 An adversary engages in probing and exploration activities to identify constituents and properties of the target. Footprinting is a general term to describe a variety of information gathering techniques, often used by attackers in preparation for some attack. It consists of using tools to learn as much as possible about the composition, configuration, and security mechanisms of the targeted application, system or network. Information that might be collected during a footprinting effort could include open ports, applications and their versions, network topology, and similar information. Although similar to fingerprinting, footprinting aims to get a more holistic view of a system or network, whereas fingerprinting is more targeted to a specific application or operating system. While footprinting is not intended to be damaging (although certain activities, such as network scans, can sometimes cause disruptions to vulnerable applications inadvertently) it may often pave the way for more damaging attacks.
Taxonomy: ATTACK
Entry ID Entry Name
1518 Software Discovery