Adversaries may attempt to enumerate local device drivers on a victim host. Information about device drivers may highlight various insights that shape follow-on behaviors, such as the function/purpose of the host, present security tools (i.e. Security Software Discovery) or other defenses (e.g., Virtualization/Sandbox Evasion), as well as potential exploitable vulnerabilities (e.g., Exploitation for Privilege Escalation).
Many OS utilities may provide information about local device drivers, such as driverquery.exe and the EnumDeviceDrivers() API function on Windows.[1][2] Information about device drivers (as well as associated services, i.e., System Service Discovery) may also be available in the Registry.[3]
On Linux/macOS, device drivers (in the form of kernel modules) may be visible within /dev or using utilities such as lsmod and modinfo.[4][5][6]
| ID | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| S0376 | HOPLIGHT |
HOPLIGHT can enumerate device drivers located in the registry at |
| S1139 | INC Ransomware |
INC Ransomware can verify the presence of specific drivers on compromised hosts including Microsoft Print to PDF and Microsoft XPS Document Writer.[8] |
| S0125 | Remsec |
Remsec has a plugin to detect active drivers of some security products.[9] |
This type of attack technique cannot be easily mitigated with preventive controls since it is based on the abuse of system features.
| ID | Data Source | Data Component | Detects |
|---|---|---|---|
| DS0017 | Command | Command Execution |
Monitor executed commands ( |
| DS0009 | Process | OS API Execution |
Monitor for API calls (such as |
| Process Creation |
Monitor processes ( |
||
| DS0024 | Windows Registry | Windows Registry Key Access |
Monitor for attempts to access information stored in the Registry about devices and their associated drivers, such as values under |