ATT&CK matrix
T1087
Account Discovery
1 CVE mapped
TA0007Discovery
Adversaries may attempt to get a listing of valid accounts, usernames, or email addresses on a system or within a compromised environment. This information can help adversaries determine which accounts exist, which can aid in follow-on behavior such as brute-forcing, spear-phishing attacks, or account takeovers (e.g., [Valid Accounts](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1078)).
Adversaries may use several methods to enumerate accounts, including abuse of existing tools, built-in commands, and potential misconfigurations that leak account names and roles or permissions in the targeted environment.
For examples, cloud environments typically provide easily accessible interfaces to obtain user lists.(Citation: AWS List Users)(Citation: Google Cloud - IAM Servie Accounts List API) On hosts, adversaries can use default [PowerShell](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1059/001) and other command line functionality to identify accounts. Information about email addresses and accounts may also be extracted by searching an infected system’s files.
Platforms8
ESXiIaaSIdentity ProviderLinuxmacOSOffice SuiteSaaSWindows
CVEs mapped to this technique1
| CVE | Description | Severity | EPSS | Flags | Modified |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVE-2013-6129 | The install/upgrade.php scripts in vBulletin 4.1 and 5 allow remote attackers to create administrative accounts via the customerid, htmldata[password], htmldata[confirmpassword], and htmldata[email] parameters, as exploited in the wild in October 2013. | NONE | 52%p99 | Functional | 2026-04-29 |