Activity timeline
T1046 first appeared in tracked threats on and was most recently reported on . The busiest month was 2026-07 with 145 reports, and 373 of the 374 threats were reported in the twelve months to 2026-10.
How adversaries use it
T1046 Network Service Discovery is catalogued by MITRE ATT&CK under the Discovery tactic in the Enterprise matrix. Threadlinqs maps 374 of 2623 tracked threats (14.3%) to it; by severity that is 192 critical, 145 high, 30 medium.
Threats that use T1046 most often also use T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application (304 threats), T1059 Command and Scripting Interpreter (230 threats), T1005 Data from Local System (195 threats), T1078 Valid Accounts (180 threats), T1071 Application Layer Protocol (179 threats). These are the techniques an intrusion set tends to chain with it, so they are the natural next places to look when it is observed.
85 tracked threat actors appear in the threats that use T1046; the most frequent are Static Tundra (8), The Gentlemen (6), Cavern Manticore (5), DragonForce (5), FSB Center 16 (5).
Mitigations
MITRE ATT&CK lists 3 mitigations for T1046.
Data sources
Telemetry that can reveal T1046, per MITRE ATT&CK.
- Cloud Service — Cloud Service Enumeration
- Command — Command Execution
- Network Traffic — Network Traffic Flow
Threat actors using it
Tracked threats
The 30 most recent of 374 tracked threats that use T1046.
- Desktop AI Supercomputers, Uncensored Models and Agentic Frameworks (HexStrike-AI) Enable Automated…high
- Cling IoT botnet masquerades as Google STUN traffic for C2, exploiting Realtek Jungle SDK CVE-2021-35394high
- DragonForce backdoors abuse Microsoft Teams TURN servers and MQTT for resilient C2high
- Malicious ChatGPT Custom GPT "Plus 5.6" Used in ClickFix Campaign Delivering RAT via DLL Sideloading of…high
- CISA Adds Two Citrix NetScaler Vulnerabilities (CVE-2026-88771, CVE-2026-88772) to KEV Catalogcritical
- Two Unpatched Citrix NetScaler Zero-Day RCE Vulnerabilities Under Active Exploitationcritical
- CARBONATO Botnet Exploits Exposed Docker Daemons to Deploy AI Agent Framework, Prioritizes AI API Key Thefthigh
- Check Point Security Gateway VPN Pre-Auth RCE (CVE-2026-85102) and Management Path Traversal Zero-Day…critical
- Storm-3168 (JADEPUFFER): Agentic-Driven Destructive Cloud Attacks Against Azure via Compromised Service…critical
- Carbonato botnet: AI-agent-driven worm hijacks unauthenticated Docker daemons on port 2375 and installs the…high
- Eclypsium InfraTrust Report: Mass Active Exploitation of Network Management Systems (Cisco FMC/ISE…critical
- SolarWinds Access Rights Manager Hard-Coded Cryptographic Key (CVE-2026-28326) Enables Unauthenticated RCEcritical
- CISA Flags Three Actively Exploited Linux Kernel Vulnerabilities: kTLS Receive-Path Disclosure/DoS, ebtables…critical
- Critical Check Point Management Server Flaw (CVE-2026-91843) Lets Unauthenticated Attackers Run Code as Rootcritical
- Ransomware Incidents Surge 4.7% in Japan H1 2026: The Gentlemen and Qilin Lead, AI-Assisted Tooling Observedhigh
- Attacker Maintains Root-Level MeshCentral Backdoor Inside Thai ISP 3BB, Targets RADIUS Subscriber-Credential…high
- Multiple Fortinet FortiOS Vulnerabilities (incl. CVE-2024-23113) Affect Siemens RUGGEDCOM APE1808 via…critical
- Dutch NCSC Warns of Critical Check Point VPN Flaws (CVE-2026-85102, CVE-2026-85103) — Exploitation Expected…critical
- Multi-Stage Cobalt Strike Loader Deploys Stageless Beacon via Anti-Sandbox .NET Chainhigh
- CVE-2025-25249: Fortinet Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited to Deploy PivotC2 RAT on FortiGate Devicescritical
- Hyadina Rebrands Beast Ransomware as 'GodDamn' and Uses PoisonX Signed Kernel Driver to Disable Endpoint…critical
- September 2026 Microsoft Patch Tuesday — Record 966+ Vulnerabilities with Two Actively Exploited Zero-Days…critical
- Ivanti September 2026 Patch Batch: 10 CVEs Across EPMM, Neurons for ITSM, and Sentry (CVE-2026-12744/12745…critical
- DragonForce Ransomware Attack on RubberMill, Inc. — ~340GB Data Exfiltration Including PII, Credentials, CAD…critical
- CVE-2026-75754: Unauthenticated Remote Root in ASUS Control Center Enterprise (CVSS 10.0)critical
- Attackers Hijack MikroTik Routers Through Internet-Exposed SSH Without Authentication (MikroTrick)critical
- Frontier AI Agents Compress Full Enterprise Intrusion Chain into Under 10 Hours (Unit 42 Investigation)high
- CVE-2026-20212: Critical Unauthenticated RCE in Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches (Silicon One ASIC)critical
- HPE Patches Critical ArubaOS-CX Buffer Overflow (CVE-2026-73749) Enabling Unauthenticated Remote Code…critical
- "Spring Ring" Vishing Campaign Abuses Microsoft Teams, Quick Assist, and PetitPotam for NTLM Relayhigh
Detection coverage
Threadlinqs maintains 354 detection rules mapped to T1046 (SPL 112, KQL 113, Sigma 129). Rule content is available to Blue tier accounts and above; this page shows counts only.