Definition
Hardware component inventorying identifies and records the hardware items in the organization's architecture.
How it works
Administrators collect information on hardware devices such as peripherals, NICs, processors, and memory devices that are components of the computers in their architecture using a variety of administrative and management tools that query for this information. In some cases, where such queries are not supported or provide specific information of interest, an administrator may also collect this information through remote administration tools and system commands, either manually or using scripts.
Considerations
- Scanning and probing techniques using mapping tools can result in side effects to information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) systems.
- An adversary conducting network enumeration may engage in activities that parallel normal hardware inventorying activities, but would require escalating to admin privileges for most of the operations requiting administrative tools
Examples
- Bus discovery
- Admin-scripted PCI Bus inventory using ssh and pciutils
- Application-layer discovery
- Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) collects MIB information
- Web-based Enterprise Management (WBEM) collects CIM information
- Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)
- Windows Management Infrastructure (MI)
Implementation perspective
Hardware Component Inventory should be treated as a technical defensive capability rather than a product checkbox. In practice, teams should define the protected scope, the conditions under which the technique acts, and the observable evidence that demonstrates the intended behavior. For this technique, likely engineering context includes Hardware Device.
Use the technique to improve the shared model of systems, activities, dependencies, threats, or risk before making defensive decisions.
Questions to ask
- What system, activity, relationship, or risk is being modeled, and where is the scope boundary?
- Which authoritative data sources populate the model, and how is their quality assessed?
- How often is the model refreshed after architectural, operational, or threat changes?
- Which decisions, analyses, or engineering actions are expected to use the model?
Evidence and validation
- Documented model scope, assumptions, and ownership
- Source inventories, data-quality checks, and refresh records
- Version history showing material changes to the model
- Examples of decisions or analyses that used the model
Common failure patterns
- The model is treated as a one-time diagram rather than a maintained decision aid.
- Unverified or stale source data is accepted without recording uncertainty.
- The model is comprehensive in appearance but disconnected from engineering or operational decisions.
This implementation perspective is original Bare Metal Cyber educational content. It does not replace the official D3FEND definition or establish that a specific product implements the technique.
Technique hierarchy
Top-level family
Parent techniques
Direct child techniques
None listed at this level.
Artifacts and ontology entities
These relationships describe how D3FEND connects a defensive technique to artifacts or other ontology entities. They describe graph semantics, not a product certification.
Explicit technique relationships
Show inferred artifact relationship paths (1)
Offensive-technique relationships
These relationships are generated from D3FEND graph paths and are explicitly experimental. They should be treated as hypotheses for defensive analysis—not as proof that the technique prevents, detects, or removes an offensive behavior.
ATT&CK Enterprise (11)
ATT&CK for ICS (2)
Authoritative sources
- Open this technique on the official D3FEND website ↗
- Open the official ontology resources ↗
- Advanced device matching system ↗Device42 Inc · Rajneesh Jalan, Joseph M. Schmitt, and Marco Simoes · PatentReference
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