OS Credential Dumping: /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow

Threat Actors may attempt to dump the contents of /etc/passwdand /etc/shadow to enable offline password cracking. Most modern Linux operating systems use a combination of /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow to store user account information, including password hashes in /etc/shadow. By default, /etc/shadow is only readable by the root user.

ID: ATAGS-T1121.001
Sub-technique of:  ATAGS-T1121
Targeted Components: Mission, Personnel & Identity
Responsibility: Shared
Created: 18 April 2026
Last Modified: 18 April 2026

Mitigations

This type of attack technique cannot be easily mitigated with preventive controls since it is based on the abuse of system features.