MITRE ATLAS 2026.09 / technique reference

AML.T0116
Autonomous Reconnaissance

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MITRE source definition

Adversaries may use autonomous AI agents to conduct Reconnaissance activities. Given an objective, target, or partial lead, an agent may autonomously determine what information to obtain and how to investigate it. It may interpret observations, identify gaps in its understanding of the externally observable attack surface, and select subsequent reconnaissance actions without a human specifying each investigative step.

The agent may formulate investigative questions or hypotheses, select sources and approaches for addressing them, and update its understanding as new information is obtained. Findings may generate additional reconnaissance objectives or change the scope, depth, or direction of the investigation. This creates a recursive action-observation process in which reconnaissance results influence what the agent investigates next rather than merely supplying output from a predefined procedure.

The agent may correlate information across public sources and externally accessible services, prioritize promising systems, investigate suspected vulnerabilities, abandon unsuccessful approaches, or select alternative methods. It may also expand or substitute targets based on discovered names, infrastructure, or contextual relationships and independently reassess whether a system remains relevant or in scope. Incorrect assumptions may cause unrelated or unauthorized systems to be pursued, while successful scope recognition may cause the agent to stop or redirect its activity.

Autonomous AI agents can sustain reconnaissance across long-running operations, reason over multiple information sources, and test many alternative paths at a speed and volume difficult for human operators to maintain.

Source modified 2026-08-31. Reproduced from the pinned ATLAS release; inline technique links resolve to local reference pages.

No explicit relationship in this pinned source.

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This is a technique reference page, not a runnable simulation. No ATLAS-specific telemetry mapping, local attack execution or detector validation is asserted. MITRE maturity describes its source evidence, not a 1200km lab result.

For broader context—not technique-specific control mappings—see AI Security, AI Security Course, and detection-validation methodology.

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