Atomic Red Team vs MITRE Caldera

Atomic Red Team is a free library of tests security teams can run to check controls, validate visibility, and assess detection coverage. Its tests emulate adversary behaviors and map to the MITRE ATT&CK matrix. They have few dependencies and use a structured format suited to automation frameworks. Invoke-AtomicRedTeam is a PowerShell module for testing defenses against attack techniques; it can run tests locally or on remote machines through PowerShell Remoting. Atomic Runner can run a configurable list unattended, once per week by default. The project includes a Ruby API to validate tests and generate documentation, and pulls ATT&CK data in STIX form. Listed integrations include Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, AttackIQ, Datadog Workload Security Evaluator, OpenBAS, Splunk Attack Range, and Tidal Cyber. Coverage includes Windows, Linux, macOS, cloud infrastructure, containers, SaaS, Azure AD, Google Workspace, Office 365, and IaaS providers. Tests can be chained manually, but there is no automated solution for emulating a specific attack group as a whole. Users are instructed to obtain permission from the environment owner before running a test.

MITRE Caldera automates adversary emulation and routine cybersecurity assessments using the MITRE ATT&CK framework. Its listed uses include autonomous emulation, detection and response platform testing, manual red-team work, and red-versus-blue research. Adversary profiles can be used to exercise defenses and train blue teams. The core combines an asynchronous command-and-control server, a REST API, and a web interface; plugins add capabilities including Atomic Red Team techniques, operational technology support, ATT&CK visualizations, incident response, reporting, and training. Its default Sandcat agent is written in Go and supports cross-platform deployment, beaconing, instruction execution, payload downloads, and file uploads. Caldera is free, open source under Apache License 2.0, and intended for on-premises deployment. Installation is documented from source and through Docker, with full and slim container variants. The project lists Linux or macOS and Python 3.10 or later with pip as host requirements, and recommends at least 8 GB RAM and 2 CPUs for the core framework. It advises running Caldera in a secure environment or network because its web interface is not hardened or thoroughly penetration-tested.