MITRE Caldera vs OpenAEV

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.

OpenAEV is an Adversarial Exposure Validation platform for creating cyberattack simulations, stress tests, and crisis exercises. Its breach and attack simulations draw on cyber threat intelligence and map scenarios to MITRE ATT&CK and ATLAS. Attack Chaining links actions into paths based on findings; teams can orchestrate these manually or use dedicated agents. Structured tabletop exercises are available for evaluating readiness, escalation, coordination, communication, and response. Adversarial Exposure Scoring tracks posture over time and maps coverage to MITRE ATT&CK and domain-based controls. The product lists more than 30 integrations and connections to OpenCTI, threat feeds, EDR/XDR, SIEM, and SOC playbooks. Deployment options include cloud, on-premise, and multi-tenant setups, with air-gapped and bring-your-own-cloud options listed for Enterprise Edition. Community Edition is free forever for on-premise core simulations and tabletop exercises, with community support. Enterprise Edition pricing is quote-based, and its SaaS trial lasts 30 days. Components are available as Docker images and manual installation packages; Kubernetes is recommended for production deployments.