MITRE Caldera vs Skyhawk Security BAS

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.

Skyhawk Security BAS is a cloud SaaS Breach and Attack Simulation platform for cloud security teams and MSSPs. It runs custom, agentless attack simulations against a digital twin of cloud architecture and security controls, which Skyhawk says avoids affecting production systems or people. Continuous rehearsals validate controls, improve detection accuracy, and help shape response playbooks; teams can also check automated responses before production deployment. Validated exposures are prioritized by the business value of the affected asset. Listed attack surfaces include identities and permissions, vulnerabilities, attack paths, and high-value cloud assets, with MITRE ATT&CK mapping, custom scenarios, and continuous scheduling. The platform supports AWS, Azure, and GCP through API-based integration. Findings can come from Wiz, AWS Inspector, GuardDuty, Macie, and Tenable. Jira and ServiceNow integrations support remediation tracking. Pricing is on request, with a free 30-day trial.