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Vol. 1 · Ed. 2026
CyberGlossary
Entry № 763

MITRE Caldera

¿Qué es MITRE Caldera?

MITRE CalderaAn open-source adversary emulation platform from MITRE that automates the execution of ATT&CK techniques against a target environment via lightweight agents, supporting red-team operations and detection-engineering exercises.


MITRE Caldera is an open-source automated adversary emulation framework first released by MITRE in 2017. It pairs lightweight agents (Sandcat for Windows/macOS/Linux, plus protocol-specific implants) with a central server that schedules and orchestrates ATT&CK-mapped techniques as 'abilities' grouped into 'adversaries' (playbooks). Operators can launch a known threat profile — for example an APT29 emulation, a ransomware-precursor chain, or a custom plan — and watch ATT&CK techniques execute against agents in a lab or production environment, with results scored and exported. Caldera plug-ins extend it with Atomic Red Team integration, training plug-ins, and specific-OS modules. Compared to commercial breach-and-attack-simulation platforms, Caldera is free, ATT&CK-native, and scriptable, making it the default open-source choice for purple-team exercises, SIEM detection validation, and EDR coverage testing. The project ships ready-made adversary profiles that map to specific ATT&CK techniques and procedures, so defenders can verify detections against a documented threat model.

Ejemplos

  1. 01

    A purple team runs a Caldera 'APT29 emulation' plan against a staging environment and verifies that the SIEM raises alerts on the expected ATT&CK techniques.

  2. 02

    A detection engineer uses Caldera abilities to repeatedly fire `T1059.001 PowerShell` variations and confirms the EDR rule catches each one.

Preguntas frecuentes

¿Qué es MITRE Caldera?

An open-source adversary emulation platform from MITRE that automates the execution of ATT&CK techniques against a target environment via lightweight agents, supporting red-team operations and detection-engineering exercises. Pertenece a la categoría de Defensa y operaciones en ciberseguridad.

¿Qué significa MITRE Caldera?

An open-source adversary emulation platform from MITRE that automates the execution of ATT&CK techniques against a target environment via lightweight agents, supporting red-team operations and detection-engineering exercises.

¿Cómo funciona MITRE Caldera?

MITRE Caldera is an open-source automated adversary emulation framework first released by MITRE in 2017. It pairs lightweight agents (Sandcat for Windows/macOS/Linux, plus protocol-specific implants) with a central server that schedules and orchestrates ATT&CK-mapped techniques as 'abilities' grouped into 'adversaries' (playbooks). Operators can launch a known threat profile — for example an APT29 emulation, a ransomware-precursor chain, or a custom plan — and watch ATT&CK techniques execute against agents in a lab or production environment, with results scored and exported. Caldera plug-ins extend it with Atomic Red Team integration, training plug-ins, and specific-OS modules. Compared to commercial breach-and-attack-simulation platforms, Caldera is free, ATT&CK-native, and scriptable, making it the default open-source choice for purple-team exercises, SIEM detection validation, and EDR coverage testing. The project ships ready-made adversary profiles that map to specific ATT&CK techniques and procedures, so defenders can verify detections against a documented threat model.

¿Cómo defenderse de MITRE Caldera?

Las defensas contra MITRE Caldera combinan habitualmente controles técnicos y prácticas operativas, como se detalla en la definición.

¿Cuáles son otros nombres para MITRE Caldera?

Nombres alternativos comunes: MITRE Caldera, Caldera framework.

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