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Overview of MITRE Caldera and Its Benefits

Mar 6, 2025

Executive Summary of MITRE Caldera

Introduction

  • Presentation focuses on an executive level summary of MITRE Caldera.
  • Aim: Showcase simplicity and power in automating adversary simulations.
  • Will not delve into technical intricacies.

Overview of MITRE Caldera

  • Developed by MITRE for automatic execution of realistic adversary activities on networks.
  • Purpose: Assess protection, detection, and response capabilities against threats.
  • Functions as an automated offensive security assessment tool.
  • Features:
    • Built-in playbooks and ability to create custom playbooks.
    • Review results after execution to enhance security posture.
    • Minimal hardware requirements.
    • Dynamic operations.
    • Open source and free available on GitHub.

Core Use Cases

  1. Development and Testing of Defensive Detections and Analytics

    • Run adversary playbooks to observe triggered alerts and logs.
    • Create analytics for automatic detection and response.
  2. Evaluating Defensive Products

    • Validate existing tools and configurations to ensure effectiveness.
    • Helps identify gaps in protection against expected threats.
  3. Assessing New Tools

    • Test potential security tools (open source or trial versions) before making additions to security stack.
  4. Training for Blue and Red Teams

    • Red Teams study adversary playbooks and create their own.
    • Blue Teams perform postmortem analysis after executing playbooks to understand attack implications.
  5. Prototyping Research Ideas

    • Use in emulating operational technology (OT) attacks.
    • Set up in cyber ranges for hands-on experience with the tool.

Advantages of Caldera over Manual Assessments

  • Cost and Time Efficiency:
    • Manual assessments are costly and time-consuming.
    • Steps in assessments can lead to vulnerabilities if not properly verified.
  • Caldera:
    • Reduces costs (completely free tool).
    • Automates execution of adversary simulations.
    • Simplifies remediation testing—re-run the same playbook to verify fixes.
    • Offers full transparency in every executed step, logging all actions taken.

Important Notes

  • Not advocating for elimination of third-party assessments; Caldera serves as a supplement.
  • Transparency and logging features greatly enhance the assessment process.

Additional Resources

  • Contact information for further inquiries.
  • Access to:
    • MITRE Caldera GitHub repository.
    • Full documentation.
    • Blog for additional insights.

Demo Overview

  • Demo shows high-level functionality of Caldera without going into technical specifics.
  • Key Features Demonstrated:
    • Agent management for control over victim hosts.
    • Ability to execute commands and monitor results in real-time.
    • Adversary profiles and automated attack chains (exfiltration example).
    • Reporting feature for post-operation analysis (PDF report generation).
    • Built-in training plugin for new users to learn Caldera functionalities.