In this lesson,
we're going to talk about Atomic Red Team
and how it can help you simulate real-world attacks
to test your security defenses.
Atomic Red Team is an open-source tool that makes it easier
for you to see how your network would hold up
against specific techniques used by attackers.
It's designed to be simple to use, allowing you
to run small focused tests-known as "atomic tests"-
that mimic real world attacks
without needing a lot of setup or specialized knowledge.
Let's start by understanding
what Atomic Red Team is all about.
This tool is based on the MITRE ATT&CK framework,
which is a comprehensive list of the tactics
and techniques that attackers use.
Atomic Red Team breaks these down into individual tests
that you can run to see
if your security controls are doing the job.
These tests are small and focused,
which is why they're called "atomic."
Each one is designed to test a specific technique
like privilege escalation,
lateral movement, or data exfiltration.
Using Atomic Red Team is very straightforward.
You don't need to deploy complex infrastructure
or write custom scripts.
Instead, you can simply run a command
to execute a test and see the results.
This makes it useful for all proficiency levels,
whether you're just getting started with security testing
or you're an experienced penetration tester
looking to validate specific controls.
Now, let's go through a few examples
to show you how Atomic Red Team works in practice.
Suppose you want to test if your network's defenses
can detect when an attacker
tries to dump passwords from memory.
In Atomic Red Team, there's a test for that,
specifically mapped to the technique of credential dumping.
To run this test, you will use a command like this,
Invoke-AtomicTest T1003.001 -TestNumbers 1.
Now in this command,
T1003.001 refers to the specific technique
for credential dumping using LSASS memory,
and - TestNumbers 1 tells Atomic Red Team
to run the first test associated with that technique.
When you execute this command,
it will simulate an attacker
trying to dump credentials from memory,
and you can check if your security tools
detect this activity.
Let's take a look at another example.
Maybe you want to test your defenses against the use
of PowerShell for executing malicious scripts.
Atomic Red Team has a test for that as well.
You can run a command like this,
Invoke-AtomicTest T1059.001 -TestNumbers 2.
Now here, T1059.001 is the technique for using PowerShell
to execute commands, and the -TestNumbers2
specifies the second test under this technique.
This command simulates an attacker
running a malicious PowerShell script,
allowing you to see if your defenses
pick up on this activity.
If you're concerned about attackers using scheduled tests
to maintain persistence on your network,
Atomic Red Team can help you with that too.
You might run, Invoke-AtomicTest T1053.005 -TestNumbers 1.
In this case, the T1053.005 corresponds to the technique
of using scheduled tasks for persistence,
and this test will simulate the creation of a scheduled task
that could be used by an attacker
to maintain access to your network.
The simplicity of Atomic Red Team lies in the fact
that each of these commands
is designed to run with minimal setup.
You can see the results almost immediately,
which makes it easier to identify gaps in your defenses
and take action to fix them.
So remember, Atomic Red Team is a powerful tool
that lets you test specific parts of your network defenses
against real world attack techniques.
By running these small focused tests,
you can quickly see where your security controls are strong
and where they might need improvement.
It's an approachable way to make sure your network
is ready to handle the kinds of attacks
that you're most concerned about.