Study guide
18.2 Breach and Attack Simulation (Caldera, Infection Monkey, Atomic Red Team)
CompTIA PenTest+ PT0-003
Track your progress as you read
Finished sections get a check mark.
1 Introduction & Exam Overview
1.1 Current PT0-003 Exam Facts 1.2 Format, PBQs, Scoring, and Retake Policy 1.3 Recertification, CEUs, and Career Fit
2 Pre-Engagement Planning
2.1 Scope, Rules of Engagement, and Agreements 2.2 Target Selection and Assessment Types 2.3 Shared Responsibility, Legal Authorization, and Ethics
3 Collaboration, Frameworks, and Threat Modeling
3.1 Collaboration, Escalation, and Stakeholder Communication 3.2 Testing Frameworks and Methodologies 3.3 Threat Modeling: STRIDE, DREAD, and OCTAVE
4 Reporting and Remediation
4.1 Penetration Test Report Components 4.2 Findings Analysis and Remediation Recommendations
5 Information Gathering
5.1 Active vs Passive Reconnaissance 5.2 OSINT Sources and Techniques 5.3 DNS, Certificate Transparency, and Search Engine Enumeration 5.4 Network Recon, Protocol Scanning, Sniffing, and Banner Grabbing
6 Enumeration Techniques
6.1 OS Fingerprinting, Service Discovery, and Host Discovery 6.2 DNS, Directory, Share, and Account Enumeration 6.3 Secrets, Permissions, and Wireless Enumeration 6.4 WAF Enumeration, Web Crawling, and Attack Path Mapping
7 Recon Scripting and Tools
7.1 Modifying Bash, Python, and PowerShell for Recon 7.2 Recon and Enumeration Tools
8 Vulnerability Scan Types
8.1 Network, Host, Authenticated, and Wireless Scans 8.2 SAST, DAST, IAST, SCA, IaC, and Mobile Scans 8.3 Container, Secrets, and ICS Vulnerability Assessment 8.4 Core Vulnerability Scanners (Nessus, OpenVAS, Nikto)
9 Scan Analysis and Physical Security
9.1 Specialized Discovery Tools 9.2 Validating Scan, Recon, and Enumeration Results 9.3 Public Exploit Selection and Scripted Validation 9.4 Physical Security Concepts for PenTests
10 Attack Prioritization and Preparation
10.1 Target Prioritization: CVSS, CVE, CWE, and EPSS 10.2 Exploit Selection, Customization, and Attack Documentation
11 Network Attacks
11.1 On-Path, VLAN Hopping, Relay, and Multihomed Hosts 11.2 Default Credentials, Misconfigured Services, Packet Crafting, and Certificate Services
12 Authentication Attacks
12.1 Pass-the-Hash, Pass-the-Ticket, Pass-the-Token, and Kerberos Attacks 12.2 Password Attacks, MFA Fatigue, LDAP Injection, OIDC, and SAML
13 Host-Based Attacks
13.1 Privilege Escalation and Credential Dumping 13.2 Process Injection, Security Bypass, and Host Attack Tools
14 Web Application Attacks
14.1 SQL, Command, XSS, and SSTI Injection 14.2 CSRF, SSRF, Deserialization, IDOR, and Directory Traversal 14.3 LFI/RFI, Web Shells, API Abuse, JWT, and Session Hijacking
15 Cloud Attacks
15.1 IAM Misconfiguration, Metadata Service, and Exposed Storage 15.2 Container Escape, Supply Chain, and Cloud Attack Tools
16 Wireless and Social Engineering
16.1 Wireless Attacks and Tools 16.2 Phishing, Spearphishing, Whaling, Vishing, and Smishing 16.3 Physical Social Engineering and SE Tools
17 Specialized Systems
17.1 Mobile Attacks and AI Prompt/Model Attacks 17.2 OT/ICS, NFC, RFID, and Bluetooth Attacks
18 Attack Scripting and BAS
18.1 PowerShell, Python, and Bash Attack Automation 18.2 Breach and Attack Simulation (Caldera, Infection Monkey, Atomic Red Team)
19 Persistence
19.1 Scheduled Tasks, Services, Accounts, and Shells 19.2 C2, Backdoors, Rootkits, and Security-Control Tampering
20 Lateral Movement
20.1 Pivoting, Relays, and Additional Credential Capture 20.2 Remote Services: SMB, RDP, WinRM, WMI, SSH, and Others 20.3 Lateral Movement Tools and LOLbins
21 Exfiltration and Cleanup
21.1 Staging and Exfiltration 21.2 Cleanup, Restoration, and Artifact Preservation
18.2 Breach and Attack Simulation (Caldera, Infection Monkey, Atomic Red Team)
Key Takeaways Explain This Topic AI
BAS (Caldera, Infection Monkey, Atomic Red Team) continuously or on-demand executes known TTPs to test whether controls detect or block them; a pentest is a time-boxed human-led engagement and is not the same thing.
Atomic Red Team is a small, focused test of one MITRE ATT&CK technique — a unit check for a detection rule, not a campaign platform.
Caldera is MITRE's adversary-emulation platform: agents, abilities, and chained TTP campaigns, not a single atomic and not Impacket.
Infection Monkey is breach-and-spread simulation: how far a planted agent can propagate, used to test segmentation and east-west controls.
BAS still needs written RoE; published MITRE tests do not authorize production runs, and Infection Monkey in particular can be noisy if spread is allowed.
Last updated: August 2026
The rest of PT0-003 4.10 is breach and attack simulation (BAS) . CompTIA names three tools: Caldera , Infection Monkey , and Atomic Red Team . This is still a matching exam, plus one conceptual split that recycles on test day: BAS is not a penetration test . Domain 4 remains 35 percent of the exam. 18.1 matched PowerShell, Python, and Bash libraries to attack jobs. This section matches a BAS product to the size of the control test, then refuses to let BAS cancel RoE or cancel the pentest.
BAS versus a pentest
Breach and attack simulation continuously or on-demand executes known tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) — usually mapped to MITRE ATT&CK — so the client can see whether controls detect or block them. The tests are repeatable . Yesterday's Atomic test can run again after an endpoint detection and response (EDR) tune. The goal is control validation: did the alert fire, did the allow-list hold, did segmentation stop the spread.
A penetration test is a time-boxed, human-led engagement. The tester uses judgment, chains findings unique to example.com, and looks for unknown paths the playbook did not list. A pentest can still use the 18.1 scripts. It is not a scheduled library of known TTPs. CompTIA is scoring whether you can tell those jobs apart when leadership says "we already simulate breaches."
When you pick BAS: the stem wants continuous or on-demand control testing, purple-team detection checks, or "did EDR see T1059.001." When you pick a pentest: the stem wants a scoped, time-boxed assessment that finds what the playbooks missed. Exam trap: "we installed Atomic Red Team, so we do not need a pentest." Trap two: "the pentest team should only run Caldera and never think." BAS and pentests complement . Neither one writes the other's report, and neither one cancels RoE.
Purple-team programs often run BAS beside the pentest: security engineering owns the repeatable tests, the security operations center (SOC) watches detections, and the pentest team still arrives for the engagement window. If the stem mixes those roles, name the activity first (control test versus human-led assessment), then name the tool.
Atomic Red Team: one MITRE technique
Atomic Red Team is a library of small tests , each mapped to one MITRE ATT&CK technique (and often a sub-technique). You run a single atomic — for example a test tagged to T1059.001 (PowerShell) — and you watch whether logging, EDR, or a SIEM rule fires. Scale is unit test . It is not a campaign. It is not a worm. It does not replace PowerView, Impacket, or a two-week SoW.
When you pick it: "test this one technique," "validate a detection rule," "small, focused ATT&CK test." When you do not: emulate a full adversary profile with chained abilities ( Caldera ), or ask how far a breach can propagate ( Infection Monkey ). Exam trap: calling Atomic Red Team an adversary-emulation platform . It is a test library . Trap two: calling every PowerShell script an Atomic test. 18.1 PowerSploit automation is still PowerShell attack scripting. Atomic Red Team is BAS, and only when the stem is a mapped MITRE unit check.
The report line for an atomic is boring on purpose: technique identifier, host, timestamp, whether the control fired. That is a detection-engineering artifact. It is not a pentest finding with CVSS, business impact, and a unique attack path through example.com.
Caldera: adversary emulation platform
Caldera (MITRE) is an adversary emulation platform . You deploy agents , select abilities (techniques), and run an adversary profile that can chain TTPs into a campaign. Operators schedule or trigger operations; the platform walks a playbook against in-scope hosts. Scale is campaign , not one atomic.
When you pick it: the stem says adversary emulation, automated campaign, agent-based platform, or MITRE Caldera. When you do not: a one-line test of a single technique (Atomic Red Team), or a worm-like "see how far we spread" (Infection Monkey). Exam trap: Caldera is not Impacket. It is not PowerSploit. It is not Scapy. Those automate a protocol or a module. Caldera orchestrates known adversary behaviors to test whether the blue team sees the chain. Trap two: treating Caldera as the pentest. A Caldera operation still executes known abilities. The pentest is still the human-led search for what the profile never encoded.
Caldera's agents need a place to run. That place must be in-scope . An agent on a kiosk is not permission to hop into payroll because the default profile includes a lateral-movement ability. Disable or constrain abilities the RoE forbids. 4.10 is matching the platform; Domain 1 still owns authorization.
Infection Monkey: breach-and-spread
Infection Monkey is a breach-and-spread simulation . After you plant the monkey (an agent) on an authorized starting host, it tries to propagate using known techniques to map how far a breach can go . The picture is ransomware-style or worm-style movement for segmentation and lateral-movement controls , not a written pentest report and not a single ATT&CK unit test.
When you pick it: "how far from this foothold," "test east-west spread," "breach-and-spread," "can a kiosk reach finance." When you do not: one ATT&CK unit test (Atomic Red Team), or a multi-technique adversary playbook platform (Caldera). Exam trap: Infection Monkey is not a malware sample you submit as a finding. It is a simulator the client authorizes. Trap two: treating spread as Domain 5 pivoting that the tester performs by hand. Domain 5 is the human-led movement after a pentest foothold. Infection Monkey is BAS asking whether controls contain an automated spread.
Infection Monkey is noisy when spread is allowed. It will touch more hosts than an atomic. That is the point of the product — and the reason RoE must name the start host, the stop conditions, and the VLANs that are off-limits. If finance is out of scope, do not plant a monkey whose job is to find finance.
Still need rules of engagement
BAS does not get a free pass because the tests are published. Running Atomic Red Team, Caldera, or Infection Monkey against production without written authorization is still unauthorized testing. RoE must name the systems, the window, the techniques that are allowed, and what is forbidden (for example, no production data destruction, no domain-wide worm). Infection Monkey in particular can touch many hosts if spread is allowed — that must be explicit.
Exam trap: "Atomic tests are MITRE, so they are always in scope." MITRE publishes the catalog. The client publishes the RoE. Trap two: "continuous BAS means we can run it any afternoon." Continuous still sits inside a standing authorization: named owners, named environments, named blast radius. A SoW that authorized a two-week pentest of the user VLAN did not silently authorize Infection Monkey on the SQL cluster.
Tool Job on 4.10 Scale Pick when the stem says Exam trap
Atomic Red Team Small test of one MITRE technique Unit One T-code, detection-rule check Calling it a campaign platform
- Caldera Adversary emulation platform Campaign Agents, abilities, chained TTPs Calling it Impacket or a worm
- Infection Monkey Breach-and-spread simulation Propagation How far can a breach go Calling it the pentest
Pentest (not BAS) Time-boxed human-led engagement Engagement Unknown paths, scoped assessment Replacing it with Atomic tests
Worked example.com BAS
example.com already booked a two-week pentest. Meanwhile the SOC wants to know whether the new EDR rule for PowerShell script-block logging fires. That is Atomic Red Team against one in-scope workstation, in a change window, with RoE that names that host. Leadership then asks whether a ransomware-like agent could reach the finance VLAN from a kiosk. That is Infection Monkey , only if RoE allows spread and names the start and stop points. A quarterly purple-team operation that chains several ATT&CK techniques through agents is Caldera . None of those three is the two-week pentest. If someone runs Infection Monkey on finance servers this afternoon because "BAS is continuous," and the statement of work never authorized it, that is an authorization failure — the same failure as an out-of-scope Nmap.
Match the size of the test to the product, then keep the product inside RoE. Atomic is one technique. Caldera is a campaign platform. Infection Monkey is spread. A pentest is still the human-led engagement. When you drill 4.10 matching items — PowerView versus PowerUpSQL, Impacket versus Scapy, Atomic versus Caldera versus Infection Monkey, BAS versus pentest — use the free PenTest+ practice questions . PT0-003 grades whether you can pick the library or BAS tool for the job, notice Constrained Language Mode and execution policy as speed bumps, and keep BAS inside RoE.