A new open-source project called ARES offers red teams a method to conduct planned, controlled attack simulations against Active Directory and cloud systems This article explores attack simulations active. . It includes 66 active modules, with a total of 70 cataloged techniques, covering more than 60 techniques mapped to MITRE ATT&CK.

Mafifrizi releases the tool as an open-core platform, allowing access to the base tool while supporting ongoing development through a sponsorship page.

The project repository is titled "mafifrizi/ares" and is described as an autonomous red-team engagement platform that integrates MITRE ATT&CK module orchestration, attack-path solving, and reporting. Traditional penetration tests are expensive, infrequent, and only reveal vulnerabilities at a single point in time, allowing new misconfigurations to remain undetected for months. The first layer uses the operating system firewall, either Windows Defender Firewall or Linux Netfilter when the tool operates with elevated privileges.

The tool also tracks the noise level of each action, enabling operators to select quieter steps when testing without alerting the blue team. ZeroOwl recently published details on Decepticon, an open-source agent featuring 16 specialized roles. ZeroOwl detailed how hackers utilized ARTEX AI agents to map Windows networks, steal service account passwords, and attempt to infiltrate the network.

Begin by setting up a lab environment, ensuring that scope rules prevent out-of-range addresses, and thoroughly review the code before deploying it on real networks.