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Adversarial Exposure Validation

Adversarial Exposure Validation Reviews and Ratings

What is Adversarial Exposure Validation?

Gartner defines adversarial exposure validation (AEV) as technologies that deliver consistent, continuous and automated evidence of the feasibility of an attack. These technologies confirm how potential attack techniques would successfully exploit an organization and circumvent prevention and detection security controls. They achieve this by performing attack scenarios and modeling or measuring the outcome to prove the existence and exploitability of exposures. AEV is generally delivered as a SaaS solution with or without on-premises agents. AEV technologies provide automated execution of both simplified and/or extensible attack scenarios. Results data from an executed attack scenario is used for various outcomes, such as: validating a theoretical exposure as real, automating frequent controls testing, improving preventive security posture or improving detection and response capabilities.

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Picus Security Validation Platform
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Edgescan
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Pentera Platform
For 50M-1B USD Companies
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Cymulate Exposure Management Platform
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Picus Security Validation Platform
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Pentera Platform
For North America
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SafeBreach Platform
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NodeZero
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BreachLock Unified Platform
Integration & Deployment
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Edgescan
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NetSPI Penetration Testing as a Service (PTaaS)
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Cymulate Exposure Management Platform

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Cymulate Exposure Management Platform

By Cymulate

4.8
(398 Ratings)
customers choice 2025

Cymulate is an exposure management platform designed to validate threats, prioritize validated exposures, and optimize threat resilience. It continuously tests how well your security controls prevent and detect real-world attacks using an extensive, production-safe attack library mapped to the full kill chain and the MITRE ATT&CK framework. By combining these validation insights with vulnerability and asset data, Cymulate reveals what is truly exploitable and prioritizes exposures based on proven control performance, threat intel, and business context. The platform provides actionable guidance—IoCs, control updates, and new detection rules—and integrates with SIEM, XDR, EDR, and VM tools. Cymulate helps organizations ensure security controls perform as expected and focus resources on the risks that matter most.

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Burp Suite Professional

By PortSwigger

4.7
(294 Ratings)

Burp Suite Professional is a software designed for web application security testing, providing tools for vulnerability scanning, manual testing, and traffic interception. The software enables users to map and analyze application behavior, identify common security issues such as cross-site scripting and SQL injection, and automate repetitive testing tasks. Features include advanced scanning capabilities, customizable attack payloads, and integrated reporting to streamline the security assessment process. Burp Suite Professional assists organizations in detecting and managing risks within web applications, supporting compliance and providing insights to improve application security posture.

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Pentera Platform

By Pentera

4.7
(258 Ratings)

Pentera Platform is a software designed to automate the validation of security controls and identify exploitable vulnerabilities within an organization’s IT environment. The software simulates real-world cyberattacks in a controlled manner to assess the effectiveness of existing security measures across networks, endpoints, and cloud assets. It helps organizations measure security gaps, prioritize remediation efforts based on risk, and continuously improve their security posture. Pentera Platform provides actionable insights by safely replicating attacker techniques, enabling security teams to focus resources on critical weaknesses and reducing the potential impact of cyber threats.

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Picus Security Validation Platform

By Picus Security

4.8
(224 Ratings)
customers choice 2025

Picus Security Validation Platform is a software designed to assess and improve an organization’s security posture by simulating real-world cyber threats. The software evaluates the effectiveness of existing security controls, identifies vulnerabilities, and provides actionable insights to optimize detection and prevention mechanisms. By continuously testing security processes and configurations, the software helps organizations to identify gaps in defense, prioritize risk mitigation efforts, and support compliance requirements. Its key features include automated attack simulation, security control validation, detailed reporting, and integrations with various security solutions. Picus Security Validation Platform addresses the business problem of ensuring that security investments perform as expected against evolving threat landscapes, supporting organizations in maintaining an adaptive and resilient security environment.

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vPenTest

By Vonahi Security

4.5
(216 Ratings)

vPenTest is a SaaS platform by Vonahi Security, a Kaseya company, that automates internal and external network penetration testing by simulating real-world cyberattacks to identify and validate exploitable vulnerabilities across network environments. It provides comprehensive and customizable reports with technical findings, prioritized risks and remediation guidance to help organizations strengthen their security posture, maintain compliance and show measurable improvements over time. Built for managed service providers, managed security service providers and internal IT teams, vPenTest makes it easy and cost effective to perform on-demand, high quality network penetration testing with the same accuracy and depth as a manual assessment.

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RidgeBot

By Ridge Security

4.5
(147 Ratings)

RidgeBot by Ridge Security uses AI to automate security validation and provides automated penetration testing as well as continuous vulnerabilities validation. RidgeBot delivers continuous threat exposure management by automatically testing an organization’s entire Internet Protocol (IP)-based attack surfaces, including network infrastructure, applications, websites, IoT, and OT. RidgeBot pinpoints the most critical vulnerabilities (CVE based and non-CVE based) using ethical hacking techniques. RidgeBot maintains a library of over 36,000 plugins to launch complex penetration tests and attack simulations, with detailed reporting of results and remediation recommendation.

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NodeZero

By Horizon3.ai

4.7
(140 Ratings)
customers choice 2025

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero platform empowers your organization to continuously find, fix, and verify your exploitable attack surface. Reduce your security risk by autonomously finding weaknesses in your network, knowing how to prioritize and fix them, and immediately verifying that your fixes work. NodeZero delivers production-safe autonomous pentests and other key assessment operations that scale across your largest internal, external, cloud, and hybrid cloud environments. No required agents, no code to write, and no consultants to hire.

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BreachLock Unified Platform

By BreachLock

4.6
(133 Ratings)

BreachLock Penetration Testing as a Service (PTaaS) is a 100% in-house, human-led, AI and automation-accelerated solution that helps enterprises to find and fix more vulnerabilities in less time with a single, consolidated provider.

BreachLock's hybrid methodology combines the benefits of manual and automated security testing techniques to deliver the most comprehensive results possible while cutting lead times and TCO in half with limitless scalability.

The service is easy to manage from end-to-end through the secure BreachLock Client Portal, which offers a full-stack visibility dashboard, pre-prioritized remediation guidance on vulnerabilities from experts, unlimited automated re-tests to validate patches, enables DevSecOps with integrations with Jira, Slack, and Trello, downloadable, audit-ready reports for compliance requirements, and more.

BreachLock covers:

- Web Applications

- Internal and External Networks

- APIs

- Mobile Applications

- IoT

- Cloud and more.

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AttackIQ Platform

By AttackIQ

4.5
(128 Ratings)

AttackIQ Platform is a software designed to automate and manage continuous security testing for organizational cyber defense infrastructure. The software enables users to assess the effectiveness of security controls by simulating real-world cyber attacks, identifying gaps in existing protection, and providing actionable insights to improve security posture. It supports integration with other security technologies, allowing for streamlined workflows and comprehensive visibility into security processes. AttackIQ Platform helps address the business problem of validating security controls and detecting vulnerabilities, ensuring that defenses are functioning as intended while reducing risk and improving incident response capabilities.

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SafeBreach Platform

By SafeBreach

4.7
(100 Ratings)

SafeBreach Platform is a software designed to simulate breach and attack scenarios in order to assess the effectiveness of an organization’s security controls. The software enables continuous security validation by emulating a variety of attack techniques, vulnerabilities and threat vectors in real or test environments. SafeBreach Platform provides actionable insights by identifying security gaps, misconfigurations and potential vulnerabilities, allowing organizations to make informed decisions about risk mitigation and incident response. The software focuses on enhancing security posture management by integrating with existing security infrastructure, automating assessments and supporting compliance requirements. It assists security teams in validating their detection and response capabilities against emerging threats and aligning security investments with actual risk exposure.

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Metasploit

By Rapid7

4.3
(94 Ratings)

Metasploit is a software developed for penetration testing, security research, and vulnerability assessment. The software allows users to identify, validate, and exploit security vulnerabilities in networks and systems by providing a library of exploits, payloads, and auxiliary modules. Metasploit is used to simulate real-world attacks on infrastructure to enable security professionals to test the effectiveness of security measures and policies. The software supports automation, scripting, and integration with other security tools, facilitating efficient workflows in security testing and reporting. It addresses the business problem of identifying potential security weaknesses before they can be exploited by malicious actors.

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XM Cyber Exposure Management Platform

By XM Cyber

4.6
(56 Ratings)

XM Cyber Exposure Management Platform is a software designed to continuously identify, analyze, and prioritize security risks within enterprise environments. It models potential attack paths across hybrid networks, highlighting vulnerabilities and misconfigurations that could be exploited by threats. The software integrates data from multiple security tools to provide actionable insights, focusing remediation efforts on issues that pose the highest risk to critical assets. XM Cyber Exposure Management Platform aims to improve the efficiency of security operations by automating risk prioritization and streamlining incident response processes, helping organizations to mitigate threats before they can impact business operations.

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Edgescan

By Edgescan

4.6
(55 Ratings)

Edgescan is a CTEM platform that unifies five robust solutions into a single combative platform.

It delivers validated and near false positive free vulnerability intel.

1. External Attack Surface Management (EASM):

- Provides complete visibility and continuous monitoring of your external attack surface.

2. Risk-based Vulnerability Management (RBVM):

- Delivers verified risk-rated results, allowing you to prioritize remediation efforts effectively.

- Ensures that your vulnerability management efforts are efficient and targeted.

3. Application Security Testing (AST):

- Offers industrial-scale coverage for web applications.

- Provides risk- results, allowing you to address vulnerabilities in your applications.

5. Penetration Testing as a Service (PTaaS) or Web, API and Network/Cloud

- Combines human intellect, analytics, and automation.

- Helps you assess your systems from an attacker's perspective.

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AppCheck

By AppCheck

4.2
(46 Ratings)

AppCheck is a software designed for automated web application and infrastructure vulnerability scanning, identifying security weaknesses across digital assets. The software conducts comprehensive scans to detect vulnerabilities such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and misconfigurations, assisting organizations in improving their security posture. It includes features for continuous assessment, allowing users to prioritize findings and track remediation progress within the platform. AppCheck addresses the business problem of managing risks in digital environments by enabling organizations to proactively uncover and resolve security issues before they are exploited. The software supports integration with other security tools and workflows, facilitating the development of a systematic approach to vulnerability management and compliance requirements.

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Astra

By Astra Security

4.5
(45 Ratings)

Astra is a software focused on automated vulnerability scanning and penetration testing for web applications, APIs, and cloud infrastructure. The software provides continuous security monitoring by detecting security vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and compliance issues. Astra supports integration with development workflows and offers collaborative features such as vulnerability management dashboards, detailed reports, and remediation guidance. The software is designed to help businesses identify and address security risks before deployment, aiding in regulatory compliance and reducing the risk of cyber attacks. Astra caters to organizations seeking to enhance their cybersecurity posture and streamline the process of securing digital assets through automated assessments and actionable insights.

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Logo of NetSPI Penetration Testing as a Service (PTaaS)

NetSPI Penetration Testing as a Service (PTaaS)

By NetSPI

4.5
(40 Ratings)

NetSPI Penetration Testing as a Service (PTaaS) empowers Security and IT leaders in mid-market to enterprise organizations to manage security testing efficiently, ensure compliance with PCI, SOC 2, and HIPAA, and reduce risk while streamlining and scaling their penetration testing programs.

Delivered through The NetSPI Platform, NetSPI PTaaS simplifies pentest scoping, delivers real-time high-fidelity findings, and accelerates time to remediation with advanced dashboards, integrations like Jira, Asana, and ServiceNow, and comprehensive attack path visualizations that provide deep context for vulnerabilities.

NetSPI customers get the expertise of 300+ in-house security experts that have completed over 21K engagements, tested over 4M assets, and reported over 1.5M vulnerabilities. NetSPI PTaaS offerings include (but not limited to): Application, Network, Cloud, AI/ML, Hardware, Social Engineering, Blockchain, and more.

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FortiTester

By Fortinet

4.5
(38 Ratings)

FortiTester is a software designed for testing and validating the performance, scalability, and security of networks, devices, and applications. It enables organizations to simulate realistic network traffic scenarios, measure throughput, latency, and loss, and automate security testing processes. The software provides protocol emulation, stress testing, and vulnerability assessment, allowing users to identify potential weaknesses and optimize infrastructure resiliency. FortiTester supports comprehensive reporting and helps address business challenges related to ensuring network reliability and maintaining robust security postures.

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Keysight Threat Simulator

By Keysight

4.5
(32 Ratings)

Keysight Threat Simulator is a software designed to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of network security controls by simulating cyberattacks and breach scenarios within an organization’s environment. The software enables users to assess the detection and response capabilities of security infrastructures such as firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and endpoint protection platforms. By continuously testing defenses against evolving threats, the software supports organizations in identifying vulnerabilities, verifying mitigation strategies, and aligning security posture with regulatory compliance requirements. Its features include automated attack simulation, risk reporting, and actionable recommendations that support security analysts in proactively managing cyber risks and optimizing security configurations.

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Pentest-Tools.com

By Pentest-Tools.com

4.5
(29 Ratings)

Pentest-Tools.com is a software designed to assist security professionals in identifying and addressing vulnerabilities within networks, web applications, and IT infrastructure. The software offers features such as automated and manual penetration testing tools, vulnerability scanning, asset discovery, and reporting capabilities. It enables users to perform reconnaissance, exploit weaknesses, and assess the security posture of various digital assets. By providing insight into potential security gaps, it enables organizations to enhance their defensive strategies and reduce exposure to cyber threats. The software supports compliance requirements and helps address the business problem of securing information systems from unauthorized access and data breaches.

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Strobes Security

By Strobes Security

4.5
(22 Ratings)

Strobes ASPM is a software designed to streamline application security posture management for organizations by integrating with various development and security tools. The software enables visibility into security vulnerabilities across code, cloud, and infrastructure assets, automating vulnerability detection, prioritization, and remediation workflows. It offers features such as risk scoring, compliance tracking, and real-time reporting to help security teams address vulnerabilities efficiently and meet regulatory requirements. Strobes ASPM helps automate processes for managing application security risks, assisting businesses in maintaining secure development cycles and reducing exposure to threats.

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Features of Adversarial Exposure Validation

Updated July 2025

Mandatory Features:

  • Providing empirical results about an organization’s defensive posture as it relates to various attack techniques and scenarios. The validation results data should greatly improve upon other more theoretical data (such as vulnerability data) and give insights into urgently needed changes.

  • Ability to scale defensive testing with vendor-supplied attack scenarios that require little to no hacking knowledge to execute and obtain results data.

  • Automated scheduling for increased testing frequency without the need for human intervention, helping to reduce errors and improve trending measurability data for exposure management and defensive operations.

  • Performing attack scenarios for multiple threat vectors, including but not limited to: malware, email, application infrastructure, and application and identity abuses. Delivered outputs include: security-framework-aligned reporting, attack scoring, and prioritized lists of attack scenario findings with estimated impact and suggested remediation actions.

Gartner Research

Market Guide for Adversarial Exposure Validation
Gartner Peer Insights 'Voice of the Customer': Adversarial Exposure Validation

Top Trending Products

Pentera PlatformAttackIQ PlatformBreachLock Unified PlatformPicus Security Validation PlatformCymulate Exposure Management PlatformXM Cyber Exposure Management PlatformSafeBreach Platform

Popular Product Comparisons

NodeZero vs Pentera PlatformCymulate Exposure Management Platform vs Picus Security Validation PlatformPentera Platform vs Picus Security Validation PlatformCymulate Exposure Management Platform vs Pentera PlatformAttackIQ Platform vs Picus Security Validation PlatformNodeZero vs vPenTest

Gartner Peer Insights content consists of the opinions of individual end users based on their own experiences, and should not be construed as statements of fact, nor do they represent the views of Gartner or its affiliates. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in this content nor makes any warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this content, about its accuracy or completeness, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

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