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BackWhat is Purple teaming?
Purple teaming is the collaborative practice of bringing offensive and defensive security teams together to test, measure, and improve an organization’s security capabilities. Instead of working independently, red team and blue team members share knowledge throughout the exercise to validate security controls, improve detections, and strengthen incident response.
Unlike a traditional penetration test or red team engagement, where findings are typically shared at the end, it encourages continuous collaboration. As attack techniques are executed, defenders observe, analyze, tune detections, and verify whether security controls perform as expected.
How it works
Purple teaming follows a structured process that focuses on validating an organization’s ability to detect and respond to real-world attack techniques.
| Phase | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Planning | Define objectives, scope, assets, and success criteria |
| Attack selection | Choose adversary techniques based on organizational risks |
| Adversary emulation | Simulate realistic attacker behavior in a controlled environment |
| Detection testing | Evaluate whether security controls detect the simulated activity |
| Collaboration | Share findings between offensive and defensive teams in real time |
| Improvement | Tune detections, update controls, and validate remediation |
Each phase builds on the previous one, allowing organizations to continuously improve their security posture.
Key activities
Purple teaming combines offensive testing with defensive validation to improve operational readiness.
Common activities include:
- Planning realistic attack scenarios based on business risks.
- Selecting attack techniques that reflect current threat intelligence.
- Emulating adversary behavior in controlled environments.
- Testing detection rules across security tools.
- Sharing observations between red and blue teams throughout the exercise.
- Validating remediation after security improvements are implemented.
This collaborative approach helps organizations identify not only security gaps but also opportunities to improve detection and response.
Tools and frameworks
Purple teaming relies on established frameworks and security tools to ensure exercises are consistent and measurable.
| Tool or framework | Purpose |
|---|---|
| MITRE ATT&CK | Maps attacker tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) |
| Atomic Red Team | Executes individual ATT&CK techniques for testing |
| Caldera | Automates adversary emulation exercises |
| Detection engineering tools | Validate and tune security detections |
| SIEM and XDR platforms | Monitor, investigate, and respond to simulated attacks |
The MITRE ATT&CK framework is commonly used to plan exercises, map detections, and measure security coverage against known adversary behaviors.
How Hexnode supports purple teaming
Hexnode XDR helps security teams validate detection and response capabilities during purple teaming exercises. It provides centralized visibility into endpoint telemetry, security events, incidents, and MITRE ATT&CK mappings, allowing defenders to verify whether simulated attack techniques are detected and investigated effectively.
Hexnode XDR also supports incident investigation and response actions such as endpoint isolation. These capabilities help organizations measure the effectiveness of endpoint security controls, improve detection logic, and validate remediation efforts throughout purple teaming engagements.
FAQs
A red team exercise focuses on simulating realistic attacks with limited interaction between attackers and defenders. Purple teaming emphasizes continuous collaboration so both teams can improve detections and security controls during the exercise.
Many organizations perform purple teaming quarterly, after major infrastructure changes, or following significant updates to their security tools. The frequency should align with the organization’s risk profile and security maturity.