Real penetration testing and adversary emulation cost $30,000–$80,000 at legacy consultancies primarily because manual operator hours dominate the invoice. We use autonomous multi-agent pipelines for initial reconnaissance, attack-path correlation, and documentation — while reserving certified human operators for high-risk exploitation gates. Zero AI hallucination, 100% human control.
Red Teaming assessments strictly require no fewer than 2 agents running 2 separate applications, then a 3rd Human verification process before any active offensive action occurs.
Autonomous multi-tool reconnaissance pipeline mapping perimeter assets, active services, and candidate MITRE ATT&CK attack paths at machine speed.
An independent compliance application that validates all proposed targets against client-signed RoE boundaries, CIDR exclusions, and killswitch thresholds.
A certified human offensive operator reviews and authorizes Gate 1 (initial exploit) and Gate 2 (lateral movement) using cryptographic MFA before any packet transmits.
Legacy consultancies charge $30k–$80k for manual red teams, while autonomous AI platforms like NodeZero run up to $59.7k/year without human logic oversight. Hydrenyx Security combines autonomous speed with certified human safeguards:
| Competitor | Typical Pricing (2026) | Architecture Model | Exploitation Safeguards |
|---|---|---|---|
| Horizon3.ai NodeZero | $18,600 median ARR (up to $59,720+ / 500 assets) | Autonomous algorithm only (no human pentester) | Automated non-destructive heuristics |
| Bishop Fox Red Team | $30,000–$80,000+ per engagement | Manual consultant team (weeks of scheduling) | Manual consultant discretion |
| Rhino Security Labs | $30,000–$65,000 per engagement | Manual red team engagement | Manual operator boundaries |
| Hydrenyx Security Red Team | $899/mo (Continuous) • from $4,999 (Engagement) | 2 Agents (2 Apps) + 3rd Human Verification | MFA-Gated Human Approval on Every Exploit |
Every simulated adversary technique is cataloged against the MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Framework, providing immediate telemetry to your defensive Blue Team.
| Phase | Tactics Simulated | Tooling & Infrastructure | Defensive Detection Verification |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reconnaissance | T1595 (Active Scanning), T1596 (Search Open Technical Databases), T1589 (Gather Victim Identity Info) | Passive DNS, Amass, Nmap, Certificate Transparency | Firewall threshold alarms, external monitoring logs |
| Initial Access | T1190 (Exploit Public-Facing Application), T1078 (Valid Accounts), T1133 (External Remote Services) | Verified PoCs, Chisel tunneling, Sliver C2 | WAF block logs, SIEM anomaly alerts, authentication failure telemetry |
| Execution & Persistence | T1059 (Command and Scripting Interpreter), T1543 (Create or Modify System Process) | Non-destructive payload tokens, custom agent beacons | EDR process tree telemetry, host integrity alerts |
| Privilege Escalation | T1068 (Exploitation for Privilege Escalation), T1548 (Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism) | Kernel exploit check, sudo misconfiguration check | Host auditd, Windows Security Event 4672/4673 |
| Lateral Movement | T1021 (Remote Services), T1550 (Use Alternate Authentication Material) | Pass-the-hash, SSH key hopping (MFA-gated) | Network flow anomalies, internal zero-trust segmentation logs |
Benchmarked against boutique consultancies ($30k–$80k) and continuous automated platforms ($12k–$35k/yr).
Constrained adversary simulation testing external foothold, defensive detection, and EDR response.
Continuous adversary simulation on 1 primary corporate domain or application environment.
Multi-target continuous adversary simulation across complex cloud, on-prem, and subsidiary scopes.