Minion by NSS Labs

Gain assurance with control effectiveness validation

Minion by NSS Labs is a managed cybersecurity testing platform that delivers independent, evidence-based validation of security technologies under real-world threat conditions — repeatable, comparable, and audit-defensible.

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Noise in → Signal out

IndependentThird-party validation by NSS Labs
ManagedNo internal test lab required
RepeatableVersioned, ground-truthed results
How it Works

How Minion works

A distributed testing architecture — operated entirely by NSS Labs — drives every engagement through the same disciplined, version-controlled workflow.

STEP 1

Test definition

NSS Labs curates structured test recipes — targets, threat scenarios, and expected outcomes — from published methodologies.

STEP 2

Job distribution

The controller breaks scenarios into jobs and dispatches them to stateless worker agents across the appliances.

STEP 3

Test execution

Workers run exploits, malware, evasions, and benign traffic against the system under test and capture every response.

STEP 4

Results & telemetry

PCAPs, logs, alerts, and performance data are collected and normalized into structured, ground-truthed results.

STEP 5

Reporting & analytics

Metrics are mapped into executive summaries and technical scorecards — with trending and comparison over time.

Threat contentWhat gets tested
Each program subjects the system under test to a statistically meaningful corpus of real-world conditions, with every test case run a minimum of three times for consistency. Content is version-controlled so results stay repeatable and audit-aligned, and is continuously refreshed so it cannot be gamed.
ExploitsEvasionsFalse positivesTraffic replay (PCAP)Performance & latency
DeploymentIn your environment
Minion ships as compact 1RU appliances that install in minutes: connect to power, to the internet, and to the system under test, then start testing. A client appliance and a server appliance typically sit on either side of the target — which can be a single component or an entire security stack — and can run on its own isolated subnet.
On-premPublic cloudCo-locatedLab / testbed
ConnectivityLow-friction & safe
Outbound internet only: internet connections for false-positive testing of live apps (that can be optionally disabled) and over an encrypted WireGuard tunnel used solely for orchestration, content updates, and results. No inbound firewall changes are required. Options exist for highly restricted environments, including LTE connectivity, with an air-gapped mode in development.
Delivery modelToday → roadmap
Today, Minion is a managed service: NSS Labs ships the appliances and runs tests on request, returning a standardized effectiveness scorecard. On the roadmap: a self-service UI and REST API for test selection, filtering, and CI/CD integration, plus interactive dashboards, historical trending, and printable executive and audit-ready reports.
What you receiveOutputs
An executive overview of critical findings, a standardized security-effectiveness scorecard, and clear, comparable results aligned to NSS Labs methodologies — an objective baseline you can share with leadership, auditors, and partners. Optional packet-level (PCAP) capture is available for deep analysis.

Stop trusting the claim. Start measuring the signal.

Run a focused trial on one high-priority control area and produce an effectiveness report that your security, risk and audit stakeholders will accept as evidence.

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