Operant AI, the only Runtime AI Defense Platform, announced Woodpecker, an open-source, automated red teaming engine designed to make advanced security testing accessible to organizations of all sizes. Woodpecker targets vulnerabilities across AI systems, Kubernetes environments, and APIs — helping teams proactively secure their infrastructure against evolving cyber threats.
Why Woodpecker Matters
As enterprises adopt complex cloud-native apps and AI, security vulnerabilities are growing more sophisticated. The IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence Index 2025 highlights AI-related vulnerabilities as a critical concern. With the rise of Large Language Models (LLMs) and automated agents, red teaming—ethical hacking to simulate attacks and find vulnerabilities—is essential to defend modern infrastructures.
Democratizing Advanced Security Testing
Woodpecker brings enterprise-grade red teaming capabilities to everyone by providing:
- Simulation of over 50% of OWASP top 10 threats across APIs, Kubernetes, and AI — surpassing many commercial tools.
- Accessibility for security teams, developers, and DevOps without complex, costly setups.
- An open-source, free platform that levels the security playing field.
“Security testing at this depth should be a universal right, not a privilege reserved for those with the largest security budgets,” said Vrajesh Bhavsar, CEO of Operant AI.
Addressing Modern Threats
Woodpecker is purpose-built to test threats like:
- Prompt injection
- Data poisoning
- Model leakage
These attacks are on the rise, yet only 24% of generative AI projects are secured, according to IBM.
Woodpecker’s Core Domains
- Kubernetes Security: Detects misconfigurations, privilege escalations, and vulnerable deployments.
- API Security: Simulates attacks to uncover weaknesses in authentication, data handling, and endpoints.
- AI Security: Tests machine learning models and AI systems against prompt injections, jailbreaks, and data leakage.
“Testing across runtime, API, and AI layers is essential in today’s environment,” said Dr. Priyanka Tembey, CTO of Operant AI.
Features
- Flexible frameworks for Kubernetes, APIs, and AI models/agents.
- Automated testing for LLM vulnerabilities including prompt injection and model theft.
- Compliance mapping for OWASP top 10, MITRE ATLAS, and NIST frameworks.
- Open-source, free, with no licensing fees.
- Easy integration into existing CI/CD pipelines for continuous security testing.
Community and Future Plans
Operant AI invites security engineers and developers to contribute and help evolve proactive cybersecurity. Upcoming hackathons and developer programs will be hosted in the U.S. and India.
Operant AI’s Woodpecker makes cutting-edge red teaming accessible to all organizations, empowering them to proactively identify vulnerabilities in AI, cloud-native, and API environments. This open-source solution fosters safer AI adoption and robust cloud security across industries.
