For Heads-of · Practitioner

MITRE ATLAS

Also known as: ATLAS · Adversarial Threat Landscape for Artificial-Intelligence Systems

MITRE's knowledge base of the tactics and techniques adversaries use against AI systems, modelled on the MITRE ATT&CK framework for conventional cyber attacks and built from real-world case studies and red-team findings.

  • MITRE
  • ATLAS
  • threat modelling
  • ATT&CK
  • adversarial machine learning

What it contains

Tactics (the adversary's goal at each stage, from reconnaissance to impact), techniques (how each goal is achieved, such as prompt injection, model extraction or data poisoning), mitigations, and documented case studies. The September 2026 release lists 16 tactics and 120 techniques. Coverage of AI agents has grown fastest, with techniques such as AI agent tool poisoning added in 2026.

How it differs from OWASP

The OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications names categories of weakness and what to do about them, which suits a risk register. ATLAS catalogues specific adversary techniques, which suits threat modelling, detection engineering and red-team planning. Security teams already using ATT&CK can extend the same workflow to AI.

Using it

Map the AI systems in scope to the ATLAS techniques that apply, check each against detection and prevention controls, and use the result to scope AI red teaming. A technique with no control is a candidate for the register's adversarial testing coverage gap, which adversarial robustness testing closes.

Sources

Related Terms

Related risks and controls

← Back to Glossary