Self-Service Scheduling for Autonomous Penetration Tests

How to independently configure and schedule Hannibal autonomous penetration tests from AI Settings without requiring Praetorian involvement.

Self-Service Scheduling for Autonomous Penetration Tests

Customers can configure and schedule Hannibal autonomous penetration tests directly from AI Settings, without routing requests through Praetorian. The Scheduled Penetration Tests card lets you define hunt mandates, guardrails, severity targets, and source profiles on your own timeline.

Prerequisites

  • Your organization must have the Hannibal autonomous penetration testing capability enabled.
  • You must have sufficient permissions to access Settings > AI Settings.

Configure a Scheduled Penetration Test

  1. Navigate to Settings > AI Settings.

  2. Locate the Scheduled Penetration Tests card.

  3. Click the card to expand it in place. The card reveals the full configuration panel — no separate modal opens.

  4. Set the following options:

    Option

    Description

    Hunt Mandate

    Defines the objective and scope Hannibal pursues during the test run.

    Guardrails

    Constraints that limit the actions Hannibal may take (e.g., off-limits hosts or techniques).

    Severity Targets

    The minimum finding severity levels the test should focus on or report.

    Source Profiles

    The asset sources and credential profiles Hannibal uses as starting points.

  5. Review your configuration, then save or schedule the test.

Schedule a Recurring Test

After expanding the Scheduled Penetration Tests card, use the scheduling controls to define a recurrence cadence. The test runs automatically at the configured interval without manual intervention.

Automatic Findings Validation (Cato)

The Automatic Findings Validation card in AI Settings follows the same accordion layout as Scheduled Penetration Tests. Expand the card to review or adjust Cato's validation configuration. Both AI-driven capabilities are configured consistently within the same settings area.

Behavior and Limitations

  • Autonomous tests run against your environment using the sources and guardrails you specify. Ensure guardrails are set appropriately before enabling scheduled runs.
  • Findings generated by Hannibal appear in the standard Findings workflow and are subject to your organization's triage process.
  • Scheduling and configuration changes take effect on the next scheduled run unless a test is launched immediately.