Paladin AI

Paladin is TurboPentest's multi-agent agentic pentesting engine, powered by Anthropic's Claude API. Phase 1 tools gather reconnaissance data - Paladin is where the actual penetration test happens. It deploys specialist AI agents as a parallel swarm, each focused on a specific vulnerability domain, to conduct exploit validation, discover attack chains, generate proof-of-concept demonstrations, and produce a comprehensive security assessment. Running tools is just the beginning; Paladin is what makes this an agentic pentest rather than just a scan.

Model tier

Paladin runs on Anthropic's Claude API across a three-model tier, matched to each agent's workload:

Paladin has no semantic version number - it ships with the web app (Promote to Staging, then Swap to Prod).

Multi-Agent Architecture

Paladin uses a tiered agent swarm where the number and type of specialist agents scales with the credit tier:

The nine specialists are: web, api, infrastructure, code, crypto, auth, business logic, supply chain, and AI/LLM Security Analyst. The AI/LLM specialist has no depth duplicate in the Adversarial-Depth tier.

How Paladin Works

Paladin runs in-process on the web tier after the Phase 1 tools complete (all 14 in white-box mode, 11 in black-box mode). Orchestration follows a supervisor to swarm to synthesis flow:

1. Supervisor and Phase 1 Output Ingestion

A supervisor reads the raw Phase 1 output from Azure Blob Storage and injects the authorized-domain scope before dispatching the swarm:

• Open port discovery (Port Scanner)
• Web vulnerability findings (Web Scanner, Server Audit, Vuln Scanner)
• TLS/SSL configuration issues (TLS Analyzer)
• Subdomain and HTTP endpoint discovery (Sub Hunter, Web Probe)
• Directory and file exposure (Enumerator)
• WAF detection results (WAF Detect)
• Vulnerability assessment results (Net Scanner)
• Additional multi-tool analysis (Security Checks)
• Secret detection in source code (Secret Scanner) - white box only
• Static analysis findings (Code Scanner) - white box only
• Dependency vulnerabilities (Dep Scanner) - white box only

2. Parallel Specialist Swarm

Paladin dispatches specialist agents for different vulnerability domains, running concurrently and coordinating through a shared blackboard:

• Web App Agent - XSS, CSRF, injection, session management, input validation
• API Security Agent - IDOR, auth flaws, rate limiting, GraphQL, REST misconfigurations
• Infrastructure Agent - Open ports, service misconfigurations, outdated software, cloud exposure
• Code Analysis Agent - SAST findings, leaked secrets, dependency vulnerabilities (white box only)
• Crypto/TLS Agent - Weak ciphers, certificate issues, HSTS, key management
• Auth/Access Agent - Authentication bypass, privilege escalation, broken access control
• Business Logic Agent - Race conditions, workflow bypass, data integrity
• Supply Chain Agent - Dependency risks, third-party vulnerabilities, component security
• AI/LLM Security Analyst - prompt injection and AI-specific risks, mapping to the OWASP LLM Top 10 2025, OWASP AI Testing Guide, and MITRE ATLAS

In the Threat-Hunt tier all nine specialists run; the Adversarial-Depth tier adds:

• Depth agents - Duplicate breadth specialists that go deeper on findings with detailed exploit chains and PoCs (the AI/LLM specialist has no depth duplicate)
• Exploit Chain Agent - Identifies multi-step attack paths by chaining findings from other agents
• Verification Agent - Confirms severity ratings, PoC reproducibility, and CVSS accuracy

Agents run their own active-testing tools - http_request, raw_http, a real browser, run_command in a Kali toolbox container, dns_lookup, and more - and every posted finding requires a proof-of-concept. Denial-of-service testing is on a hard blocklist. When source code is provided (white box mode), agents read the code to guide their attack strategy, targeting specific code-level weaknesses identified by static analysis.

3. Retest, Closer, and Synthesis

Bounded retest and closer passes run before synthesis - re-verifying prior findings against a live oracle and tying off open threads. Paladin then correlates findings across Phase 1 tools and agent results:

• An open port found by Port Scanner + a vulnerability on that service confirmed by an agent = validated critical finding
• A weak TLS configuration from TLS Analyzer + an exposed admin panel from Enumerator = elevated risk assessment
• A hardcoded secret from Secret Scanner + an exposed endpoint confirmed exploitable = critical credential exposure

Finding fingerprints enable continuity tracking across pentests - when a target is pentested again, previous findings are re-evaluated and tracked as new, confirmed, or retest_confirmed.

Blackboard coordination

Agents coordinate through a blackboard: a Redis-backed shared workspace (Upstash in production) scoped per scan, with a PostgreSQL AgentActivity fallback via circuit breaker. The blackboard drives the live SSE activity view users watch during a scan.

Structured Output

Paladin produces a JSON report containing:

• Findings - Each with severity (Critical/High/Medium/Low/Info), description, proof-of-concept, CWE ID, CVSS score, and remediation steps
• Attack surface map - Categorized inventory of endpoints, ports, technologies, authentication mechanisms, and input vectors
• Threat model - STRIDE-based risk assessment with prioritized recommendations

Benchmark

TurboPentest is currently being validated against the XBOW Validation Benchmark (104 CTF-style challenges). Results will be published when testing completes - no scores until we've earned them.

What Paladin Can and Cannot Do

Paladin excels at:

• Conducting the actual penetration test after Phase 1 tools gather reconnaissance data
• Validating exploits and generating proof-of-concept demonstrations for confirmed vulnerabilities
• Discovering multi-step attack chains by correlating findings across up to 14 Phase 1 tools
• Code-aware attack targeting when source code is provided
• Prioritizing vulnerabilities by exploitability and business impact
• Tracking finding continuity across repeat pentests via fingerprinting
• Generating compliance-ready documentation with CVSS scores and remediation steps

Paladin does not replace:

• Manual penetration testing for complex business logic flaws requiring domain expertise
• Social engineering or physical security assessments
• Denial-of-service testing (hard blocklist)
• Zero-day vulnerability research
• Network-internal lateral movement testing

For comprehensive assessments that go beyond automated tooling, IntegSec offers PTaaS (Penetration Testing as a Service).