Carbon Black

What is Carbon Black?

Carbon Black, now VMware Carbon Black following the 2019 acquisition, is an industry-leading endpoint detection and response (EDR) platform that provides comprehensive visibility into endpoint activities and advanced threat protection. Originally founded in 2002 as Bit9, the company pioneered application whitelisting before evolving into a full-spectrum endpoint security solution trusted by thousands of organizations worldwide.

The platform combines next-generation antivirus (NGAV) capabilities with behavioral analytics and endpoint detection and response, creating a unified solution that prevents, detects, and responds to cyber threats across the entire attack lifecycle. Carbon Black’s cloud-native architecture enables real-time threat intelligence sharing and rapid deployment across distributed enterprise environments.

VMware Carbon Black has become integral to modern security operations, providing the visibility and response capabilities that security teams need to investigate incidents, hunt for threats, and harden their environments against sophisticated attacks. The platform’s streaming analytics approach captures and analyzes endpoint data continuously, creating a comprehensive record of endpoint activity that proves invaluable during incident investigation and forensics.

Key Features

• Next-Generation Antivirus: Machine learning and behavioral analysis prevent known and unknown malware, ransomware, and fileless attacks without relying solely on signatures.
• Endpoint Detection and Response: Continuous monitoring and recording of endpoint activity enables threat hunting, incident investigation, and forensic analysis.
• Behavioral Analytics: Identifies suspicious activity patterns and attack techniques based on behavior rather than just file signatures.
• Streaming Prevention: Real-time analysis of endpoint events enables blocking of threats as they unfold, not just at file execution.
• Threat Intelligence: Integration with VMware’s threat intelligence and third-party feeds enriches detections with global threat context.
• Attack Chain Visualization: Visual representation of attack progression showing how threats moved through the environment.
• Automated Response: Configurable response actions automatically isolate infected endpoints, kill processes, and remediate threats.
• Live Response: Remote shell access to endpoints enables immediate investigation and remediation without physical access.
• Vulnerability Assessment: Identifies vulnerable applications and configurations that could be exploited by attackers.
• Audit and Remediation: Query endpoints in real-time to assess security posture and remediate issues at scale.
• Cloud Workload Protection: Extends protection to cloud and container workloads in AWS, Azure, GCP, and Kubernetes environments.
• API Integration: Comprehensive APIs enable integration with SIEM, SOAR, and other security tools for unified operations.

What’s New in 2026

• VMware Contexa Integration: Enhanced threat intelligence from VMware’s security research combining network and endpoint insights.
• XDR Capabilities: Extended detection and response incorporating network, email, and identity data for holistic threat visibility.
• AI-Powered Investigation: Machine learning assists analysts by automatically correlating events and suggesting investigation paths.
• Container Security Enhancements: Deeper visibility and protection for containerized applications and Kubernetes clusters.
• Zero Trust Integration: Native integration with VMware Workspace ONE for unified zero trust architecture implementation.
• Enhanced Mac Protection: Improved coverage for macOS threats including malicious scripts and system extensions.
• Managed Detection and Response: Expanded MDR service providing 24/7 expert monitoring and response for organizations without dedicated security teams.

System Requirements

Windows Endpoints

macOS Endpoints

Linux Endpoints

How to Deploy Carbon Black

1. Provision Tenant: Contact VMware or a partner to provision your Carbon Black Cloud tenant and receive administrator credentials.
2. Configure Policies: Set up prevention policies defining what actions should be blocked or allowed based on your security requirements.
3. Generate Sensor Packages: Create sensor installation packages from the console customized with your organization’s settings.
4. Deploy Sensors: Distribute sensors via enterprise deployment tools (SCCM, Intune, Jamf) or manual installation.
5. Verify Connectivity: Confirm sensors are checking into the cloud console and reporting endpoint status.
6. Configure Integrations: Connect Carbon Black to your SIEM, SOAR, and other security tools via APIs.
7. Train Team: Ensure security analysts understand the console, investigation workflows, and response procedures.
8. Enable Response: Configure automated response actions and practice using Live Response for manual intervention.

Carbon Black vs Other EDR Solutions

Who Should Use Carbon Black?

• Enterprise Security Teams: Organizations with dedicated security operations benefit from Carbon Black’s deep visibility and investigation capabilities.
• VMware Environments: Businesses running VMware infrastructure gain native integration and unified management benefits.
• Regulated Industries: Healthcare, financial services, and government organizations requiring comprehensive endpoint security and audit trails.
• Threat Hunters: Security teams actively searching for threats appreciate Carbon Black’s data collection and query capabilities.
• Cloud-First Organizations: Companies with significant cloud workloads benefit from unified endpoint and workload protection.
• Incident Response Teams: IR professionals value Live Response and forensic capabilities for investigating security incidents.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the difference between Carbon Black products?

Carbon Black Cloud offers multiple product tiers: CB Defense provides NGAV and basic EDR, CB Endpoint Standard adds advanced threat hunting, CB Enterprise extends with audit and remediation, and CB Workload protects cloud workloads. Each tier builds on the previous with additional capabilities.

How does Carbon Black compare to traditional antivirus?

Traditional antivirus primarily matches file signatures, while Carbon Black uses behavioral analysis to detect attacks based on what processes do, not just what files contain. This enables detection of fileless attacks, living-off-the-land techniques, and zero-day threats that signature-based tools miss.

Can Carbon Black replace our SIEM?

Carbon Black is designed to complement SIEM, not replace it. While Carbon Black provides excellent endpoint visibility, SIEMs aggregate data from many sources including network, cloud, and identity systems. Carbon Black integrates with major SIEMs to enrich security analytics.

What is Live Response?

Live Response provides remote shell access to endpoints directly from the Carbon Black console. Analysts can browse files, check running processes, collect forensic data, and remediate threats without requiring physical access or separate remote access tools.

Does Carbon Black impact endpoint performance?

Carbon Black’s sensor is designed for minimal impact, typically using 1-2% CPU during normal operation. The streaming architecture sends events to the cloud for analysis rather than performing resource-intensive local processing. Organizations can tune data collection to balance visibility with performance.

Final Verdict

VMware Carbon Black stands as one of the most capable endpoint detection and response platforms available, offering the deep visibility and investigation capabilities that modern security operations demand. The combination of next-generation prevention, continuous endpoint recording, and powerful response tools creates a comprehensive platform that addresses the full attack lifecycle.

The VMware acquisition has strengthened Carbon Black’s position, particularly for organizations invested in VMware infrastructure and seeking integrated security across endpoints, workloads, and networks. While the platform requires security expertise to leverage fully, organizations with mature security operations find Carbon Black provides the visibility and response capabilities essential for defending against sophisticated threats. For enterprises serious about endpoint security, Carbon Black delivers the depth and capability that distinguished it as a category leader.