Akto for Healthcare

What middleBrick covers

Black-box scanning with no agents or SDK integration
Risk scoring aligned to OWASP API Top 10 (2023)
OpenAPI 3.0/3.1 and Swagger 2.0 spec parsing
Authenticated scans with header allowlists
Continuous monitoring and diff detection
CI/CD integration via CLI and GitHub Action

API Security Posture for Healthcare Workloads

Healthcare APIs frequently expose protected health information and must align with strict data handling expectations. middleBrick maps findings to OWASP API Top 10 (2023) and supports audit evidence for SOC 2 Type II and PCI-DSS 4.0 when APIs handle payment or authentication flows. The scanner checks authentication bypass, data exposure, and encryption settings using read-only methods, helping you prepare for security reviews without interacting with production systems.

Detection Scope and Limitations

The scanner covers 12 categories relevant to API risk, including authentication misconfigurations, sensitive data exposure such as email and card patterns, and unsafe consumption of third-party endpoints. It does not perform active SQL injection or command injection testing, does not detect blind SSRF, and does not replace a human pentester for high-stakes audits. These limitations are important context for healthcare environments where business logic and deep protocol understanding remain essential.

OpenAPI and Spec Validation

middleBrick parses OpenAPI 3.0, 3.1, and Swagger 2.0 documents with recursive $ref resolution, cross-referencing spec definitions against runtime behavior. This helps identify undefined security schemes, sensitive fields in responses, deprecated operations, and missing pagination, which commonly appear in healthcare integrations. These checks surface findings relevant to compliance controls and support structured review of API design.

Authenticated Scanning and Access Controls

Authenticated scans with Bearer, API key, Basic auth, and Cookie credentials are available in Starter tier and higher, guarded by a domain verification gate to ensure only domain owners can scan with credentials. Header allowlists restrict forwarded headers to Authorization, X-API-Key, Cookie, and X-Custom-*, reducing noise and limiting exposure in environments that integrate identity providers.

Deployment Options and Compliance Reporting

The Web Dashboard provides scan management, trend tracking, and downloadable branded compliance PDFs, while the CLI supports straightforward security gates with JSON or text output. Pro tier adds continuous monitoring, scheduled rescans, diff detection, and signed webhooks, enabling teams to integrate scans into CI/CD pipelines and maintain ongoing visibility aligned with internal policy.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does middleBrick certify HIPAA compliance?

middleBrick is a scanning tool and does not certify HIPAA compliance. It helps you prepare for security reviews by surfacing findings relevant to audit evidence, but it is not an auditor and cannot guarantee compliance.

What scan methods are used by default?

The scanner uses read-only methods including GET and HEAD, plus text-only POST for LLM probes. No destructive payloads are sent, and private IPs, localhost, and cloud metadata endpoints are blocked at multiple layers.

Can authenticated scans validate custom headers?

Authenticated scans allow Bearer, API key, Basic auth, and Cookie credentials. Header forwarding is limited to an allowlist, and domain verification ensures only the domain owner can run scans with credentials.

How are new findings tracked over time?

Pro tier scans provide diff detection across runs, highlighting new findings, resolved findings, and score drift. Alerts can be delivered via email at rate-limited intervals and through signed webhooks to downstream systems.

What is the scope of LLM security testing?

The scanner runs 18 adversarial probes across Quick, Standard, and Deep tiers to test system prompt extraction, instruction override, jailbreak techniques, data exfiltration risks, and token smuggling, focusing on model interaction rather than infrastructure exploits.