Alternatives to 42Crunch for AppSec engineers

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What middleBrick covers

  • Black-box scanning with no agents or code access
  • Risk scoring and prioritized findings in under a minute
  • 12 OWASP API Top 10 (2023) security categories
  • OpenAPI 3.x/2.0 spec analysis with runtime correlation
  • Authenticated scanning with strict header allowlists
  • CI/CD integration via GitHub Action and MCP server

Black-box scanning without agents or code access

Unlike tools that require agents, SDKs, or build instrumentation, this scanner operates as a black-box solution. You submit an API endpoint and receive a risk score with prioritized findings in under a minute. It supports any language, framework, or cloud stack because it never needs source code or runtime integration.

Detection coverage aligned to OWASP API Top 10

The scanner covers 12 security categories mapped to OWASP API Top 10 (2023). It detects authentication bypasses and JWT misconfigurations such as alg=none, weak key algorithms, expired tokens, missing claims, and sensitive data in claims. It also identifies BOLA and IDOR via sequential ID enumeration and active adjacent-ID probing, and BFLA and privilege escalation through admin endpoint probing and role/permission leakage.

Additional categories include property authorization over-exposure, input validation issues like CORS wildcard usage and dangerous HTTP methods, rate limiting and resource consumption signals, data exposure patterns including PII and API key formats, encryption misconfigurations, SSRF indicators, inventory management gaps, unsafe consumption surfaces, and LLM/AI security probes across tiered scan depths.

OpenAPI spec analysis and authenticated scanning

The scanner parses OpenAPI 3.0, 3.1, and Swagger 2.0 files with recursive $ref resolution. It cross-references spec definitions against runtime behavior to surface undefined security schemes, sensitive fields, deprecated operations, and missing pagination. Authenticated scanning is available at the Starter tier and above, supporting Bearer tokens, API keys, Basic auth, and cookies. Domain verification is enforced so only the domain owner can scan with credentials, and request headers are limited to an allowlist to minimize exposure.

Continuous monitoring and integrations

For ongoing risk tracking, the Pro tier provides scheduled rescans at intervals from 6 hours to monthly, diff detection to highlight new or resolved findings and score drift, and email alerts rate-limited to one per hour per API. HMAC-SHA256 signed webhooks are included, with auto-disable after 5 consecutive failures. The platform integrates via a web dashboard for reporting and trend tracking, a CLI for on-demand scans, a GitHub Action for CI/CD gating, and an MCP server for use with AI coding assistants. An API client enables custom integrations.

Safety, scope, and compliance framing

The scanner adopts a read-only posture and never sends destructive payloads. Private IPs, localhost, and cloud metadata endpoints are blocked at multiple layers. Customer data is deletable on demand and is never sold or used for model training. The tool maps findings to PCI-DSS 4.0, SOC 2 Type II, and OWASP API Top 10 (2023), and it can help you prepare for or align with security controls described in other frameworks without asserting certification or guarantees.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Does the scanner perform intrusive tests like SQL injection?
No. It focuses on read-only methods and does not execute payloads that modify state or perform active injection.
How are false positives handled in scan results?
Findings include contextual details and remediation guidance. You can triage results using the risk score and evidence provided to reduce noise.
Can I scan APIs behind authentication or internal networks?
Yes, authenticated scanning is supported with domain verification. Internal endpoints must be reachable from the scanner network and properly configured.
What happens to my scan data after I cancel?
Data is deletable on demand and purged within 30 days of cancellation. It is not retained for training or shared with third parties.

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