Alternatives to 42Crunch for Framework version upgrade audit

During a framework version upgrade, the API surface often changes faster than documentation and tests. middleBrick is a self-service API security scanner designed to provide a fast, repeatable view of risks across a running API. Submit a URL and receive a risk score from A to F with prioritized findings. The scanner performs black-box checks, requires no agents or code access, and completes in under a minute using read-only methods plus text-only POST for LLM probes.

middleBrick maps findings to three frameworks relevant to audit evidence: PCI-DSS 4.0, SOC 2 Type II, and OWASP API Top 10 (2023). It also helps you prepare for and supports audit evidence for other regulatory alignments, including HIPAA, GDPR, ISO 27001, NIST, and CCPA, using alignment language rather than certification claims.

The scanner covers 12 security categories. Authentication checks multi-method bypass and JWT misconfigurations such as alg=none, weak shared secrets, expired tokens, missing claims, and sensitive data in claims. BOLA and IDOR tests probe for sequential ID enumeration and adjacent-ID access. BFLA and privilege escalation probes look for admin endpoints and role/permission leakage. Input validation examines CORS wildcard usage with credentials, dangerous HTTP methods, and debug endpoints. Rate limiting and resource consumption checks inspect headers, oversized responses, and unpaginated arrays. Data exposure searches for PII patterns, Luhn-validated card numbers, context-aware SSN formats, API key formats, and error or stack-trace leakage. Encryption checks HTTPS redirects, HSTS, cookie flags, and mixed content. SSRF testing targets URL-accepting parameters and internal IP bypass attempts. Inventory management reviews versioning, legacy paths, and server fingerprinting. Unsafe consumption evaluates third-party URL exposure and webhook surfaces. LLM and AI security runs 18 adversarial probes across Quick, Standard, and Deep tiers, including system prompt extraction, instruction override, DAN and roleplay jailbreaks, data exfiltration, token smuggling, and nested instruction injection.

middleBrick parses OpenAPI 3.0, 3.1, and Swagger 2.0 documents with recursive $ref resolution. It cross-references spec definitions against runtime findings to highlight undefined security schemes, sensitive fields, deprecated operations, and missing pagination. This helps you compare the intended contract with actual behavior during a framework upgrade.

Authenticated scanning is supported for Bearer, API key, Basic auth, and Cookie methods. Domain verification is required, allowing only the domain owner to scan with credentials. The scanner forwards a restricted allowlist of headers, including Authorization, X-API-Key, Cookie, and X-Custom-* headers. This approach integrates into existing CI/CD workflows without requiring code changes or SDKs.

The Web Dashboard centralizes scans, reports, and score trends, enabling you to download branded compliance PDFs. The CLI npm package supports commands such as middlebrick scan <url> with JSON or text output. A GitHub Action can gate CI/CD, failing the build when the score drops below a chosen threshold. An MCP server allows scans from AI coding assistants such as Claude and Cursor. A programmatic API supports custom integrations.

Pro tier adds continuous monitoring with configurable intervals of 6 hours, daily, weekly, or monthly. It provides diff detection across scans to highlight new findings, resolved items, and score drift. Email alerts are rate-limited to one per hour per API. HMAC-SHA256 signed webhooks disable automatically after 5 consecutive failures. Enterprise tiers include unlimited APIs, custom rules, SSO, audit logs, SLA-backed support, and dedicated assistance.

middleBrick operates read-only and never sends destructive payloads. Private IPs, localhost, and cloud metadata endpoints are blocked at multiple layers. Customer data is deletable on demand and purged within 30 days of cancellation. It does not fix, patch, block, or remediate issues; it detects and reports with remediation guidance. It does not perform active SQL injection or command injection testing, which requires intrusive payloads outside its scope. It does not detect business logic vulnerabilities, blind SSRF relying on out-of-band infrastructure, or fully replace a human pentester for high-stakes audits.