Alternatives to 42Crunch on LoopBack

middleBrick is a self-service API security scanner that operates without agents or code access. Submit the public URL of a LoopBack application, and the engine completes a scan in under a minute using read-only methods such as GET and HEAD, plus text-only POST for LLM probes. Because it is black-box, it works regardless of whether the service is implemented in JavaScript, TypeScript, or deployed on any cloud or framework.

The scanner evaluates 12 categories aligned to OWASP API Top 10 (2023) relevant to LoopBack services. Detection includes authentication bypasses and JWT misconfigurations such as alg=none, HS256 use, expired tokens, missing claims, and sensitive data in claims. It probes for Broken Object Level Authorization (BOLA/IDOR) via sequential ID enumeration and active adjacent-ID testing, as well as Broken Function Level Authorization (BFLA) through admin endpoint discovery and role/permission leakage. Additional coverage spans Property Authorization over-exposure, Input Validation issues like CORS wildcard usage and dangerous HTTP methods, Rate Limiting and oversized responses, Data Exposure including PII patterns and API key formats, Encryption misconfigurations, SSRF indicators, Inventory Management issues, unsafe consumption surfaces, and LLM/AI Security probes focused on jailbreak and exfiltration scenarios.

middleBrick parses OpenAPI 3.0, 3.1, and Swagger 2.0 definitions for LoopBack projects, resolving recursive $ref entries to compare the spec against runtime behavior. It flags undefined security schemes, sensitive fields, deprecated operations, and missing pagination. For authenticated scans, supported methods include Bearer tokens, API keys, Basic auth, and Cookies. Domain verification is enforced through DNS TXT records or an HTTP well-known file to ensure only the domain owner can submit credentials. Forwarded headers are limited to Authorization, X-API-Key, Cookie, and X-Custom-* to reduce noise and maintain a strict read-only posture.

With Pro tier, scheduled rescans can run every 6 hours, daily, weekly, or monthly to track score drift and diff detection across scans. Notifications are delivered via email at a rate-limited frequency of 1 per hour per API, and HMAC-SHA256 signed webhooks include auto-disable after 5 consecutive failures. The tool integrates into existing workflows through a web dashboard for report review and trend tracking, a CLI via the middlebrick npm package using the command middlebrick scan <url> with JSON or text output, a GitHub Action that fails CI/CD builds when scores drop below a threshold, and an MCP server for use with AI coding assistants. An API client enables custom integrations for organizations with specific pipeline requirements.

middleBrick is a scanner that detects and reports with remediation guidance; it does not fix, patch, block, or remediate findings. It avoids active SQL injection or command injection tests, which fall outside the intended scope. Business logic vulnerabilities require domain-specific human review and are not detected. Blind SSRF and other out-of-band infrastructure issues are out of scope, and the tool does not replace a human pentester for high-stakes audits.

findings map directly to PCI-DSS 4.0, SOC 2 Type II, and OWASP API Top 10 (2023). For other frameworks, the tool supports audit evidence collection and helps you prepare for security controls described in relevant standards. Customer scan data is deletable on demand and purged within 30 days of cancellation. Data is never sold and is not used for model training.