Alternatives to 42Crunch at Series B/C companies

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What middleBrick covers

  • Black-box scanning with read-only methods under one minute
  • 12 OWASP API Top 10 categories plus LLM adversarial probes
  • OpenAPI 3.x and Swagger 2.0 parsing with $ref resolution
  • Authenticated scanning with strict header allowlisting
  • Continuous monitoring with diff detection and webhook alerts
  • Web dashboard, CLI, GitHub Action, and MCP integrations

Black-box API security scanning without agents or code access

The platform operates as a black-box scanner. You submit an API endpoint, and within under a minute you receive a letter-grade risk score and a prioritized list of findings. Because scanning is read-only (GET and HEAD, plus text-only POST for LLM probes), no agents, SDKs, or code instrumentation are required. This approach works with any language, framework, or cloud deployment, and it does not require build pipeline changes or runtime instrumentation.

Coverage aligned to OWASP API Top 10 and common compliance evidence needs

Scans map findings to OWASP API Top 10 (2023) and support evidence collection for SOC 2 Type II and PCI-DSS 4.0 control validation. Detection areas include authentication bypass and JWT misconfigurations (such as alg=none, HS256, expired or missing claims), BOLA and IDOR via sequential ID enumeration, BFLA and privilege escalation attempts, over-exposed properties and mass-assignment surfaces, input validation issues like CORS wildcard usage, rate-limit header visibility, sensitive data exposure including PII and API key patterns, encryption and cookie security, SSRF probes against URL-accepting parameters, and inventory management signals such as missing versioning. The tool also runs 18 LLM adversarial probes across Quick, Standard, and Deep tiers to surface prompt-injection, jailbreak, data exfiltration, and token-smuggling risks.

Authenticated scanning and strict header forwarding rules

For environments that require authenticated scanning, the platform supports 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 scan with credentials. Header forwarding is limited to Authorization, X-API-Key, Cookie, and X-Custom-* headers, reducing unintended side effects. OpenAPI 3.0, 3.1, and Swagger 2.0 specs are parsed with recursive $ref resolution and cross-referenced against runtime findings to highlight undefined security schemes or deprecated operations.

Continuous monitoring and change detection

Pro tier adds scheduled rescans every 6 hours, daily, weekly, or monthly, with diff detection between scans to highlight new findings, resolved issues, and score drift. Email alerts are rate-limited to one per hour per API, and HMAC-SHA256 signed webhooks are delivered with auto-disable after five consecutive failures. This enables teams to track remediation progress and to integrate scan outcomes into dashboards or ticketing workflows without overwhelming notification channels.

Product integrations and pricing model

The platform provides a Web Dashboard for scan management and trend tracking with downloadable compliance PDFs, a CLI via an npm package (middlebrick scan <url>) that supports JSON and text output, a GitHub Action that can fail 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. Pricing starts with a free tier at zero cost for up to three scans per month and CLI access, a Starter tier at 99 USD per month for 15 APIs with monthly scans and alerts, a Pro tier at 499 USD per month for 100 APIs with continuous monitoring and CI/CD gates, and Enterprise at 2000 USD per month for unlimited APIs, custom rules, and dedicated support.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Does this tool perform active exploitation such as SQL injection or command injection?
No. The scanner does not send destructive payloads or perform active SQL injection or command injection testing.
Can the scanner detect business logic vulnerabilities?
No. Business logic vulnerabilities require domain context and human expertise; the tool focuses on configuration and implementation weaknesses.
Is compliance with HIPAA or GDPR guaranteed by using this scanner?
The tool helps you prepare evidence and aligns with security controls described in various frameworks, but it does not certify or guarantee compliance.
What happens to scan data after account cancellation?
Customer scan data is deletable on demand and purged within 30 days of cancellation. Data is never sold or used for model training.

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