Alternatives to Akto in Fintech

middleBrick is a self-service API security scanner designed for environments where direct code or agent access is restricted. You submit an API endpoint, and within under a minute you receive a risk score from A to F with prioritized findings. The scanner operates as a black-box solution, requiring no agents, SDKs, or code instrumentation. It supports any language, framework, or cloud deployment, using read-only methods (GET and HEAD) plus text-only POST for LLM probes. This approach suits fintech architectures where production safety and integration constraints limit intrusive testing.

The scanner covers 12 categories aligned to the OWASP API Top 10 (2023), mapping findings directly to PCI-DSS 4.0 and SOC 2 Type II controls. Detection capabilities include authentication bypass and JWT misconfigurations, broken object level authorization (BOLA) and IDOR, broken function level authorization (BFLA) and privilege escalation, property authorization over-exposure, input validation issues such as CORS wildcard misconfigurations, rate limiting and resource consumption indicators, sensitive data exposure including PII patterns and API key formats, encryption and transport misconfigurations, SSRF indicators, inventory management gaps, unsafe consumption surfaces, and LLM / AI Security adversarial probes. Each category provides detection with context and remediation guidance rather than attempting to remediate automatically.

middleBrick parses OpenAPI 3.0, 3.1, and Swagger 2.0 files with recursive $ref resolution, cross-referencing spec definitions against runtime behavior to identify 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, ensuring only the domain owner can enable credentials. Header forwarding is limited to Authorization, X-API-Key, Cookie, and X-Custom-* to minimize exposure during testing.

The Web Dashboard centralizes scan management, report viewing, score trend tracking, and branded compliance PDF downloads. The CLI, available as an npm package, supports commands such as middlebrick scan <url> with JSON or text output. A GitHub Action can gate CI/CD pipelines, failing builds when scores drop below defined thresholds. The MCP Server enables scanning from AI coding assistants. Continuous monitoring in Pro tiers includes scheduled rescans every 6 hours, daily, weekly, or monthly, diff detection across scans, email alerts rate-limited to one per hour per API, and HMAC-SHA256 signed webhooks with auto-disable after five consecutive failures. Data deletion on demand is available, with purges completed within 30 days of cancellation.

middleBrick is a scanning tool and does not fix, patch, block, or remediate findings. It does not perform active SQL injection or command injection testing, as those require intrusive payloads outside scope. Business logic vulnerabilities are not detected, as they require domain-specific human analysis. Blind SSRF is out of scope due to the absence of out-of-band infrastructure. The scanner supports audit evidence collection and aligns with security controls described in relevant frameworks, but it is not an auditor and cannot certify compliance. Use of terms such as certified, guaranteed compliant, compliant with, or meets all requirements of is avoided for regulations including HIPAA, GDPR, ISO 27001, NIST, CIS, CCPA, NIS2, DORA, FedRAMP, DPDP, APPI, PDPA, PIPEDA, PIPA, UK DPA, LGPD, SOX, GLBA, or FERPA.