Alternatives to Astra in Government

This tool is a self-service API security scanner designed to surface risks before deployment and during ongoing maintenance. Submit a URL and receive a risk score from A to F with prioritized findings. The scanner performs black-box testing, requiring no agents, code access, or SDK integration. It supports any language, framework, or cloud environment and completes most scans in under a minute. Only read-only methods are used, including GET and HEAD, with text-only POST for LLM probes.

The scanner detects issues across 12 categories aligned to the OWASP API Top 10 (2023). It maps findings to compliance evidence for SOC 2 Type II and PCI-DSS 4.0, and supports audit evidence collection for frameworks such as OWASP API Top 10. Specific detections include authentication bypass and JWT misconfigurations, broken object level authorization and IDOR, broken function level authorization and privilege escalation, excessive property exposure, input validation issues such as CORS wildcard usage and dangerous methods, rate limiting and resource consumption, data exposure including PII and API key patterns, encryption and transport misconfigurations, SSRF indicators, and inventory management gaps. It also identifies unsafe consumption surfaces and LLM / AI security issues through multi-tier adversarial probes.

OpenAPI analysis is included for versions 3.0, 3.1, and Swagger 2.0, with recursive $ref resolution. The scanner cross-references spec definitions against runtime findings to highlight undefined security schemes, sensitive fields, deprecated operations, and missing pagination. Note that the tool does not perform active SQL injection or command injection testing, does not detect business logic vulnerabilities, does not detect blind SSRF, and does not replace a human pentester for high-stakes audits.

Authenticated scanning is available starting with the Starter tier and includes support for Bearer, API key, Basic auth, and Cookie-based authentication. Domain verification is enforced through DNS TXT records or an HTTP well-known file, ensuring only the domain owner can scan with credentials. A strict header allowlist is applied, forwarding only Authorization, X-API-Key, Cookie, and X-Custom-* headers. Private IPs, localhost, and cloud metadata endpoints are blocked at multiple layers. The scanner follows a read-only posture and does not send destructive payloads. Customer data is deletable on demand and purged within 30 days of cancellation, and it is never sold or used for model training.

The Web Dashboard centralizes scan management, report viewing, score trend tracking, and branded compliance PDF downloads. The CLI, published as an npm package, enables commands such as middlebrick scan <url> with JSON or text output. A GitHub Action is available for CI/CD gating, failing the build when the score drops below a defined threshold. The MCP Server allows scanning from AI coding assistants including Claude and Cursor. Programmatic access is provided via an API client for custom integrations.

Pro tier adds continuous monitoring with configurable rescan intervals of 6 hours, daily, weekly, or monthly. Diff detection highlights new findings, resolved findings, and score drift over time. Email alerts are rate-limited to 1 per hour per API, and HMAC-SHA256 signed webhooks are supported with auto-disable after 5 consecutive failures. Enterprise tier includes unlimited APIs, custom rules, SSO, audit logs, SLA-backed support, and dedicated assistance.

The scanner does not fix, patch, block, or remediate findings; it detects and reports with remediation guidance. It does not perform intrusive testing such as active SQL injection or command injection, and it does not identify business logic vulnerabilities, which require domain-specific human review. It also does not detect blind SSRF or replace manual penetration testing for high-risk assessments.

For compliance, findings can be mapped to and used as evidence for SOC 2 Type II and PCI-DSS 4.0, and the scanner supports controls aligned with the OWASP API Top 10 (2023). For other frameworks, the tool helps you prepare for and aligns with security controls described in relevant standards, supporting audit evidence without certifying or guaranteeing compliance.