Alternatives to Bright Security at Enterprise organizations

What middleBrick covers

  • Black-box scanning without agents or code access
  • Risk score A–F with prioritized findings
  • 12 OWASP API Top 10 (2023) coverage
  • Authenticated scans with header allowlist
  • OpenAPI 3.x and Swagger 2.0 parsing
  • CI/CD integration and scheduled monitoring

Scope and testing approach

middleBrick is a black-box API security scanner that requires no agents, SDKs, or code access. You submit a target URL and receive a risk score from A to F along with prioritized findings. The scanner uses read-only methods (GET and HEAD) and text-only POST for LLM probes, completing most scans in under a minute. Because it operates without authentication or code instrumentation, it works across any language, framework, or cloud environment while avoiding intrusive exploit attempts.

Detection coverage aligned to standards

The scanner evaluates 12 categories aligned to the OWASP API Top 10 (2023). It checks authentication bypasses and JWT misconfigurations such as alg=none, weak shared secrets, expired tokens, missing claims, and sensitive data in claims. It probes for BOLA and IDOR via sequential ID enumeration and adjacent ID patterns, tests for BFLA and privilege escalation through admin endpoint exposure and role leakage, and identifies property authorization issues like over-exposed fields and mass-assignment surfaces.

  • Input validation checks, including CORS wildcard usage with credentials, dangerous HTTP methods, and debug endpoints.
  • Rate limiting and resource consumption detection via rate-limit headers, oversized responses, and unpaginated arrays.
  • Data exposure analysis for PII patterns, valid credit card numbers, API key formats, and error or stack trace leakage.
  • Encryption checks for HTTPS redirects, HSTS, cookie flags, and mixed content.
  • SSRF probes targeting URL-accepting parameters, internal IP detection, and IP-bypass attempts.
  • Inventory management issues such as missing versioning and legacy path patterns.
  • Unsafe consumption surfaces, including excessive third-party URLs and webhook callbacks.
  • LLM / AI Security with 18 adversarial probes across Quick, Standard, and Deep tiers, covering system prompt extraction, instruction override, jailbreaks, data exfiltration, token smuggling, and indirect prompt injection.

Where specifications are available, middleBrick parses OpenAPI 3.0, 3.1, and Swagger 2.0 with recursive $ref resolution and cross-references spec definitions against runtime findings to highlight undefined security schemes, sensitive fields, deprecated operations, and missing pagination.

Authenticated scanning and safety controls

Authenticated scanning is available from the Starter tier onward, supporting Bearer tokens, API keys, Basic auth, and cookies. Domain verification requires a DNS TXT record or an HTTP well-known file to ensure only the domain owner can scan with credentials. The scanner forwards a limited allowlist of headers, including Authorization, X-API-Key, Cookie, and X-Custom-* headers.

The scanner maintains a strict safety posture by using read-only methods only and never sending destructive payloads. Private IPs, localhost, and cloud metadata endpoints are blocked at multiple layers. Customer scan data is deletable on demand and purged within 30 days of cancellation, and it is never sold or used for model training.

Product options and integration paths

The Web Dashboard provides a centralized view for scanning, report review, score trend tracking, and downloadable branded compliance PDFs. The CLI, distributed as an npm package, supports commands such as middlebrick scan <url> with JSON or text output for scripting.

The GitHub Action enables CI/CD gating by failing builds when scores drop below a defined threshold. An MCP Server allows scanning from AI coding assistants such as Claude and Cursor. A programmable API client supports custom integrations for existing toolchains, and the Pro tier adds scheduled rescans every 6 hours, daily, weekly, or monthly, with diff detection across scans to highlight new findings, resolved items, and score drift.

Alerting, compliance mapping, and limitations

Continuous monitoring in the Pro tier includes email alerts rate-limited to one per hour per API and HMAC-SHA256 signed webhooks that auto-disable after five consecutive failures. middleBrick maps findings directly to three frameworks, specifically covering requirements of 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 reviews by surfacing findings relevant to controls described in those frameworks. Because middleBrick is a scanner and not an auditor, it does not certify compliance, guarantee compliance, or ensure compliance with any regulation. It does not perform active SQL injection or command injection testing, detect business logic vulnerabilities, or replace a human pentester for high-stakes audits.

Frequently Asked Questions

How often can I run scans with the Free plan?
The Free plan allows 3 scans per month with CLI access. Higher tiers increase scan volume and add dashboard and monitoring features.
Does middleBrick attempt to exploit vulnerabilities during a scan?
No. The scanner uses read-only methods and does not send destructive payloads. It detects and reports findings with remediation guidance rather than actively exploiting services.
Can authenticated scans validate custom headers?
Yes. You can configure a header allowlist that includes custom headers prefixed with X-Custom-*, while the scanner enforces domain ownership through verification gates.
What happens to scan data after account cancellation?
Customer scan data is deletable on demand and fully purged within 30 days of cancellation. The data is never sold and is not used for model training.