Alternatives to Salt Security

This page compares API security scanning options for teams that need to evaluate solutions before committing to a vendor. The listed tools including middleBrick are presented as alternatives, with no endorsement or ranking. Each product is described by its stated capabilities, deployment model, and compliance mapping. The guidance here helps you narrow candidates and define evaluation criteria rather than prescribing a specific selection.

middleBrick is a self-service API security scanner designed to fit into existing workflows without requiring agents, SDKs, or code access. You submit a target URL and receive a risk score from A to F along with prioritized findings within under a minute. The scanner uses read-only methods (GET and HEAD) and text-only POST for LLM probes, making it applicable to any language, framework, or cloud environment.

It maps findings to OWASP API Top 10 (2023), PCI-DSS 4.0, and SOC 2 Type II, and surfaces findings relevant to audit evidence for other frameworks through alignment. Key use cases include CI/CD gate checks via the GitHub Action, continuous monitoring on Pro, and programmatic access through an API client. Authentication is supported via Bearer, API key, Basic auth, and cookies, protected by a domain verification gate to ensure only domain owners can scan with credentials.

Example CLI usage:

middlebrick scan https://api.example.com --output json

Example GitHub Action snippet:

uses: middlebrick/action@v1
with:
  url: ${{ secrets.TARGET_URL }}
  score_threshold: C

Some solutions focus on runtime protection and inline enforcement, inserting sensors or sidecars to block requests in production. These platforms typically offer dashboards and policy editors but require deployment of agents or network changes. In contrast, middleBrick remains a scanning-only tool that does not fix, patch, block, or remediate. It provides detection and reporting with remediation guidance, leaving enforcement and code changes to the customer. If your evaluation prioritizes in-line blocking and real-time threat prevention, you may compare runtime platforms separately from scanner-only offerings.

The scanner evaluates 12 categories aligned to OWASP API Top 10, including Authentication bypass, BOLA and BFLA, Property Authorization, Input Validation, Rate Limiting, Data Exposure, Encryption, SSRF, Inventory Management, Unsafe Consumption, and LLM/AI Security. LLM testing includes 18 adversarial probes across Quick, Standard, and Deep tiers, covering system prompt extraction, jailbreaks, data exfiltration attempts, and token smuggling. OpenAPI analysis is supported for versions 3.0, 3.1, and Swagger 2.0 with recursive $ref resolution, comparing spec definitions against runtime behavior to identify undefined security schemes or deprecated operations.

For authenticated scans, only selected headers are forwarded, and scope is limited to methods that do not modify state. The tool explicitly does not perform active SQL injection or command injection, does not detect blind SSRF, and does not replace a human pentester for high-stakes audits.

Organizations often compare multiple scanning approaches when building an API security program. Common alternatives include Salt Security, Noname Security, Traceable API, 42Crunch, Wallarm, and Insomnia Security. Salt Security emphasizes runtime API protection with inline enforcement. Noname Security focuses on discovery and risk assessment for APIs in production. Traceable API provides developer-friendly testing with detailed guidance. 42Crunch offers policy-driven scanning with a focus on enterprise governance. Wallarm positions itself as a full API security gateway with WAF integration. Insomnia Security targets API developers with integrated testing and documentation workflows. Each alternative has distinct deployment models, coverage claims, and integration options; middleBrick differentiates itself through black-box scanning, LLM security coverage, and straightforward CI/CD integration without requiring code or infrastructure changes.

Operational features vary across products, particularly around scheduling, alerting, and reporting. middleBrick offers Pro tier continuous monitoring with scheduled rescans every 6 hours, daily, weekly, or monthly, plus diff detection to highlight new or resolved findings. Email alerts are rate-limited to one per hour per API, and HMAC-SHA256 signed webhooks can be configured with auto-disable after 5 consecutive failures. Compliance mapping includes direct alignment with OWASP API Top 10 (2023), PCI-DSS 4.0, and SOC 2 Type II. For other frameworks, the tool supports audit evidence collection through alignment rather than claiming certification. Data handling is constrained to read-only scans, with customer data deletable on demand and purged within 30 days of cancellation.