Astra for Healthcare

What middleBrick covers

Black-box scanning with no agents or SDK integration
Risk score grading from A to F with prioritized findings
Detection of authentication, IDOR, and privilege escalation issues
Validation of data exposure, encryption, and input controls
LLM security probes across multiple scan tiers
Integration with dashboard, CLI, GitHub Action, and API

API Security Context for Healthcare Applications

Healthcare environments expose sensitive patient data through APIs that must meet regulatory expectations for privacy and integrity. APIs often serve as the primary channel for electronic health records, billing systems, and medical devices, making authentication, data exposure, and input validation critical controls. This scanner evaluates endpoints using read-only methods to surface configuration and design issues without interacting with production data or triggering safety mechanisms.

Coverage of Standards and Frameworks

Findings from this scanner map directly to PCI-DSS 4.0, SOC 2 Type II, and OWASP API Top 10 (2023). For other frameworks, the results help you prepare for audit evidence collection and align with security controls described in regulations such as HIPAA. The tool does not certify compliance, and it should not be referenced as ensuring or guaranteeing compliance with any specific regulatory regime.

Authentication and Authorization Testing

The scanner checks authentication mechanisms including Bearer tokens, API keys, Basic authentication, and cookies. It probes JWT misconfigurations such as alg=none, weak algorithms, expired tokens, missing claims, and sensitive data in claims. Security headers and WWW-Authenticate compliance are evaluated to ensure proper authorization handling and to reduce unauthorized access risks.

Input Validation, Data Exposure, and Infrastructure Safety

Validation checks include CORS wildcard usage with and without credentials, dangerous HTTP methods, and debug endpoints. Data exposure detection identifies PII patterns such as email addresses, Luhn-validated card numbers, context-aware SSN formats, and API key formats for AWS, Stripe, GitHub, and Slack. Safety measures block private IPs, localhost, and cloud metadata endpoints at multiple layers, and scan data is deletable on demand.

Deployment and Continuous Monitoring Options

The scanner supports a range of integrations including a web dashboard, CLI, GitHub Action, MCP Server, and a programmatic API client. For ongoing risk management, the Pro tier provides scheduled rescans, diff detection across scans, email alerts at controlled rates, and signed webhooks with auto-disable after repeated failures. Note that the tool surfaces findings and remediation guidance but does not perform active exploitation, SQL injection, command injection, or business logic testing, and it does not replace a human pentester for high-stakes audits.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can this scanner test APIs that require authentication?

Yes, authenticated scanning is supported with Bearer, API key, Basic auth, and Cookie methods. Domain verification is required to ensure only the domain owner can scan with credentials.

Does the tool perform active SQL injection or command injection testing?

No. The scanner does not execute intrusive payloads such as SQL injection or command injection, which fall outside its non-intrusive scope.

Which healthcare regulations does the scanner directly validate?

The scanner maps findings to PCI-DSS 4.0, SOC 2 Type II, and OWASP API Top 10. It helps prepare audit evidence and aligns with security controls described in HIPAA but does not certify compliance.

What happens to scan data after account cancellation?

Customer scan data is deletable on demand and is purged within 30 days of cancellation. Data is never sold and is not used for model training.