Astra for Seed-stage startups

Seed-stage teams need a security scanner that is low friction and low overhead. This tool operates as a self-service black-box scanner that accepts a URL and returns a risk grade from A to F with prioritized findings. You do not install agents, provide code access, or integrate SDKs; it works with any language, framework, or cloud setup. Scan completion typically occurs in under a minute using read-only methods, and the system blocks destructive payloads at multiple layers.

The scanner covers 12 security categories aligned to the OWASP API Top 10 (2023). It maps findings to PCI-DSS 4.0, SOC 2 Type II, and OWASP API Top 10 (2023), and it supports audit evidence for other frameworks through alignment. Detection capabilities include authentication bypass and JWT misconfigurations, broken object level authorization, privilege escalation via admin endpoints, property over-exposure, input validation issues such as CORS misconfigurations and dangerous HTTP methods, rate limiting characteristics, data exposure patterns including PII and API key formats, encryption checks, SSRF indicators, inventory and versioning issues, unsafe consumption surfaces, and LLM/AI adversarial probes across tiered scan depths.

Authenticated scanning is available from the Starter tier onward, supporting 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 scan with credentials. The scanner forwards a limited allowlist of headers and uses read-only methods only. Private IPs, localhost, and cloud metadata endpoints are blocked at multiple layers, and customer data is deletable on demand and never used for model training.

The platform provides a Web Dashboard for scanning, report review, score trend tracking, and downloadable compliance PDFs. The CLI enables commands such as middlebrick scan <url> with JSON or text output. A GitHub Action can gate CI/CD builds when scores drop below a defined threshold. The MCP Server allows scanning from AI coding assistants. For ongoing risk management, the Pro tier adds scheduled rescans every 6 hours, daily, weekly, or monthly, diff detection across scans, email alerts at a rate-limited cadence, and HMAC-SHA256 signed webhooks with auto-disable after repeated failures.

Because this is a scanning tool, it does not fix, patch, block, or remediate issues; it provides detection and guidance. It does not perform active SQL injection or command injection testing, does not detect business logic vulnerabilities that require domain understanding, and does not detect blind SSRF due to the absence of out-of-band infrastructure. It also does not replace a human pentester for high-stakes audits. Pricing options include a Free tier with 3 scans per month and CLI access, Starter at 15 APIs with monthly scans and alerts, Pro at 100 APIs with continuous monitoring and CI/CD integration, and Enterprise with unlimited APIs and dedicated support.