Best alternative to Snyk

middleBrick is a self-service API security scanner that submits a URL and returns a risk score from A to F with prioritized findings. It performs black-box scanning only, requiring no agents, no code access, and no SDK integration. The scanner uses read-only methods (GET and HEAD) and text-only POST for LLM probes, completing a scan in under a minute. This approach works with any language, framework, or cloud target without introducing runtime instrumentation.

The scanner detects issues across 12 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, providing evidence that supports audit activities for these frameworks. Detection coverage includes:

• Authentication bypass, JWT misconfigurations such as alg=none and HS256, and security header compliance.
• BOLA and IDOR via sequential ID enumeration and active adjacent-ID probing.
• BFLA and privilege escalation through admin endpoint probing and role/permission field leakage.
• Property authorization issues like over-exposure and mass-assignment surface.
• Input validation gaps including CORS wildcard usage and dangerous HTTP methods.
• Rate limiting and resource consumption signals such as missing headers and oversized responses.
• Data exposure patterns including email, Luhn-validated card numbers, SSN-like values, API key formats, and error or stack-trace leakage.
• Encryption misconfigurations such as missing HTTPS redirects, HSTS, and cookie flags.
• SSRF indicators involving URL-accepting parameters, internal IP detection, and active bypass probes.
• Inventory issues like missing versioning and legacy path patterns.
• Unsafe consumption surfaces, including excessive third-party URLs and webhook endpoints.
• LLM and AI security probes spanning system prompt extraction, instruction override, and token smuggling across multiple scan tiers.

OpenAPI analysis supports versions 3.0, 3.1, and Swagger 2.0 with recursive $ref resolution, cross-referencing spec definitions against runtime findings to highlight undefined security schemes and deprecated operations.

Authenticated scanning is available from the Starter tier and above, supporting Bearer, API key, Basic auth, and Cookie credentials. 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 enforces a strict header allowlist, forwarding only Authorization, X-API-Key, Cookie, and X-Custom-* headers.

Safety is built into the design: only read-only methods are used, destructive payloads are never sent, and 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.

The platform provides a Web Dashboard for scanning, report viewing, score trend tracking, and branded compliance PDF downloads. The CLI, published as an npm package, supports commands such as middlebrick scan <url> with JSON or text output. A GitHub Action enables CI/CD gating, failing the build when the score drops below a set threshold. An MCP Server allows scans from AI coding assistants, and a direct API client supports custom integrations.

Pro tier adds continuous monitoring with scheduled rescans every 6 hours, daily, weekly, or monthly. It provides diff detection across scans, email alerts rate-limited to one per hour per API, and HMAC-SHA256 signed webhooks that auto-disable after five consecutive failures. Enterprise tiers scale to unlimited APIs with custom rules, SSO, audit logs, an SLA, and dedicated support.

For teams focused on API security, this scanner serves as a practical alternative to Snyk by emphasizing raw detection depth for API-specific risks rather than package-vulnerability coverage. It surfaces concrete findings tied to authentication bypass, IDOR, privilege escalation, data exposure, and LLM injection techniques, with prioritization that reduces noise during triage.

Runners-up for general application security may offer broader dependency analysis, but they do not specialize in the nuances of API contract validation, authentication misconfigurations, or LLM attack surfaces. This product accepts clear limitations—it does not fix, patch, block, or remediate—and it does not perform intrusive injection tests or claim to detect business logic flaws. Instead, it provides high-signal detection and actionable remediation guidance to help security teams focus their efforts.