middleBrick vs Salt Security

middleBrick is a black-box API security scanner that submits requests and analyzes responses without requiring code access, agents, or SDK integration. It supports any language, framework, or cloud target and completes scans in under one minute using read-only methods plus text-only POST for LLM probes. Salt Security provides runtime application self-protection (RASP) and runtime monitoring that operates inline with application traffic. Its approach is agent-based, deploying a sensor within the application runtime to inspect and block requests. Because Salt Security operates inside the runtime, it can enforce policies and block requests in real time, whereas middleBrick is limited to detection and reporting.

middleBrick detects issues across 12 categories aligned to the OWASP API Top 10 (2023), including authentication bypass, JWT misconfigurations, BOLA, BFLA, input validation, data exposure, and LLM/AI security adversarial probes. The scanner maps findings to PCI-DSS 4.0, SOC 2 Type II, and OWASP API Top 10, providing remediation guidance without claiming certification. Salt Security focuses on protecting APIs in real time and surfaces alerts tied to policy violations and anomalies in traffic patterns. Public documentation for Salt Security indicates coverage of OWASP API Top 10 categories such as Broken Object Level Authorization and Excessive Data Exposure, with integrations into SIEM and service meshes. Exact mappings between its detections and specific compliance frameworks are not detailed in publicly available materials.

middleBrick requires only a target URL and optional authentication credentials. It supports Bearer, API key, Basic auth, and cookies, with a domain verification gate to ensure only domain owners can scan authenticated endpoints. Header forwarding is limited to an allowlist including Authorization, X-API-Key, Cookie, and X-Custom-* headers. Integration footprint is minimal: the CLI installs locally, the GitHub Action runs as a CI gate, and the MCP server enables scanning from AI coding assistants. Salt Security requires deploying sensors within the application environment or using API gateway integrations, often entailing changes to deployment pipelines and runtime configuration. Its agent-based model means ongoing resource consumption inside the service path, whereas middleBrick imposes no runtime footprint on the scanned API.

middleBrick provides a Web Dashboard for reviewing scans and tracking score trends, downloadable branded compliance PDFs, and a CLI for on-demand scans with JSON or text output. The Pro tier adds continuous monitoring with scheduled rescans, diff detection, email alerts, HMAC-SHA256 signed webhooks, and integration options for CI/CD pipelines via GitHub Actions. Salt Security offers real-time protection, policy enforcement, and runtime dashboards focused on blocking malicious traffic and reducing false positives. Alerting and integrations such as SIEM and service mesh features are positioned around live traffic rather than periodic scanning. middleBrick does not fix, patch, block, or remediate; it surfaces findings with guidance, whereas Salt Security actively intervenes at runtime.

middleBrick pricing is subscription-based: Free for 3 scans per month, Starter at $99 per month for 15 APIs, Pro at $499 per month for 100 APIs with continuous monitoring, and Enterprise at $2,000 per month for unlimited APIs and advanced features. Target users include developers and security teams who want lightweight, off-host scanning without runtime changes. Salt Security typically positions itself as an enterprise runtime protection solution, with pricing aligned to API volume, deployment model, and required support levels. Public pricing for Salt Security is not published in detail, and costs are generally negotiated based on scope and integration complexity. middleBrick lowers setup friction with no on-premise deployment, while Salt Security’s value proposition centers on active threat prevention inside the application runtime.