OWASP API Top 10 2023 audit

An OWASP API Top 10 2023 audit identifies misconfigurations and vulnerable behaviors in API endpoints aligned to the current OWASP API Top 10. The scanner inspects authentication mechanisms, authorization logic, input validation, rate limiting, data exposure vectors, encryption posture, and adversarial prompts targeting LLM interfaces. It compares observed behavior against the specification and runtime responses to surface deviations that map findings to the framework.

Teams relying on informal checks or manual spot checks miss subtle misconfigurations such as JWT alg=none acceptance, over-exposed internal fields, and unrestricted CORS wildcard rules. Without repeatable measurement, issues like IDOR through sequential ID enumeration, privilege escalation via role/permission leakage, and sensitive data patterns exposed in responses remain undetected until exploited. This increases the risk of data exposure and complicates audit evidence collection for SOC 2 Type II and PCI-DSS 4.0.

Start with discovery and inventory: provide the public base URL and, if authenticated, allowed authentication headers such as Bearer or API key. The scanner parses OpenAPI 3.0, 3.1, or Swagger 2.0 with recursive $ref resolution and cross-references spec definitions against runtime behavior. Review prioritized findings in the dashboard, inspect evidence such as exposed API key formats, CORS rules, and error leakage, then export a branded compliance PDF that supports audit evidence for your control framework. Iterate after fixes and track score trends to validate remediation.

The scanner includes an LLM / AI Security category with adversarial probes across Quick, Standard, and Deep tiers. It tests for system prompt extraction, instruction override, DAN and roleplay jailbreaks, data exfiltration attempts, cost exploitation, encoding bypasses such as base64 and ROT13, translation-embedded injection, few-shot poisoning, markdown injection, multi-turn manipulation, indirect prompt injection, token smuggling, tool abuse, nested instruction injection, and PII extraction. Results highlight endpoints where model-assisted attacks succeed and provide remediation guidance.

middleBrick is a black-box scanner that requires no agents, SDKs, or code access. It supports read-only methods (GET, HEAD, text-only POST) and completes scans in under a minute. Authenticated scanning supports Bearer, API key, Basic auth, and cookies, gated by domain verification and restricted header forwarding. The platform maps findings to OWASP API Top 10 2023, helps you prepare for SOC 2 Type II and PCI-DSS 4.0, and surfaces findings relevant to audit evidence for additional frameworks. The dashboard provides scoring, trend tracking, and report downloads; the CLI enables scripted runs; the GitHub Action gates CI/CD when scores drop below thresholds; the MCP server allows AI coding assistants to trigger scans; and the Pro tier adds scheduled rescans, diff detection, HMAC-SHA256 signed webhooks, and email/Slack/Teams alerts.