Pre-launch API security gate

A pre-launch API security gate is a controlled check before an API is exposed to production traffic. It surfaces high-severity misconfigurations and common attack vectors using a read-only scan against the deployed endpoints. The gate does not modify code or infrastructure; it reports findings and provides remediation guidance so teams can address issues before release.

Without a pre-launch check, teams ship APIs with weak authentication, excessive data exposure, and unvalidated input handling. This increases the likelihood of token theft, IDOR, data leakage, and injection-related incidents after deployment. Teams then need to respond to incidents or backport fixes, which is more costly and disruptive than catching issues early.

• Weak authentication mechanisms such as missing or misconfigured JWT validation, including alg=none and weak key configurations.
• Over-exposed endpoints and internal fields that enable mass assignment or privilege escalation.
• Missing rate limiting and error handling that reveals stack traces or sensitive data.

Integrate scanning into your existing release pipeline so that every build is evaluated before traffic is allowed. Start with a quick scan focused on authentication, input validation, and data exposure. If findings appear, remediate and re-scan. Promote successful scans to later stages such as staging and production deployment. Maintain a repeatable flow that uses both unauthenticated and authenticated checks where appropriate.

middlebrick scan https://api.example.com --output json

For authenticated checks, verify domain ownership through DNS TXT records or an HTTP well-known file. Supply only approved headers such as Authorization, X-API-Key, Cookie, and X-Custom-* to limit credential exposure. Treat scan results as evidence for security reviews, and track score trends across builds to measure improvement.

middleBrick maps findings to OWASP API Top 10 (2023), PCI-DSS 4.0, and SOC 2 Type II controls, providing structured evidence to support audit activities. The scanner detects issues such as broken authentication, IDOR, BFLA, sensitive data exposure, and unsafe integrations, and ties each finding to the relevant framework control.

• Authentication and security header checks that align with access control requirements.
• IDOR and enumeration testing relevant to integrity and confidentiality controls.
• Data exposure detection that supports privacy and encryption controls under PCI-DSS and SOC 2.

middleBrick is a black-box scanner that works without agents or SDK integration. It supports OpenAPI 3.0, 3.1, and Swagger 2.0 with recursive $ref resolution, comparing runtime behavior to spec definitions. Scan time is under one minute and uses only read-only methods plus text-only POST for LLM probes.

• Authentication bypass attempts, JWT misconfigurations, and security header validation.
• IDOR via sequential ID enumeration and adjacent ID probing.
• Input validation checks including CORS misconfigurations and dangerous HTTP methods.
• Data exposure detection for PII, API key formats, and error leakage.
• LLM security probes across Quick, Standard, and Deep tiers, including prompt injection and jailbreak attempts.

middleBrick is a scanner that detects and reports; it does not fix, patch, or block. Destructive payloads are never sent, and internal, localhost, and cloud metadata endpoints are blocked. Customer data is deletable on demand and is never used for model training. Some business logic flaws and blind SSRF require human analysis and are outside the scope of automated scanning.

Use the scanner as part of a broader security strategy that includes code review, architecture analysis, and periodic human assessments for high-risk systems.