42Crunch for Solo founders

What middleBrick covers

  • Black-box scanning with no agents or SDK dependencies
  • Risk scoring and prioritized findings within one minute
  • 12 OWASP API Top 10 (2023) detection categories
  • OpenAPI 3.x and Swagger 2.0 parsing with $ref resolution
  • Authenticated scans with header allowlist and domain verification
  • Dashboard, CLI, GitHub Action, and MCP server integration

API security scanning for solo founders

As a solo founder, you need security insight without a dedicated team. This scanner operates as a self-service tool, accepting a URL and returning a risk score with prioritized findings. It performs black-box testing, requiring no agents, SDKs, or code access, and supports any language, framework, or cloud environment. Scans complete in under a minute using read-only methods, providing a practical starting point for assessing API posture without operational disruption.

Detection coverage aligned to industry standards

The scanner covers 12 categories aligned to the OWASP API Top 10 (2023), including authentication bypass, JWT misconfigurations, broken object level authorization, privilege escalation, and data exposure. It also maps findings to PCI-DSS 4.0 and SOC 2 Type II, validating controls relevant to those frameworks. Additional checks include CORS misconfigurations, unsafe HTTP methods, debug endpoints, SSRF indicators, and LLM-specific adversarial probes across multiple scan tiers.

  • Authentication — multi-method bypass, JWT alg=none, expired tokens, missing claims, sensitive data in claims.
  • BOLA / IDOR — sequential ID enumeration and active adjacent-ID probing.
  • Data Exposure — PII patterns such as email, Luhn-validated card numbers, context-aware SSN, and API key formats.
  • LLM Security — 18 adversarial probes covering prompt extraction, jailbreaks, and token smuggling.

OpenAPI analysis and authenticated scanning

The tool parses OpenAPI 3.0, 3.1, and Swagger 2.0 documents with recursive $ref resolution, cross-referencing spec definitions against runtime behavior. This highlights undefined security schemes, deprecated operations, and missing pagination. For authenticated scans, Bearer tokens, API keys, Basic auth, and cookies are supported after domain verification via DNS TXT or HTTP well-known file. Only a restricted allowlist of headers is forwarded to limit credential exposure.

middlebrick scan https://api.example.com/openapi.json --auth-type bearer --auth-token YOUR_TOKEN

Usage and integrations for rapid assessment

The platform provides multiple interfaces to fit a solo workflow. The web dashboard centralizes scans, score trends, and downloadable compliance PDFs. The CLI enables quick checks from your terminal, while the GitHub Action can gate CI/CD pipelines based on score thresholds. An MCP server allows scans from AI coding assistants, and a programmable API supports custom integrations. Continuous monitoring options on higher tiers include scheduled rescans, diff detection, and HMAC-SHA256 signed webhooks.

npx middlebrick scan https://api.example.com --format json

Limitations and data handling

This scanner does not fix, patch, or block issues; it detects and reports with remediation guidance. It does not perform active SQL injection or command injection testing, nor does it detect business logic vulnerabilities, which require domain context. Private IPs, localhost, and cloud metadata endpoints are blocked at multiple layers. Customer data is deletable on demand and purged within 30 days of cancellation, and it is never sold or used for model training.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this replace a professional penetration test?
No. The scanner identifies common technical issues and provides guidance, but it does not replace a human pentester for high-stakes audits or business logic reviews.
How are authentication credentials protected during a scan?
Credentials are accepted only after domain verification and are transmitted over encrypted channels. The scanner uses a restricted header allowlist and never stores or logs full credential values.
Can I integrate scans into my development pipeline?
Yes. The GitHub Action can fail builds based on score thresholds, and the CLI supports JSON output for scripting. A programmable API is available for custom workflows.
What happens to my scan data after I cancel?
On request, all customer scan data is deleted and permanently purged within 30 days of cancellation.
Are compliance certifications provided?
The tool maps findings to frameworks such as PCI-DSS 4.0 and SOC 2 Type II, but it does not issue certifications or guarantee compliance.