Alternatives to 42Crunch for Platform engineers
What middleBrick covers
- Black-box scanning with no agents or code access
- Risk scoring from A to F with prioritized findings
- Detection aligned to OWASP API Top 10 (2023)
- OpenAPI 3.0/3.1 and Swagger 2.0 schema parsing
- Authenticated scanning with strict header allowlists
- Continuous monitoring and CI/CD integration
Black-box scanning without agents or code access
middleBrick is a self-service API security scanner that operates as a black-box solution. You submit a target URL and receive a risk score from A to F along with prioritized findings. It does not require agents, SDKs, or code access, and it works with any language, framework, or cloud environment. Scans complete in under a minute using read-only methods (GET and HEAD) and text-only POST for LLM probes, avoiding intrusive or destructive testing.
Detection aligned to OWASP API Top 10 with schema awareness
The scanner covers 12 security categories aligned to the OWASP API Top 10 (2023), including Authentication bypasses, JWT misconfigurations such as alg=none or expired tokens, BOLA and IDOR via sequential ID probing, BFLA and privilege escalation attempts, and property over-exposure. It parses OpenAPI 3.0, 3.1, and Swagger 2.0 with recursive $ref resolution, cross-referencing the spec against runtime behavior to surface undefined security schemes or deprecated operations.
Authenticated scanning and safe probe boundaries
Starting at the Starter tier, authenticated scanning supports Bearer tokens, API keys, Basic auth, and cookies. Domain verification is enforced through a DNS TXT record or an HTTP well-known file to ensure only the domain owner can scan with credentials. The scanner forwards a strict allowlist of headers, including Authorization, X-API-Key, Cookie, and X-Custom-* headers, and never sends destructive payloads. Private IPs, localhost, and cloud metadata endpoints are blocked at multiple layers.
Continuous monitoring and integration options
With Pro tier, you can schedule rescans every 6 hours, daily, weekly, or monthly, and the system detects diffs across scans to highlight new findings, resolved items, and score drift. Alerts are sent via email at a rate-limited pace of one per hour per API, and HMAC-SHA256 signed webhooks can notify external systems, auto-disabling after 5 consecutive failures. Integration options include a CLI, a GitHub Action for CI/CD gating, an MCP Server for AI coding assistants, and a programmatic API for custom workflows.
Compliance mapping and data handling policies
middleBrick maps findings directly to PCI-DSS 4.0, SOC 2 Type II, and OWASP API Top 10 (2023). For other frameworks, it helps you prepare for and supports audit evidence related to security controls. Scan data is deletable on demand and purged within 30 days of cancellation; customer data is never sold or used for model training.