Alternatives to 42Crunch for Security architects

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. The scanner uses only read-only methods (GET and HEAD) and text-only POST for LLM probes, requiring no agents, SDKs, or build-time instrumentation. Because it does not need access to source code or a runtime environment, it works with any language, framework, or cloud deployment.

The scanner detects issues across 12 categories aligned to OWASP API Top 10 (2023). It also maps findings to PCI-DSS 4.0 and SOC 2 Type II, and supports audit evidence for other security controls through its detection capabilities. Areas covered include authentication bypasses, JWT misconfigurations such as alg=none or expired tokens, BOLA and IDOR via sequential ID probing, BFLA and privilege escalation attempts, over-exposed properties and mass-assignment surfaces, input validation issues like CORS wildcards and dangerous HTTP methods, rate-limiting characteristics, data exposure including PII and API key formats, encryption misconfigurations, SSRF indicators, and inventory management gaps. An additional category targets LLM and AI Security with adversarial probes across Quick, Standard, and Deep scan tiers.

middleBrick parses OpenAPI 3.0, 3.1, and Swagger 2.0 documents and resolves recursive $ref references. It cross-references spec definitions against runtime behavior to identify undefined security schemes, sensitive fields, deprecated operations, and missing pagination. For authenticated scans, supported methods include Bearer tokens, API keys, Basic auth, and cookies. A domain verification gate, such as a DNS TXT record or an HTTP well-known file, ensures that only the domain owner can run authenticated scans. The scanner forwards a restricted set of headers, limited to Authorization, X-API-Key, Cookie, and X-Custom-* headers.

With Pro tier capabilities, you can schedule rescans at intervals of every 6 hours, daily, weekly, or monthly. The system detects diffs between scans to highlight new findings, resolved issues, and score drift. Alerts are rate-limited to one email per hour per API and can be delivered via email, Slack, or Teams. HMAC-SHA256 signed webhooks notify external systems of scan results, with auto-disable after 5 consecutive failures. Integration options include a web dashboard for tracking score trends and downloading branded compliance PDFs, a CLI available as an npm package with JSON or text output, a GitHub Action that can fail CI/CD builds when scores drop below a threshold, and an MCP Server for use with AI coding assistants.

middleBrick is a scanner that detects and reports; it does not fix, patch, block, or remediate. It does not perform active SQL injection or command injection tests, which require intrusive payloads outside its scope, and it does not detect business logic vulnerabilities that demand domain-specific human analysis. Blind SSRF and other out-of-band infrastructure tests are also out of scope. Safety measures include read-only methods only, blocking private IPs, localhost, and cloud metadata endpoints at multiple layers. Customer scan data is deletable on demand and purged within 30 days of cancellation, and it is never sold or used for model training.