Alternatives to APIsec for Solo founders

middleBrick is a self-service API security scanner that requires no agents, SDKs, or code access. You submit a URL and receive a risk score from A to F with prioritized findings. The scanner operates in black-box mode using read-only methods (GET and HEAD) and text-only POST for LLM probes. Scan times stay under one minute, and the approach works with any language, framework, or cloud stack.

The scanner detects issues across 12 categories aligned to OWASP API Top 10 (2023). It maps findings to PCI-DSS 4.0 and SOC 2 Type II where applicable, and supports audit evidence for additional frameworks through alignment. Detection coverage includes authentication bypass, JWT misconfigurations such as alg=none or expired tokens, BOLA and IDOR via sequential ID probing, BFLA and privilege escalation attempts, property over-exposure, input validation issues like CORS wildcard usage, rate-limiting characteristics, data exposure patterns including PII and API key formats, encryption misconfigurations, SSRF indicators, and inventory management gaps. An LLM security tier runs 18 adversarial probes across Quick, Standard, and Deep scans, testing for system prompt extraction, jailbreaks, and data exfiltration vectors.

middleBrick parses OpenAPI 3.0, 3.1, and Swagger 2.0 documents with recursive $ref resolution, cross-referencing spec definitions against runtime findings. This highlights undefined security schemes, sensitive fields, deprecated operations, and missing pagination. For authenticated scans, Bearer tokens, API keys, Basic auth, and cookies are supported, with a domain verification gate to ensure only domain owners can scan with credentials. The scanner forwards a restricted set of headers, including Authorization, X-API-Key, Cookie, and X-Custom-*, to limit exposure while validating authenticated surface.

The Web Dashboard centralizes scans, report viewing, score trend tracking, and downloadable compliance PDFs. The CLI via the middlebrick npm package supports commands such as middlebrick scan <url> with JSON or text output. A GitHub Action can gate CI/CD, failing builds when scores drop below a set threshold. The MCP Server enables scans from AI coding assistants. Pro tier adds scheduled rescans every 6 hours, daily, weekly, or monthly, diff detection across scans, email alerts at a rate-limited pace of 1 per hour per API, HMAC-SHA256 signed webhooks, and Slack or Teams notifications. Enterprise tiers provide unlimited APIs, custom rules, SSO, audit logs, SLAs, and dedicated support.

middleBrick follows a read-only methodology and never sends destructive payloads. Private IPs, localhost, and cloud metadata endpoints are blocked at multiple layers. Customer data can be deleted on demand and is purged within 30 days of cancellation. The tool 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, detect business logic flaws, or replace a human pentester for high-stakes audits. These limitations are surfaced explicitly to set accurate expectations.