Alternatives to Astra at Enterprise organizations

As an API security tool, middleBrick operates as a black-box scanner that submits read-only requests to surface misconfigurations and exposures. You submit an API endpoint, and the service returns a risk score from A to F along with prioritized findings. The scanner supports any language, framework, or cloud stack without requiring agents, SDKs, or code access. Scan duration is under one minute, and the allowed methods are limited to GET and HEAD, with text-only POST reserved for LLM probes. Because it does not modify, patch, or block anything, it functions as a detection and reporting mechanism that provides remediation guidance rather than enforcement.

middleBrick maps findings to three well-established frameworks: PCI-DSS 4.0, SOC 2 Type II, and OWASP API Top 10 (2023). Detection categories include authentication bypass and JWT misconfigurations such as alg=none or expired tokens, BOLA and IDOR via sequential ID probing, BFLA and privilege escalation through admin endpoint discovery, and property authorization issues like over-exposed internal fields. Additional coverage spans input validation including CORS wildcard misconfigurations, rate limiting and resource consumption signals, data exposure patterns such as PII and API key leakage, encryption hygiene, SSRF indicators, and inventory management concerns. The LLM security category includes 18 adversarial probes across Quick, Standard, and Deep scan tiers, addressing system prompt extraction, jailbreak techniques, and data exfiltration scenarios. OpenAPI 3.0, 3.1, and Swagger 2.0 specs are parsed with recursive $ref resolution, enabling cross-reference between spec definitions and runtime behavior.

Authenticated scanning is available from the Starter tier onward, supporting Bearer tokens, API keys, Basic auth, and cookies. Domain verification is enforced through a DNS TXT record or an HTTP well-known file, ensuring only the domain owner can submit credentials. The scanner forwards a restricted header allowlist that includes Authorization, X-API-Key, Cookie, and X-Custom-* headers. Safety measures are built into the design: only read-only methods are used, destructive payloads are never sent, and private IPs, localhost, and cloud metadata endpoints are blocked at multiple layers. Customer scan data can be deleted on demand and is purged within 30 days of cancellation, and it is never sold or used for model training.

The Web Dashboard provides a centralized view of scans, score trends, and the ability to download branded compliance PDFs. The CLI, distributed as an npm package named middlebrick, enables commands such as middlebrick scan <url> with JSON or text output. A GitHub Action is available for CI/CD gating, failing the build when the score drops below a defined threshold. The MCP Server allows scanning from AI coding assistants like Claude and Cursor, and a programmatic API client supports custom integrations. For ongoing risk management, the Pro tier offers scheduled rescans every 6 hours, daily, weekly, or monthly, along with diff detection, email alerts rate-limited to one per hour per API, and HMAC-SHA256 signed webhooks that auto-disable after five consecutive failures.

It is important to understand what the scanner does not do. It does not fix, patch, block, or remediate issues, nor does it perform active SQL injection or command injection testing, which requires intrusive payloads outside its scope. Business logic vulnerabilities are not detected, as they demand domain-specific human analysis, and blind SSRF is out of scope due to the absence of out-of-band infrastructure. The tool surfaces findings relevant to compliance activities and helps you prepare for audits aligned with security controls described in PCI-DSS 4.0, SOC 2 Type II, and OWASP API Top 10 (2023). For other frameworks, it supports audit evidence collection and aligns with security controls described in relevant standards, but it is not an auditor and cannot certify compliance.