Dynamic application security testing (DAST) reveals zero-day and runtime vulnerabilities that static tools can’t catch by analyzing how applications behave when running. With Invicti’s proof-based scanning, teams get verified, actionable findings that cut through false positives and help stop real threats before attackers exploit them.
Some of the most dangerous security threats are also the hardest to detect. Zero-day vulnerabilities are flaws that:
These aren’t theoretical risks but real attack vectors with no warning and high impact.
What makes them so elusive? They often don’t appear as clear-cut code errors detectable by static patterns. Instead, they emerge in dynamic application logic, environment-specific configurations, or unexpected interactions that only occur at runtime.
Similarly, runtime vulnerabilities include security flaws that:
In other words, you can’t catch what you can’t simulate, and static tools simply weren’t built to test how apps behave when they’re running. That’s why best practice is to always pair static analysis with runtime testing and to run DAST against non-production environments seeded with non-production data.
Dynamic testing with DAST approaches security from the outside in, just like an attacker would. Instead of analyzing source code, it probes the live application and its running components to identify real, exploitable behavior.
DAST scans the application in its deployed state, using a range of automated attack techniques:
Because it only interacts with the app over HTTP/HTTPS, DAST emulates real-world attacker behavior and uncovers issues that only surface during execution.
Unlike tools that rely purely on known insecure code patterns or CVE databases, DAST doesn’t need to look at the source code to test an app for vulnerabilities. By sending crafted input and analyzing responses, it can expose previously unknown issues within known vulnerability classes as well as custom logic flaws.Â
If the app reacts in an insecure way, revealing data, breaking flow, or exposing unauthorized resources, DAST flags the issue, even if it’s never been seen or reported before – which is often the case with new first-party code.
This makes DAST especially effective for:
DAST can scan both public and internal endpoints, revealing vulnerabilities exposed across:
It picks up issues missed by code review or hidden in deployed components, including runtime dependencies, making it a powerful tool for mapping and testing your real external attack surface.
Invicti extends the power of DAST with unique features that maximize runtime visibility and minimize false positives.
For common vulnerability classes that can be safely exploited, Invicti provides vulnerability reports that are automatically confirmed and include a read-only proof of exploit or even (where technically possible) a proof of concept to safely reproduce the issue. This shows you that the vulnerability isn’t theoretical but very much real, exploitable, and actionable.
Teams can:
Zero-days often lurk behind login portals, in admin interfaces, or inside user workflows. Invicti supports:
This ensures scans penetrate protected areas of the application and detect vulnerabilities where they’re most likely to matter.
Runtime issues are often tied to how users interact with the app, not just what the app is made of. Invicti can simulate these workflows and uncover flaws like:
These are vulnerabilities static tools seldom catch, yet they’re among the most exploited in the real world. Detection for issues such as IDOR and broken access control is strongest when configured with multiple roles, as is possible on the Invicti Platform.
Modern apps rely heavily on APIs, and their dynamic nature makes them fertile ground for zero-day exploits. Invicti supports API scanning of:
It tests these interfaces as an attacker would, validating inputs, observing outputs, and catching insecure logic in real time.
Not all risks live in code. Here are examples of vulnerabilities that are often invisible to SAST/SCA tools but exposed by DAST:
A user manually changes a URL parameter to access another user’s data, bypassing access control checks. Easy to exploit in production. Hard to spot in static analysis. Best results require multi-role test accounts and authenticated scans.
An endpoint is accidentally excluded from authentication logic. It looks secure in code but is reachable at runtime without proper checks.
Some input handling vulnerabilities only appear at runtime when specific encodings or payloads are processed, which DAST uncovers through input variation and payload testing.
Each of these examples highlights a core truth: you can’t secure what you can’t simulate. For all these checks, the best practice is to run in controlled production-identical environments to avoid unintended side effects in live systems.
Invicti advocates a DAST-first approach because it reflects how attackers think and how applications fail in real-world use. Of course, DAST-first doesn’t mean DAST-only — you can and should pair DAST with static SCA and SAST to cover supply-chain exposure and unreachable code paths, using DAST to validate exploitability and prioritize real risk.
Instead of chasing theoretical bugs or hypothetical risk, a DAST-first strategy lets you:
This means your teams can:
Static tools find bugs in code. But real breaches happen in runtime, when applications interact with users, systems, and data under dynamic conditions. That’s where DAST excels.
With DAST on the Invicti Platform, you can discover runtime vulnerabilities that static tools miss, validate many common issues with proof, scan APIs, web apps, and complex flows with confidence, and stay ahead of zero-day threats before they become breach headlines.