Modern API security demands more than just parsing definitions—it requires dynamic testing built on real-world experience. Invicti’s DAST-first approach combines comprehensive scanning, intelligent discovery, and proven techniques to uncover, validate, and prioritize vulnerabilities across today’s complex API environments.
In an API-driven world, application security testing must adapt to evolving architectures, authentication methods, and attack vectors. As the Director of Product Management for the industry’s only DAST-first AppSec platform, I’ve seen firsthand how dynamic testing must evolve to remain effective—especially when it comes to securing APIs. Drawing on our deep experience in dynamic application security testing (DAST), this post outlines how our approach continues to advance to meet the growing demands of modern API security.
API security testing represents one of the most complex aspects of modern application security. Invicti’s platform is designed to tackle these challenges through:
What sets our approach apart is the depth of experience behind it. Effective API security testing requires more than understanding specifications—it demands real-world experience with how APIs are built and behave.
Traditional DAST tools struggle with API discovery, as APIs aren’t crawlable like websites. Unlike those tools, Invicti uses a multi-layered approach to uncover even the most elusive endpoints.
A critical capability is detecting shadow or undocumented APIs—interfaces that exist in your environment but aren’t officially tracked. Our Network Traffic Analyzer (NTA) works as a sidecar deployment within your environment, examining application traffic patterns while maintaining security.
NTA integrates with existing infrastructure components that serve as traffic sources, including:
More integrations are planned—submit your integration requests to invicti.com/roadmap.
This setup allows continuous processing of traffic metadata from both incoming and outgoing traffic. The system analyzes these traffic patterns to identify REST API signatures and group endpoints into OpenAPI specifications, which are automatically added to the platform’s API inventory.
Beyond network traffic analysis, our platform incorporates additional discovery techniques:
This multi-layered discovery approach ensures visibility across your entire API ecosystem, including endpoints not covered by traditional discovery methods that might otherwise remain hidden from security testing.
Experience plays a critical role in developing effective security testing tools for several reasons:
Through testing millions of applications and APIs, we’ve encountered virtually every implementation pattern, framework quirk, and security edge case. This exposure allows us to:
One of the most challenging aspects of security testing is distinguishing genuine vulnerabilities from false positives. Our extensive scanning history has enabled us to:
Over two decades of scanning has helped us:
There’s simply no shortcut to this kind of refinement. Every API we scan adds to our knowledge base and improves our testing capabilities.
Over 20+ years, our scanning engines have analyzed millions of web applications and APIs. That experience delivers better outcomes through:
API security and DAST remain our primary focus and core competency. This dedicated focus means:
API authentication mechanisms require sophisticated handling. Our DAST-first platform offers:
Our solution is designed to work within modern development and DevSecOps workflows:
Our solution delivers at enterprise scale:
As API architectures continue to evolve, so does our approach to security testing. Our DAST-first platform has continuously adapted to address modern API patterns, authentication mechanisms, and emerging vulnerabilities—all while maintaining the enterprise reliability our customers depend on.
This evolution stems from millions of API scans, countless iterations, and a relentless focus on improving our engines with each deployment. As we move forward with API security testing as a core focus, we're accelerating our innovation to meet emerging challenges.
When evaluating security solutions, consider not just current capabilities but the depth of experience that drives continuous improvement. Effective API security requires tools that have been refined through real-world testing and are backed by a commitment to ongoing innovation.