Key takeaways

• Stateful API scanning maintains session and workflow context to uncover vulnerabilities that purely stateless scans miss.
• Preserving authentication and sequence data allows accurate testing of real-world API behavior and logic.
• Invicti combines stateful API scanning with proof-based verification to confirm exploitable issues and reduce false positives.
• Integrated API discovery and ASPM visibility help teams find, test, and manage all APIs across web applications.
• Context-aware scanning improves coverage, prioritization, and compliance alignment across enterprise environments.

The rise of APIs and the challenge of state

APIs power microservices, mobile applications, and cloud-native systems that connect users, data, and business logic. With so many services communicating through APIs, every interaction delivers functionality but can also carry a risk of exposure.

At the same time, the more interconnected these systems become, the more complex their workflows and dependencies get. Many APIs rely on authentication tokens, session IDs, or request sequences to perform a task. Processing each of these adds to the current state, or a memory of previous actions or inputs that defines what comes next.

Just like REST APIs themselves, traditional API scans were entirely stateless and relied on sending, receiving, and analyzing isolated requests with no knowledge of context or session history. This allowed generic DAST tools to do some API scanning but with gaps in coverage. In real-world applications, ignoring the state between calls can mean missing vulnerabilities that only emerge when the system maintains continuity from one step to the next.

What is stateful API scanning?

Stateful API scanning refers to automated API vulnerability scanning that tests APIs while preserving context across multi-step requests, thus ensuring that authentication, session data, and business logic are carried through as they are in actual use.

Differences between stateless and stateful scanning

A stateless scan treats every API call as separate and independent. It checks each endpoint for vulnerabilities based on its pre-scan and crawl settings but does not store information about what happened previously, such as a login step or token exchange, or modify its checks based on the results of such a previous operation.

A stateful scan, on the other hand, understands that actions happen in sequence. It remembers authentication, cookies, headers, and request data from prior calls, replaying them as needed to simulate real workflows. This allows the scanner to traverse and test entire processes rather than isolated endpoints.

Why preserving authentication and session state is critical

Authentication is rarely a single call since APIs use tokens, sessions, or cookies that need to be refreshed and maintained. If a scanner cannot handle this continuity, it cannot meaningfully test restricted endpoints or evaluate how the system enforces authorization.

By preserving state, a scanner can step through and test authenticated sequences as a genuine user would – from login to account operations to logout. This allows for detecting vulnerabilities such as privilege escalation or broken session management that would be invisible in stateless tests.

Real-world example: Scanning shopping cart or payment workflows

Consider a typical e-commerce API: a user logs in, adds items to a cart, reviews the cart, and then proceeds to payment. Each step depends on information from the previous one and on session-specific data such as a session token or cart ID.

A stateless scan might successfully test the login or payment endpoints individually (if set up to authenticate properly) but fail to reveal vulnerabilities in how data flows between them. Stateful scanning reproduces the whole journey, following the same logic that a customer (or attacker) would, exposing risks in cart validation, transaction integrity, or chained authorization flaws.

Why context matters for API security

Without context, scans miss chained vulnerabilities and logic flaws that can only be seen when requests depend on one another.

Detecting broken object-level authorization (BOLA)

BOLA vulnerabilities often arise when an authenticated user can access or modify objects they do not own by manipulating IDs or parameters. Detecting these issues requires stateful awareness of user identity and prior interactions. Stateful API scanning carries that context forward and makes it possible to identify when object access violates authorization rules.

Identifying business logic flaws that only appear across steps

Logic vulnerabilities often emerge not from single requests but from how multiple requests interact, like when you’re able to place an order without completing payment or skipping validation steps. Stateful scanning reveals these flaws by executing entire workflows and replicating sequences that mimic real attack paths.

Reducing false negatives through workflow-aware scanning

Stateless API security testing can leave many genuine issues undetected, resulting in so-called false negatives. Stateful scanning closes many of these gaps by testing APIs as integrated systems rather than disconnected endpoints. By preserving workflow context, it can expose vulnerabilities that would otherwise remain hidden to stateless testing.

Benefits of stateful API scanning with Invicti

Invicti’s API scanning uses the industry’s most advanced dynamic testing engine to deliver accurate, actionable results through both stateless and stateful checks. Results are verified through Invicti’s proof-based scanning technology where applicable, providing confirmation for many exploitable vulnerabilities.

Proof-based scanning confirms exploitable API issues

Invicti automatically verifies many types of vulnerabilities by safely demonstrating their exploitability. This proof-based scanning mechanism eliminates guesswork and false positives for confirmed issues, allowing teams to focus on exploitable flaws first.

Unified coverage for web apps, APIs, and microservices in one platform

With the Invicti Platform, API testing isn’t separate from application security but an integral part of a single, unified workflow. Scanning APIs and web application frontends together within a common process provides consistent visibility across your entire attack surface.

ASPM integration: Centralized visibility and prioritized remediation

Invicti’s application security posture management (ASPM) capabilities consolidate findings from DAST, SAST, SCA, and API security into one view. Vulnerabilities are correlated and prioritized by severity, exploitability, and business impact, helping teams act on what matters most.

Compliance alignment with OWASP API Top 10 and regulatory mandates

Stateful API scanning directly addresses categories such as broken authentication, excessive data exposure, and BOLA – some of the main risks highlighted in the OWASP API Top 10. This supports compliance with industry standards and helps demonstrate due diligence under data protection and security frameworks.

API discovery for broader visibility

Invicti automatically discovers and catalogs APIs across web environments using active crawling, passive analysis, optional agent-based analysis, and imported definitions such as OpenAPI or Postman files. When combined with stateful API scanning, discovery ensures that all detected APIs and workflows are tested with full context, reducing blind spots and improving overall coverage across applications and services.

Best practices for implementing stateful API scanning

• Keep API documentation accurate: Accurate specifications guide the scanner and reduce blind spots. Keeping these files updated ensures that every documented endpoint and parameter is tested in context.
• Run API discovery to find shadow APIs: Undocumented APIs also need to be inventoried and tested, and automated discovery helps fill those documentation gaps.
• Map complex workflows and authentication flows: Before scanning, document any multi-step processes and session handling mechanisms. This helps define how tokens, cookies, and credentials must be maintained for realistic testing.
• Automate API scans within CI/CD pipelines: Integrating scans early in development allows vulnerabilities to be caught before deployment, supporting secure DevSecOps practices. This requires dynamic scanning to complement static security testing.
• Combine API and application security to reduce blind spots: Dynamic scans, static analysis, and composition analysis each reveal different risks. Combining them within a unified platform such as Invicti ensures broad coverage from code to runtime.

Business benefits of context-aware API scanning

• Reduced risk from overlooked API flaws: Stateful scanning minimizes the chance of missed vulnerabilities in complex workflows, reducing the likelihood of costly breaches.
• Lower remediation costs and faster response times: By proving each finding and identifying the root cause, Invicti shortens remediation cycles and reduces wasted effort.
• Stronger compliance and audit readiness: Organizations can demonstrate comprehensive API testing aligned with security frameworks, making audits smoother and more defensible.
• Improved developer and security team collaboration: Accurate, validated results remove friction between teams, enabling faster fixes and fostering trust in the testing process.

Conclusion: Stateful scanning puts the context into API security

Stateless scanning alone isn’t enough for API-first application architectures. As APIs become more interconnected and business-critical, security testing must also account for how these systems actually work, which includes not only isolated endpoint responses but also sequences, sessions, and interdependent logic.

API vulnerability scanning on the Invicti platform combines discovery with stateless and stateful testing to help you find, test, and secure as much of your API attack surface as possible – and all while maintaining the accuracy and efficiency of proof-based DAST.

Get a proof-of-concept demo of Invicti’s proof-based API scanning.