The evolution of DAST: Meeting the API security challenge

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: Experience makes the difference

API security testing represents one of the most complex aspects of modern application security. Invicti’s platform is designed to tackle these challenges through:

• Comprehensive API coverage: Our solution effectively scans REST, GraphQL, SOAP, and gRPC APIs with equal precision
• Schema-first approach: Support for OpenAPI/Swagger enables both schema validation and runtime testing
• Business logic analysis: We identify sophisticated API vulnerabilities that static analysis and schema validation alone cannot detect
• Authentication handling: Our platform navigates complex API authentication flows, including OAuth, JWT, and custom token mechanisms
• Stateful API testing: We maintain session state and context across complex API workflows

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.

API discovery: Expanding DAST reach

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.

Finding shadow APIs

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:

• Nginx reverse proxy (via syslog) 
• Kong Gateway (via plugin) 
• Kubernetes Istio service mesh (via plugin)
• Kubernetes native pcap for HTTP traffic (via plugin)
• F5 BIG-IP (via plugin)

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.

Comprehensive discovery methods

Beyond network traffic analysis, our platform incorporates additional discovery techniques:

• Schema and definition detection: The scanner automatically imports supported API definition files encountered during application crawling and examines URL structures for API patterns
• API management integration: Direct connections with API management platforms like AWS Amazon API Gateway, Apigee API Hub, and Azure API Management consolidate discovery and enable continuous security testing
• Proxy-based discovery: Support for industry-standard proxy export formats allows teams to capture and analyze API traffic, particularly valuable for mobile application backends

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.

Why experience matters in security testing

Experience plays a critical role in developing effective security testing tools for several reasons:

1. The complexity of edge cases

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:

• Detect vulnerabilities in non-standard implementations
• Handle unexpected API behaviors that would confuse less mature tools
• Maintain accuracy when facing complex, nested API interactions

2. False positive reduction through pattern recognition

One of the most challenging aspects of security testing is distinguishing genuine vulnerabilities from false positives. Our extensive scanning history has enabled us to:

• Build sophisticated correlation engines that recognize patterns across diverse codebases
• Develop contextual awareness that understands when a potential issue isn’t exploitable
• Continually refine our detection algorithms based on validated results

3. Performance optimization through data-driven improvement

Over two decades of scanning has helped us:

• Optimize testing sequences to maximize coverage while minimizing scan time
• Develop intelligent targeting that focuses testing on vulnerable components
• Create efficient authentication and session handling that reduces overhead

There’s simply no shortcut to this kind of refinement. Every API we scan adds to our knowledge base and improves our testing capabilities.

The maturation advantage: Learning through experience

Over 20+ years, our scanning engines have analyzed millions of web applications and APIs. That experience delivers better outcomes through:

• Adaptation to virtually every framework, architecture and implementation pattern
• Continuous refinement of detection algorithms based on real-world scanning results
• Minimized false positives through pattern recognition across diverse codebases
• Optimized performance based on learning from billions of scanning data points

Accelerating innovation through dedicated focus

API security and DAST remain our primary focus and core competency. This dedicated focus means:

• Our engineering resources are concentrated on advancing dynamic testing capabilities
• We’re able to move quickly to enhance our API security testing
• Our roadmap is driven by improving our ability to detect emerging API vulnerabilities
• We can respond efficiently to new API frameworks and authentication methods

Modern applications require evolved solutions

Authentication: meeting modern challenges

API authentication mechanisms require sophisticated handling. Our DAST-first platform offers:

• OAuth/OIDC integration: Seamless testing of APIs using modern authorization frameworks
• JWT analysis: Deep inspection of token implementation and handling
• Session management: Intelligent handling of complex session states across distributed APIs
• Custom authentication sequences: Record-and-replay capabilities for proprietary authentication flows

CI/CD integration for DevSecOps

Our solution is designed to work within modern development and DevSecOps workflows:

• Pipeline integration: Native support for popular CI/CD platforms
• API-first testing: Ability to test APIs during development before UI implementation
• Actionable results: Developer-friendly reporting with remediation guidance
• Shift-left capability: Early API security testing without compromising thoroughness

The value of enterprise scale

Our solution delivers at enterprise scale:

• Precision results: Advanced correlation engines that minimize false positives
• Cross-API context: Understanding attack paths that span multiple services
• Compliance mapping: Automated alignment with regulatory frameworks
• Risk-based prioritization: Intelligent prioritization based on business impact

Conclusion: Continuous evolution in API security

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.