Implement comprehensive API security testing using the 42Crunch platform to perform static audit and dynamic conformance scanning of OpenAPI specifications.
Implement comprehensive API security testing using the 42Crunch platform to perform static audit and dynamic conformance scanning of OpenAPI specifications.
42Crunch is an API security platform that combines Shift-Left security testing with Shield-Right runtime protection. It provides API Audit for static security analysis of OpenAPI definitions, API Conformance Scan for dynamic vulnerability detection, and API Protect for real-time threat prevention. The platform integrates into CI/CD pipelines and IDEs to identify OWASP API Security Top 10 vulnerabilities before and after deployment.
When to Use
When deploying or configuring implementing api security testing with 42crunch capabilities in your environment
When establishing security controls aligned to compliance requirements
When building or improving security architecture for this domain
When conducting security assessments that require this implementation
Common Misconfigurations & Verification
Audit score without a dynamic scan: a high static audit score on the OAS says nothing about the running API - always pair Audit with a Conformance Scan against a live target.
Spec does not equal implementation: the deployed API may expose endpoints/fields absent from the audited spec; scan the real instance and reconcile.
additionalProperties/readOnly gaps: Audit flags these but they must be enforced at runtime (API Protect or backend), not just documented.
CI gate that doesn't fail the build: a min-score set too low or an ignored exit code lets regressions merge.
Auth misconfigured for the scan: a scan running unauthenticated reports a false "clean" - supply valid tokens in 42c-conf.yaml.
How to verify it works: run Audit and confirm it flags missing auth/constraints; run the Conformance Scan against staging with valid auth and confirm OWASP checks (BOLA/BFLA/injection) execute; intentionally break the spec (remove a constraint) and confirm the CI min-score gate fails the build; diff scanned endpoints against the OAS to catch undocumented routes.
Prerequisites
42Crunch platform account (free tier available for evaluation)
OpenAPI Specification (OAS) v2.0, v3.0, or v3.1 definitions for target APIs
IDE with 42Crunch extension (VS Code, IntelliJ, or Eclipse)
CI/CD pipeline (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, or GitLab CI)
Running API instance for dynamic scanning (conformance scan)
Node.js or Python environment for CLI tooling
Core Concepts
API Audit (Static Analysis)
API Audit performs static security analysis of OpenAPI definitions without requiring a running API. It evaluates the specification against 300+ security checks organized into categories:
Security Score Categories:
Data Validation: Schema definitions, parameter constraints, response validation
The conformance scan dynamically tests a running API against its OpenAPI contract to detect runtime vulnerabilities including OWASP API Security Top 10 issues: