Application Security Tools: 6 Categories and Top 18 Tools in 2025

• Categories of Application Security Tools
• Notable Application Security Tools
• Web Application and API Protection (WAAP)
• Static Application Security Testing (SAST)
• Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)
• Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST)
• Software Composition Analysis (SCA)
• Kubernetes WAF

Web Application and API Protection (WAAP)

Web Application and API Protection (WAAP) solutions extend traditional WAF capabilities to defend not just web applications but also APIs, which are now prime targets for attackers. WAAP tools incorporate protection against the full spectrum of web and API threats, including injection attacks, broken authentication, data exfiltration, and API-specific attacks like abuse of business logic.

By inspecting and filtering both web and API traffic, WAAP provides holistic security across modern application surfaces. In addition to attack prevention, WAAP platforms often include functionalities such as bot mitigation, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection, and advanced analytics. They can adapt to evolving threats using behavioral analysis and machine learning.

Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST)

Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST) combines aspects of both SAST and DAST, providing a hybrid approach by monitoring applications from within as they run in test or QA environments. IAST agents are embedded into the application, allowing them to analyze runtime data, code execution, and user interactions simultaneously.

This technique enables more precise identification of vulnerabilities and their exact location in the code, reducing false positives and accelerating remediation. IAST tools fit well into DevOps workflows, offering continuous security feedback as developers conduct functional and integration tests.

Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)

Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) tools assess applications from the outside while they are executing, simulating how an attacker might exploit them in a live environment. DAST targets running applications and focuses on discovering vulnerabilities like cross-site scripting, SQL injection, and authentication problems via real HTTP requests.

Because DAST analyzes the application in real time, it is effective for identifying issues that may only be detectable during execution, such as misconfigurations and logic flaws. DAST tools are commonly used as part of pre-release testing but are also valuable in ongoing monitoring of web applications in production. They require no access to source code, making them suitable for black-box testing.

While DAST tools provide actionable insights for fixing exploitable vulnerabilities, they typically do not pinpoint the exact location of issues in the source code, requiring coordination between testers and developers to resolve findings.

Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

Static Application Security Testing (SAST) tools analyze application source code, bytecode, or binaries for security vulnerabilities without executing the program. SAST scans help developers identify weaknesses such as input validation errors, buffer overflows, and other common coding mistakes that could be exploited by attackers.

Since SAST operates early in the development process, it allows teams to detect and remediate vulnerabilities before the application is deployed, minimizing both the cost and risk associated with fixing security defects later. Additionally, SAST tools can be integrated directly into development environments and CI/CD pipelines, enabling continuous scanning.

With critical issues flagged before applications are released, organizations can enforce secure coding standards and maintain compliance with regulatory requirements. However, SAST tools may produce false positives and require contextual knowledge to interpret results accurately.

Software Composition Analysis (SCA)

Software Composition Analysis (SCA) tools focus on identifying vulnerabilities and license compliance issues in open-source and third-party components used within an application. As modern applications frequently rely on numerous libraries and external dependencies, SCA provides visibility into the software supply chain.

By automatically scanning dependency trees, SCA tools alert developers to known vulnerabilities in external packages and recommend safer alternatives or patches. SCA solutions help reduce risk by ensuring that applications are not shipping with exploitable third-party libraries. Beyond vulnerability detection, SCA also tracks open-source licenses to avoid legal and compliance issues.

Kubernetes WAF

Kubernetes Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) are specialized security tools designed to protect containerized applications running inside Kubernetes clusters. Unlike traditional WAFs that operate at the network or application perimeter, Kubernetes WAFs are deployed natively within Kubernetes environments and integrate with cluster workloads.

They guard against common web application attacks, including OWASP Top 10 threats, by filtering and monitoring HTTP traffic destined for services running in containers. These WAFs provide context-aware protection tailored for dynamic, distributed environments where microservices constantly evolve. They can take advantage of Kubernetes-native features like labels, namespaces, and service discovery to apply granular security policies.

Radware Cloud Application Protection Service is a unified, cloud-based platform that secures web applications and APIs against advanced cyber threats, including OWASP Top 10 risks, API vulnerabilities, automated bot attacks, and application-layer DDoS. Delivered through Radware’s innovative SecurePath™ architecture, it provides consistent, high-performance protection across on-premise, private, public, and hybrid cloud environments—including Kubernetes—without requiring route changes or SSL certificate sharing.

Key features include:

Comprehensive protection: Combines WAF, API security, bot management, client-side protection, and Layer-7 DDoS mitigation in one solution.
Advanced threat coverage: Defends against more than 150 attack vectors, including OWASP Top 10 Web Application Risks, Top 10 API Security Vulnerabilities, and Top 21 Automated Threats to Web Applications.
SecurePath™ architecture: Ensures reduced latency, centralized visibility, and consistent security policies across distributed environments.
Machine-learning–driven defense: Uses positive security models and behavioral analysis to detect anomalies, block zero-day attacks, and minimize false positives.
Bot management optimization: Differentiates between "good" and "bad" bots, improving policy efficiency and maintaining seamless user experience.
Scalability and compliance: Supports enterprise growth with elastic cloud deployment while meeting PCI DSS, GDPR, and other global compliance requirements.

Source: Radware

F5 provides a unified platform for securing modern web applications and APIs across hybrid, multicloud, and on-premises environments. Designed to address the rising complexity and risk in digital ecosystems, the F5 Application Delivery and Security Platform (ADSP) delivers continuous protection against threats like zero-day exploits, malicious bots, and DDoS attacks.

Key features include:

WAF: Defends apps and APIs against OWASP Top 10 and zero-day threats, with support for virtual patching and policy automation.
Continuous defense: Monitors and protects application logic and APIs in real-time to reduce business risk and improve resilience.
Bot mitigation: Detects and neutralizes malicious automation using AI-driven analysis and behavioral telemetry.
DDoS protection: Guards against multi-vector denial-of-service attacks with architecture-agnostic deployment options.
API discovery and protection: Provides full lifecycle API security, from dynamic discovery to runtime protection and operational insights.

Source: F5

AppTrana is an AI-powered web application and API security platform offering protection, visibility, and remediation in a fully managed model. It integrates attack surface management, vulnerability scanning, automated remediation, API security, bot mitigation, and DDoS protection into a single platform.

Key features include:

Managed WAF: Protects against OWASP Top 10 threats, zero-day exploits, bots, and DDoS attacks with rule tuning and continuous monitoring.
Autonomous remediation (SwyftComply): Remediates critical, high, and medium vulnerabilities with AI-driven virtual patching.
Attack surface management (ASM): Continuously discovers exposed web assets for proactive risk reduction.
DDoS and bot mitigation: Uses behavior-based AI detection and unmetered traffic filtering to block volumetric and automated attacks without static rate-limiting.
API security: Automatically scans public-facing APIs for vulnerabilities and applies protections using positive security models.

Source: Indusface

SonarQube's static application security testing tool improves code security by scanning source code for vulnerabilities, bugs, and risky patterns that could lead to breaches. Its advanced SAST capability extends traditional SAST by analyzing interactions with third-party open-source libraries. This allows SonarQube to uncover security flaws hidden in application dependencies.

Key features include:

Dataflow tracing: Analyzes both application code and third-party library interactions to find hidden issues.
Taint analysis: Tracks untrusted input across the application to detect risks like injection attacks.
Rule sets: Supports security standards such as OWASP Top 10, CWE Top 25, and PCI DSS.
Multi-language support: Covers over 30 languages, including Java, C#, JavaScript, Python, and C++.
Security hotspots: Flags risky code patterns for developer review and learning.

Source: SonarQube

Semgrep is a SAST tool to make security actionable for developers by delivering fast findings in their workflow. Unlike traditional SAST tools that overwhelm users with low-quality results, Semgrep focuses on fix rate, ensuring developers resolve the issues surfaced. It supports over 30 programming languages and frameworks, and uses a combination of rules and triage.

Key features include:

High-confidence rules: Offers "Pro rules" tuned for developer workflows to surface only actionable findings.
Fast scanning performance: Most code scans complete in under 5 minutes, keeping pace with developer commits.
Auto-triage with Semgrep Assistant: Uses GPT-4 and rule-specific prompts to flag false positives and provide fix recommendations.
Auto-fix support: Developers can apply suggested fixes directly, speeding up resolution.
Context-aware feedback: Findings are delivered in developer-native environments like pull requests and Jira tickets.

Source: Semgrep

Mend SAST is a static application security testing solution to secure human- and AI-generated code within development workflows. By embedding security into AI assistants and source repositories, it enables near real-time identification and remediation of vulnerabilities before code is committed.

Key features include:

AI workflow integration: Feeds findings into AI code assistants (e.g., Cursor) for inline, automated remediation.
Pre-commit scanning: Detects and fixes flaws before code is pushed, preventing vulnerabilities at the source.
In-repo feedback: Scans run up to 10× faster than traditional SAST tools, delivering immediate results.
High-accuracy detection: Achieves high precision and better recall than competing SAST solutions.
Noise reduction: Groups related issues to surface only relevant findings linked to recent code changes.

Source: Mend

Zed Attack Proxy (ZAP) is a free, open-source DAST tool to help developers and testers identify security vulnerabilities in web applications. Functioning as a "man-in-the-middle" proxy, ZAP intercepts traffic between a browser and the application, enabling users to inspect and manipulate requests and responses. It supports both passive and active scanning modes.

Key features include:

Dynamic analysis engine: Intercepts and analyzes live traffic between browser and application to identify vulnerabilities.
Passive and active scanning: Conducts non-intrusive scans or performs real attack simulations (with permission).
Two types of spiders: Includes both a traditional HTML spider and an AJAX spider for JavaScript-heavy apps.
Quick start automated scanning: Simple interface to crawl and scan applications with minimal setup.
Cross-platform support: Available on Windows, Linux, macOS, and as Docker images.

Source: ZAProxy

Rapid7 InsightAppSec is a DAST solution to scan web applications and APIs for vulnerabilities through black-box testing. It identifies and prioritizes security risks automatically, helping security teams and developers focus on the most pressing issues. Its cloud-native architecture and optional on-premise scanning support both public-facing and internal applications.

Key features include:

Black-box scanning: Performs dynamic testing without requiring access to source code.
Web and API support: Effectively detects vulnerabilities in single-page apps and RESTful APIs.
Attack replay: Allows developers to validate and retest vulnerabilities directly from scan results.
Universal translator: Normalizes traffic and supports over 95 attack types for accurate detection.
Fast setup: Cloud-based scans can begin in minutes with no local software installation required.

Source: Rapid7

Checkmarx DAST is an enterprise-grade application security testing solution to secure live applications and APIs through runtime analysis, simplified onboarding, and integration into the software development lifecycle. Delivered via the Checkmarx One platform, it simplifies AppSec with automated authentication, API coverage, and risk-based prioritization.

Key features include:

Simple onboarding: Instant setup with built-in onboarding wizards and auto-authentication support.
Authentication handling: Supports 2FA, SSO, and complex login flows with browser recording and script-based methods.
Complete API protection: Scans live APIs, detects shadow APIs, and uncovers vulnerabilities missed by traditional tools.
Risk-based prioritization: Leverages application security posture management (ASPM) to unify and rank risks across tools.
Policy correlation: Simplifies remediation by linking scan results to enterprise security policies and developer workflows.

Source: Checkmarx

Acunetix is a DAST tool that becomes an IAST solution when paired with its AcuSensor technology. By deploying AcuSensor within an application's runtime environment, Acunetix provides insight into backend code execution, enabling vulnerability detection and simplified remediation. This grey-box approach integrates DAST and source-level analysis.

Key features include:

AcuSensor IAST integration: Transforms Acunetix into a hybrid scanner with code-level insight.
Runtime code analysis: Detects exact file locations and stack traces for faster vulnerability remediation.
Language support: Works with applications built in PHP, Node.js, Java (Spring), and ASP.NET.
Application mapping: Identifies unlinked or hidden files and parameters, including unused GET/POST inputs.
High-confidence findings: Detects critical issues like SQL injection, file inclusion, and code injection with near-zero false positives.

Source: Acunetix

Black Duck Seeker is an IAST solution to automate security testing within DevOps pipelines, helping teams identify and remediate vulnerabilities in web applications before they reach production. It combines active verification with sensitive-data tracking to validate vulnerabilities and highlight the flow of sensitive information.

Key features include:

Active vulnerability verification: Automatically confirms whether detected issues are exploitable, reducing false positives.
Sensitive-data tracking: Identifies exposure of critical data to support compliance with PCI DSS, GDPR, and other regulations.
CI/CD and DevOps integration: Fits into existing pipelines with native integrations, APIs, and plugins.
Zero-configuration deployment: Delivers accurate results quickly without the need for extensive setup or tuning.
Real-time scanning: Monitors live interactions during functional testing to detect vulnerabilities instantly.

Source: Black Duck

Aikido is an application security platform that includes interactive application security testing (IAST) as part of its unified suite. It helps development teams secure their code, APIs, infrastructure, containers, and cloud environments. Aikido combines automated scanning with runtime protection and vulnerability triage to reduce noise and surface actionable risks.

Key features include:

Integrated IAST and DAST: Actively monitors runtime behavior and simulates real-world attacks to detect SQL injection, XSS, CSRF, and other vulnerabilities.
End-to-end coverage: Combines IAST with SAST, SCA, DAST, container scanning, and cloud posture management for complete security visibility.
API security testing: Scans every API endpoint, including authenticated ones, using a Nuclei-based engine to uncover common API flaws.
CI/CD integration: Hooks directly into your development workflows to catch vulnerabilities before code reaches production.
False positive reduction: Uses triaging and reachability analysis to highlight only exploitable, high-risk issues.

Source: Aikido

Sonatype Lifecycle is a software composition analysis solution for automated dependency management, policy enforcement, and actionable remediation guidance. Designed for both developers and security teams, it integrates into the tools developers already use, offering visibility and control over open source and AI component risks.

Key features include:

Automated dependency management: Applies fixes and waivers automatically at every development stage to reduce manual overhead.
Policy enforcement: Enforces custom compliance policies across your development pipeline without slowing down builds.
Vulnerability monitoring: Continuously scans for new risks in open source components and AI models with targeted alerts.
Reachability analysis: Prioritizes vulnerabilities based on whether affected code is actually used in your application.
Developer dashboard: Provides developers with insights, adoption metrics, and fix timelines in their IDEs and CI tools.

Source: Sonatype

Checkmarx Software Composition Analysis is an enterprise-grade solution to help organizations identify, prioritize, and remediate risks in open source components across the software development lifecycle. Delivered through the Checkmarx One platform, it offers vulnerability detection with minimal false positives, reachability analysis, and automated remediation capabilities.

Key features include:

Transitive dependency scanning: Identifies risks not only in direct dependencies but also in nested packages.
Reachability analysis: Determines whether a vulnerability is actually exploitable in the application context.
Malicious package detection: Flags intentionally harmful packages to protect against supply chain threats.
Automated remediation guidance: Provides clear, actionable fixes with minimal disruption to developers.

Source: Checkmarx

Snyk Open Source is a developer-first SCA solution that helps teams identify, prioritize, and remediate security vulnerabilities and license risks in open source dependencies. Integrated into the tools developers use, from IDEs to CI/CD pipelines, it ensures that security is embedded throughout the development process without disrupting velocity.

Key features include:

IDE and CLI integration: Detect vulnerable dependencies during development to prevent issues before code is committed.
Pull request scanning: Automatically test and monitor PRs to block vulnerabilities before they're merged.
CI/CD guardrails: Integrates with your pipeline to catch and block insecure dependencies from reaching production.
Live environment monitoring: Continuously assess production for exposure to known vulnerabilities.
Risk-based prioritization: Uses dynamic scoring based on exploit maturity, reachability, and business context to prioritize fixes.

Source: Snyk

Radware Kubernetes WAF is a purpose-built web application firewall designed to protect containerized applications and microservices running in Kubernetes environments. Unlike traditional WAFs that focus primarily on north-south traffic, Radware Kubernetes WAF secures both north-south and east-west traffic, providing in-cluster visibility and protection against application-layer threats. It delivers centralized security with seamless integration into Kubernetes workflows, ensuring consistent enforcement across microservices without disrupting application performance or requiring architectural changes.

Key features include:

In-cluster protection: Secures both external (north-south) and internal (east-west) traffic within Kubernetes clusters.
OWASP Top 10 coverage: Protects against SQL injection, XSS, file inclusion, and other common vulnerabilities.
Automated policy generation: Dynamically adapts rules to application changes, reducing manual effort and configuration drift.
API and microservices security: Provides granular protection for APIs and service-to-service communication within Kubernetes.
Scalability and elasticity: Natively supports Kubernetes scaling, ensuring consistent protection as workloads grow or shrink.
Centralized visibility and management: Integrates with Radware's application protection suite for unified monitoring, logging, and policy control across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

Source: Radware

Prophaze Kubernetes WAF is a cloud-native, enterprise web application firewall for Kubernetes environments. Deployed as a microservice within the cluster, it integrates directly into the existing ingress controller (NGINX, Traefik, or Istio) to inspect, filter, and secure incoming traffic. It acts as a protective gateway at the ingress layer, defending APIs and web applications.

Key features include:

Ingress-native deployment: Integrates with existing ingress controllers like NGINX, Istio, and Traefik without disrupting architecture.
Microservice-based WAF: Deployed as a Kubernetes-native microservice alongside other cluster components.
Threat detection: Monitors and filters all traffic with continuous signature updates and global threat intelligence.
AI-powered decision engine: Uses AI models to classify requests and automatically block or allow based on threat history.
OWASP attack detection: Identifies and mitigates common web threats such as SQL injection, XSS, and file inclusion.

Source: Prophaze

Calico’s Workload-Based Web Application Firewall (WAF) provides in-cluster application-layer security for Kubernetes workloads by intercepting and inspecting HTTP traffic directly at the pod level. Unlike traditional edge WAFs, Calico’s approach secures east-west traffic inside the cluster, protecting services from internal threats like SQL injection or cross-site scripting.

Key features include:

Pod-level traffic inspection: Deploys WAF as a sidecar to inspect internal HTTP traffic between workloads.
Detection-first mode: Starts in non-blocking mode to log potential threats for safe evaluation before enforcement.
OWASP Core Rule Set v4.7.0: Uses industry-standard rules to detect SQLi, XSS, file inclusion, and other common threats.
Anomaly-based scoring: Requests are evaluated based on cumulative rule matches to determine if traffic should be blocked.
Custom rule tuning: Modify detection thresholds, disable specific rules, or add custom logic via ConfigMap updates.

Source: Tigera