Integrated Application Security Platforms
Also known as:
- Application Security Posture Management (ASPM)
What problem does it target?
Many companies rely on multiple technologies to secure applications. For example: code scanners, 3rd party packages scanners, secrets scanners, CI/CD scanners, etc.
In addition, some of the technologies are infamous for being noisy with a high false positive rate, and it’s expensive/hard to separate signal from noise.
Because of these factors, the application security category was associated with high deployment and operational costs, high expertise requirements, and even questionable effectiveness.
These factors have led to the demand for this “all-in-one” category.
Limitations in the Cloud Context:
- Most Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPPs) treat application security features like SAST, DAST, and code analysis as superficial add-ons rather than core functions.
- CNAPPs often lack deep application-layer visibility and runtime response capabilities, making it difficult to detect and block sophisticated exploits at the application layer.
- Application Detection & Response (ADR) is emerging as a critical capability for runtime protection at the application layer, but is still a new and evolving field with limited vendor support.
What does this solution do?
- Multiple “good enough” built-in capabilities to get multiple controls at once without needing to communicate with multiple vendors and open source tools.
- Aggregate and prioritize issues, often by combining static and runtime reachability analysis for the most comprehensive vulnerability detection and prioritization. Static reachability is more workflow-oriented and suitable for early detection, while runtime reachability is better for confirming exploitability and reducing wasted developer effort. Combining both approaches within an ASPM platform enables organizations to focus remediation on vulnerabilities that are truly exploitable in their environment.
Who is this for?
- Organizations developing high-risk applications
- Organizations that use multiple application security tools and want to consolidate
- Organizations that need more structure in their application security management
Who might not benefit from this?
- Organizations with little development activity or no high-risk applications.
- Organizations with little to no experience in application security should consider starting with consulting services or basic tools to clarify their needs.
- Organizations that need few tools to reach their fulfillment of their risk appetite.
Pitfalls and remedies
| Pitfall | Remedy |
|---|---|
| Distributerd development environments - Depending on how centralized/distributed your software development processes are, multiple integrations might be required (sometimes many), and not all will necessarily be supported. | Consider creating an inventory of the main applications, teams, and software lifecycles (development, testing, deployment, production) before procurement to estimate deployment viability |
| Onboarding development teams - Since the security team typically can’t fully triage and fix vulnerabilities, development teams must be onboarded into the process to perform those functions. | Before procurement, ensure that the project is prioritized with product managers and business leaders, and plan who will train and support the development teams during onboarding. Onboard teams gradually to create a successful snowball. Start from the most suitable team (even if not the most critical) and once successful, shift into the most critical applications. |
| Large backlog - Whenever new vulnerability identification technologies are introduced into an organization, a large backlog of vulnerabilities is typically discovered. This category is no different. | Try to obtain more resources for remediating the backlog following the onboarding, to reach a manageable state within a period of time. Communicate that the newly identified issues are the result of the strong technology selection and not of increase in risks. |
| Operational costs - Application security platforms identify and prioritize vulnerabilities that someone will need to triage and remediate. Depending on the number of vulnerabilities, this can cause development teams to incur high operational costs. | Decide with management how many development resources will be invested in continuous security improvement. Ideally, obtain fixed/dedicated resources. Alternatively, define SLAs. Refer to the vulnerability management page for more information about this issue. |
Sample products
- Apiiro
- Ox security
- Cycode
- Legit Security