Penetration Testing

Penetration Testing as a ServiceContinuous, validated, and yours to run.

Traditional pentests describe a system that no longer exists by the time the report lands.
Strix runs penetration testing as a service — autonomous agents that test every deploy, prove what's exploitable, and ship the fix.

Trusted by security teams at

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What is penetration testing?

A penetration test is an authorized, scoped simulated attack on your systems — run to find and prove exploitable vulnerabilities before real attackers do. Unlike a vulnerability scan, which catalogs known weaknesses against a signature database, a penetration test chains weaknesses together to demonstrate real-world impact: not “this admin panel exists,” but “this admin panel plus a weak credential exposes the full database.” Penetration testing as a service (PTaaS) delivers that testing continuously through a platform instead of as a once-a-year project, so coverage matches the pace you ship code.

The types of penetration testing

Pentests divide two ways — by how much the tester knows, and by which surface they target.

Black, white & gray box

Defined by tester knowledge: black box simulates an external attacker with zero information, white box has full source and architecture access, and gray box — the most commonly commissioned — sits in between.

Web application

Tests the app layer for the OWASP Top 10 — injection, broken authentication, and access-control flaws — using the OWASP Web Security Testing Guide.

API

Probes REST and GraphQL endpoints for the OWASP API Security Top 10: broken object-level authorization, excessive data exposure, and auth gaps.

Network & infrastructure

Internal and external network testing — PCI DSS Requirement 11.4 mandates both at least annually for in-scope environments.

Cloud

Tests cloud configuration, IAM, and workload exposure across AWS, GCP, and Azure environments.

Continuous (PTaaS)

Testing that runs on every deploy and pull request rather than once a year, closing the ~180-day gap between when a vulnerability ships and when it's found.

Penetration testing as a service, the Strix way

PTaaS reimagines the annual pentest for teams shipping weekly. Here is what continuous, autonomous testing delivers.

Continuous coverage

Autonomous agents test on every deploy and pull request, so new code is exploited and fixed before it ships — not once a year.

Validated with real PoCs

Every finding is exploited and proven, so your team triages confirmed risk instead of scanner noise.

Merge-ready fix PRs

Findings ship as a reproduction plus a ready-to-merge pull request — outcomes that land in the dev workflow, not a static PDF.

Full-stack coverage

Code, APIs, web apps, infrastructure, and cloud — all tested from one autonomous pentester.

Runs inside your perimeter

Open-source and self-hostable, fully air-gappable, and BYO-LLM — so source code, credentials, and findings never leave your network.

Free to start

Begin with the open-source core or usage-based hosted plan with no credit card — versus $25k–$96k/yr incumbents.

Traditional pentest vs penetration testing as a service

How a continuous, autonomous PTaaS model compares to the point-in-time consultant engagement.

Testing cadence

Strix PTaaS

Continuous — every deploy and pull request

Traditional pentest

Point-in-time, usually once a year
Time to first result

Strix PTaaS

Minutes

Traditional pentest

Weeks to schedule and deliver
Findings delivery

Strix PTaaS

Live platform plus merge-ready fix PRs

Traditional pentest

Static PDF report at the end
Validated with proof-of-concepts

Strix PTaaS

yes

Traditional pentest

yes
Auto-fix with merge-ready PRs

Strix PTaaS

yes

Traditional pentest

no
Coverage between tests

Strix PTaaS

Always-on

Traditional pentest

None until the next engagement
Surfaces covered

Strix PTaaS

Code, APIs, web apps, infrastructure, and cloud

Traditional pentest

Scoped per engagement
Self-hostable or air-gapped

Strix PTaaS

yes

Traditional pentest

no
Starting price

Strix PTaaS

Free open-source core; usage-based hosted

Traditional pentest

~$5,000–$30,000+ per engagement
Compliance evidence

Strix PTaaS

Continuous across the audit period

Traditional pentest

Single point-in-time snapshot
Best for

Strix PTaaS

Teams shipping continuously

Traditional pentest

One-off scoped or compliance-only needs

From issue to fix in seconds

Find critical issues, auto-validate, and auto-fix with merge-ready PRs.

Issues/STR-00847

SSRF via URL Parameter in /api/proxy

OpenHigh · 8.6CWE-918

TL;DR

The /api/proxy endpoint accepts a user-supplied URL without validation. An attacker can access internal services, read cloud metadata, and exfiltrate credentials.

Impact

Access to cloud metadata at 169.254.169.254, potential credential theft, and internal network scanning.

Location

acme/api · proxy-handler.ts:23
GET/api/proxy?url=

Severity

High

CVSS

8.6

Fix Effort

Low

Discovered

2h ago

Discover & Validate

Pentests your entire attack surface continuously. Reproduces each finding, confirms exploitability with proof, and prioritizes by real impact.

FixReproduction

How do I fix it?

Validate and restrict the target URL using an allowlist of permitted hostnames. Reject private/internal IP ranges and enforce HTTPS-only.

proxy-handler.ts:23-29Copy
2323 const targetUrl = req.query.url;
24 const resp = await fetch(targetUrl);
24 const parsed = new URL(targetUrl);
25 if (!ALLOWED_HOSTS.has(parsed.hostname)) {
26 throw new ForbiddenError("blocked");
27 }
28 const resp = await fetch(parsed.href);
2529 return res.json(await resp.json());
Fix verified — vulnerability no longer exploitable
PR #247 fix/ssrf-proxy-handler ready to merge

Auto-Fix

Generates a fix, retests to confirm the vulnerability is gone, and delivers a merge-ready PR. Review, merge, done.

Frequently asked questions

Common questions about penetration testing and PTaaS.

Penetration testing is an authorized, scoped simulated attack on your systems, run to find and prove exploitable vulnerabilities before real attackers do. Unlike a vulnerability scan that lists known weaknesses, a pentest chains them together to demonstrate real-world impact with reproduction steps.

Start testing in minutes

Continuous pentesting for teams that ship often — with proofs, fixes, and ownership inside your perimeter.