Your real surface is the API, not the front end.
Whatever the UI enforces, the API answers directly. An attacker skips your interface entirely and talks to endpoints raw — and you’ve never tested what they return.
Manual API penetration testing
Your APIs expose your data and logic directly to clients and partners with no UI to hide behind — and probing every endpoint for object-level and authorization flaws is exacting, specialist work that a broad-scope pentest rarely does justice. That depth is what we focus on.
Trusted by
Sound familiar?
You’re not sure every endpoint checks "is this yours?"
Authentication you trust. But per-object, per-function authorization across hundreds of endpoints is where APIs break — one missed check and any user reads any record.
Third parties consume your API directly.
Partners and customers integrate against your endpoints, and they expect it tested. A flaw here isn’t just your problem — it’s exposure across everyone you’ve integrated with.
Your GraphQL or schema may be telling attackers too much.
Introspection, nested queries, and over-exposed fields hand attackers a map of your data model — and a way to abuse it for enumeration or denial of service.
An audit or customer wants the API tested specifically.
SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI, or a customer’s security review now calls out APIs explicitly. A generic web-app report doesn’t satisfy it — you need testing scoped to the interface itself.
You’ve shipped more endpoints than anyone’s tracking.
Versioned, deprecated, internal, undocumented — endpoints accumulate faster than they’re inventoried. The forgotten v1 route with no auth is exactly what gets found first.
The cost of inaction
#1 risk
Broken object-level authorization (BOLA) tops the OWASP API Security Top 10 — and it’s the most common serious flaw we find, because confirming it means manually testing every object on every endpoint.
80%+
of web traffic is now API traffic — meaning the majority of your real attack surface lives where there’s no UI to constrain it.
1 endpoint
missing an ownership check can leak every record behind it. One forgotten endpoint is all an attacker needs.
What you should test
Deep manual testing of every endpoint, method, and object — not just the happy path your docs describe.
Black-box
We attack the API as an outside consumer with only what’s publicly reachable, discovering endpoints, versions, and methods the docs don’t mention.
Grey-box
Authenticated testing with credentials across roles, scopes, and tenants — plus schema or spec where available — so we exercise object- and function-level authorization at full depth.
Vulnerability classes to hunt
- BOLA (broken object-level authorization)
- BFLA (broken function-level authorization)
- Broken authentication
- Excessive data exposure
- Mass assignment
- Improper inventory / shadow endpoints
- Server-side request forgery (SSRF)
- Injection (SQL / NoSQL / command)
- GraphQL injection
- GraphQL introspection abuse
- Nested / deep query DoS
- Batching abuse
- Improper rate limiting
- Resource exhaustion
- JWT flaws
- OAuth / token flaws
- API key leakage & abuse
- Replay attacks
- Improper input validation
- Business-logic abuse
- Versioning flaws (insecure deprecated endpoints)
- Improper error handling / verbose errors
- Insecure CORS
- HTTP method tampering
- Webhook abuse
- Schema / spec mismatch enforcement gaps
- Cross-tenant data access
API surface to cover
- REST endpoints
- GraphQL endpoints
- SOAP / XML services
- Public APIs
- Partner / B2B APIs
- Internal / service-to-service APIs
- Authentication endpoints
- Token & key issuance
- OAuth flows
- API gateways
- Rate-limiting & throttling layers
- Object & resource endpoints
- Admin / privileged endpoints
- Multi-tenant data boundaries
- Pagination & filtering parameters
- File upload / download endpoints
- Webhooks
- Bulk / batch operations
- Versioned endpoints (v1/v2…)
- Deprecated & undocumented endpoints
- Schema / OpenAPI / GraphQL introspection
- Third-party integration endpoints
What manual actually means
Most security work stops at finding a vulnerability. We treat that as the starting point.
Not sure which endpoints belong in scope? Let’s map your API surface.
A senior pentester (not a sales rep) will get back to you with an honest read on what would actually be worth testing.
Case studies
From real engagements
A few engagements that show what working with us looks like — at scale, over years, across industries.
Manufacturing · FMCG
Multiple penetration testing engagements for a global food & beverage company in 120+ markets.
Blackbox and Greybox testing across multiple IT services — guaranteeing high protection for consumers, employees, contractors and shareholders while satisfying group-level compliance controls.
Read case study
B2B SaaS · LMS
Comprehensive web application pentest backing ISO 27001 certification for a corporate LMS platform.
Blackbox & Graybox testing aligned with OWASP — followed by remediation re-test and a final report that validated security posture for the ISO 27001 audit.
Read case studyWhat you'll receive
Five deliverables — built for the people who'll actually use them: your engineers, your C-level, your auditors, and your insurers.
Want to see what these actually look like?
Real structure, real findings, real format. The same documents your team and your auditors will see.
Interim Urgent Report
When we find Critical, you find out today.
If we discover a Critical-severity vulnerability mid-engagement that needs immediate attention, you get an alert with reproduction steps and recommended actions. We keep testing, you start remediating in parallel. No waiting until the final report.
For
Your engineering team, your CTO
Technical Report
Prioritized findings your engineers can act on the same day.
Every vulnerability with reproduction steps, proof-of-concept exploitation, business impact, and a prioritized remediation roadmap. No false-positives. No filler. Built so your developers know exactly what to fix and in what order.
For
Your engineers, your CTO, your security team
Executive Summary
What the board and investors actually need to know.
A business-language report covering the security posture of your perimeter, the risks identified, their potential business impact, and the path to remediation. Written for CEOs, boards, investors, and Enterprise procurement teams — not engineers.
For
Your CEO, your board, investors, M&A counterparties, and your customers
Retest Report
Verified evidence that the fixes actually work.
After your team remediates the findings, we re-test each one and confirm the fixes hold under the same exploitation attempts. The updated report is your proof that the vulnerabilities are actually closed — not just patched on paper.
For
Your auditors, your Enterprise customers
Security Certificate
A public-facing artifact you can share with customers and prospects.
After remediation and retest, we issue an official certificate confirming your external perimeter passed deep manual penetration testing. Use it on your website, in security questionnaires, in Enterprise sales conversations — the artifact your prospects and procurement teams want to see.
For
Your sales team, your marketing, your Enterprise prospects
How we deliver on your goals
Industry-standard methodologies, executed by senior engineers.
Standards
Methodologies we follow
- OWASP
- PTES
- NIST SP 800-115
- MITRE ATT&CK
Compliance pentest requirements we satisfy
- SOC 2
- ISO 27001
- GDPR
- HIPAA
- PCI DSS
The principles behind it
Manual hacking
Scanners run only as a baseline. Every finding is hand-built and verified by a senior engineer — exploited and chained manually, with your perimeter's context in mind.
Cyclical, not linear
Each finding feeds the next. New access reveals new attack surface. We loop back, dig deeper, and chain — until we reach the deepest impact your architecture allows.
Business impact, not a bug list
A list of CVEs doesn't tell you what an attacker would actually do to your business. We translate every finding into a real-world scenario — what gets compromised, who loses what, and how the chain unfolds.
Senior engineers only
No juniors learning on your environment, no outsourced backfill, no swapping engineers mid-engagement. Every engagement is run by senior offensive engineers with deep external infrastructure and adversary-simulation experience.
Quality over speed
We're not a conveyor optimizing for throughput. We take fewer engagements at a time and go deep on each — that's the trade-off.
Do no harm
All testing happens under signed Rules of Engagement. High-risk actions on production are coordinated with you in advance. Critical findings trigger an immediate alert — no surprises, no broken environments.
Actionable findings, zero false-positives
Every finding is verified, prioritized, and documented with reproduction steps and remediation guidance. Your engineers know exactly what to fix first — and they don't waste a day on noise.
Engineer-to-engineer communication
Direct access to our engineers throughout the engagement. No sales translators, no project managers gatekeeping technical detail.
Hacking as a craft
We hire engineers who hack on their own time — for research, for CTFs, for the love of the craft. Our team treats every engagement as a challenge to solve, not a ticket to close.
From your first message to your final certificate
A structured engagement built around your team — with senior engineers, direct communication, and zero surprises.
-
First conversation
What happens- You reach out — by call, form, or email, whichever you prefer
- A senior engineer (not a sales rep) gets back to you
- We define your goals and scope of the engagement together
- We give you an honest read on whether we're the right fit, and what would actually be worth testing
You receive A clear answer on direction — and whether we're a match — before anything is signed. -
Scoping & proposal
What happens- A technical session with your team to understand your perimeter, your asset inventory, and your high-value targets
- We walk you through a sample report so you know exactly what the deliverables look like
- You get a detailed proposal: scope, approach, timeline, price
You receive A full proposal and a sample report you can review with your CTO, CISO, CEO, and procurement before deciding. -
Kick-off
What happens- Contract and NDA signed
- Rules of Engagement signed — clear boundaries on what we test, when, and how
- Access provisioning and documentation handoff
- A senior engineering team is assigned to your engagement and briefed
You receive Signed engagement contract, Rules of Engagement document, kickoff meeting summary. -
Reconnaissance & threat modeling
What happens- Passive intelligence gathering on your public surface
- Perimeter mapping — what is exposed, where the highest-risk surfaces are, and what was forgotten
- Threat model: what's worth attacking, and how an external adversary would actually approach your perimeter
- A direct engineer-to-engineer communication channel is set up for the duration of the engagement
You receive Anything urgent that surfaces during this stage is flagged to you immediately. Otherwise, this stage feeds directly into the testing that follows. -
Active exploitation
What happens- Manual hacking, vulnerability discovery, exploitation
- Attack chain construction across multiple findings
- Impact assessment for every finding before any aggressive exploitation on live systems
- Continuous loop: each new access reveals new attack surface, and we go deeper
You receive If we find a critical attack path that is easy to exploit and demands immediate action, you get an Interim Urgent Report — an alert with reproduction steps and recommended response. We keep testing, you start remediating in parallel. -
Primary report delivery
What happens- Findings consolidated, verified, and documented
- Technical Report and Executive Summary written
- Remediation roadmap prioritized
You receive A Technical Report (for your engineers) and an Executive Summary (for your board, Enterprise customers, and auditors). -
Debrief call
What happens- Walkthrough of findings with your engineering team
- Walkthrough of business impact with your leadership
- Q&A on remediation priorities — what to fix first and why
You receive A prioritized remediation roadmap and direct answers to your team's questions. -
Remediation support
What happens- Support for your developers throughout the fix cycle
- Clarification on attack vectors and remediation approaches
- Pace depends on your team — we don't push and we don't drag
You receive Technical guidance throughout remediation, scoped to your engagement. -
Retest & final certificate
What happens- Each remediated finding is re-tested against the original exploitation
- Verification that the fix holds — not just patched on paper
- Updated reports and security certificate issued
You receive A Retest Report, an updated Technical Report, and your Security Certificate.
Recognized by the industry
Top-rated on industry platforms
Our engineers hold certifications including
In their own words
XRAY CyberSecurity delivered a comprehensive, well-structured report with practical recommendations tailored to strengthening our application security. We received two reports — a detailed Technical and a separate Executive — which allowed us to quickly present results to leadership and build an action plan. Their readiness to communicate directly with our vendors significantly accelerated remediation.
XRAY CyberSecurity provided penetration testing for our products built on different technologies. We were able to discover vulnerabilities, fix them, and receive confirmation through retesting that they were mitigated. Communicating with their team felt more like working with coworkers than an external vendor — they were professional, knowledgeable, and gave us valuable advice.
XRAY CyberSecurity conducted gray-box penetration testing following OWASP methodologies. Their thorough manual analysis identified vulnerabilities worth attention, and their detailed technical and executive reports — followed by a retest validating our remediation — allowed us to proceed with ISO 27001 certification.
XRAY CyberSecurity conducted thorough assessments across our web applications and cloud environments, simulating real-world attack scenarios. Their detailed reports provided clear, actionable insights that significantly improved our security posture, and their ability to communicate complex findings in an understandable way was invaluable to our team.
The work was done quickly and professionally. XRAY CyberSecurity's specialists highlighted our vulnerable points, enabling us to improve our software quality. We received a report with detailed penetration scenarios and both technical and organizational recommendations for remediation and prevention.
5/5 on Clutch
read all reviews
Ready to test your API?
Frequently asked questions
How is this different from your Application pentest?
The application test centers on the web app — UI flows, human workflows, client-side issues — and covers the APIs behind it as part of that surface. This engagement treats the API as the primary target: endpoint-level authorization, schema and method abuse, and machine-to-machine auth, at a depth a UI-driven test doesn’t reach. If your API is a product or a partner-facing interface, this is the right scope.
We have an OpenAPI/GraphQL spec — does that change things?
It accelerates us. A spec lets us cover every documented endpoint, method, and parameter systematically instead of inferring them. But we don’t stop at the spec — undocumented, deprecated, and shadow endpoints are often where the real findings are, so we hunt for those too.
Why does this need a specialist — can’t any pentester cover the API?
An API hides its risk in object- and function-level authorization across every endpoint: proving that user A can reach user B’s data is slow, manual, per-object work. A broad-scope engagement covering network, app, and API in one pass rarely gets that deep before time runs out. We test APIs as a focused discipline, so we do — and that’s where the findings that matter come from.
Will testing impact our production environment?
Testing runs under signed Rules of Engagement. We control request volume to avoid load issues, and high-risk actions — anything mutating production data or stressing rate limits — are coordinated and approved before we run them. Test environments work too, as long as they mirror production authorization.
How do you provide and test multi-tenant isolation?
We ask for credentials in at least two separate tenants/accounts and systematically attempt cross-tenant access at the object and function level. Proving (or disproving) that tenant A can’t touch tenant B’s data is one of the highest-value outcomes of an API test.
How do you handle confidentiality, our data, and legal accountability?
Signed NDA and a contract with full corporate liability. Any data returned by the API during testing is stored encrypted, restricted to the assigned engineers, and deleted after the engagement per your contract. We carry professional indemnity insurance.
How much effort does this require from our team?
Setup is front-loaded — credentials across roles and tenants, the spec if you have one, and a short walkthrough of how the API is meant to be used. After that, occasional clarifying questions. Remediation time on your side is the larger investment, which we support directly.
What if you don’t find anything?
Rare on APIs — authorization gaps are common — but if it happens, a clean result from a senior team is meaningful. You still receive the full deliverables documenting the endpoints, methods, and authorization paths tested — the artifact your auditor or customer needs.
Is retesting included, and are there hidden fees?
The proposal price is fixed and in the contract against agreed scope. Retesting after remediation is included, with an updated report and Security Certificate. The only thing that changes the price is you expanding scope — more endpoints, services, or environments — agreed in writing before any work begins.