Contrast Assess vs Waratek IAST

Contrast Assess is an Interactive Application Security Testing tool that analyzes application code while the software runs. An agent instruments the application with sensors and examines libraries, frameworks, custom code, configuration, runtime control and data flow, HTTP traffic, and back-end connections. Its approach combines static, dynamic, and interactive testing. Assess can identify vulnerabilities in custom code, open-source libraries, frameworks, and application configurations, including SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and insecure configurations. It continuously monitors applications and APIs, and presents vulnerability lists with remediation guidance, application scores, route coverage, flow maps, and compliance and policy reports. It is designed for developers and AppSec teams to use in IDE, test, and QA environments. Integration with Contrast SCA can identify vulnerable third-party libraries and determine whether their vulnerable methods are called by the running application. Supported languages include Java, Kotlin, Scala, .NET Framework, .NET Core, C#, VB.NET, Node.js, Python, Go, and PHP. Contrast states that source code and binaries stay on customer servers. Assess supports API, Linux, macOS, self-hosted, web, and Windows environments; pricing is on request, and hosted and on-premises customers require application licenses.

Waratek IAST monitors Java applications as they run to identify vulnerabilities in application behavior. Runtime instrumentation tracks data flow and execution paths, and findings include the code line involved, a full stack trace, and the flow that led to the issue. Waratek says it analyzes compiled bytecode or binaries without source-code access. QA teams or automated suites can generate security insights while running regular functional tests, without a separate security scan phase. The product is offered through a Portal SaaS option or an on-prem Portal Dedicated deployment. Starter is a free trial for one application, with runtime analysis, basic CI/CD integration, standard vulnerability reporting, and email and knowledge base support. Team costs $2,499 per month and includes three applications, with the option to add up to two more for $833/mo per additional app. Jira and Slack integrations are marked Coming Soon. Enterprise pricing is custom, and its custom rulesets, advanced CI/CD plugins, and software composition analysis are marked Coming Soon. Waratek reports a 100% true positive rate, 0% false positive rate, and OWASP Benchmark score of 100.