Best security scanners for vibe-coded apps
AI builders reproduce the same handful of security mistakes on almost every project — exposed Supabase access, secrets in the bundle, missing headers. These are the scanners that catch them, and what each one is actually good at.
The speed that makes AI builders feel magical is also why they’re predictable to attack. The same prompts produce the same patterns, and the same patterns produce the same holes: a public anon key in front of a database with no row-level policies, a service-role secret compiled into the browser bundle, security headers that were never set.
No single tool catches everything, and the marketing makes it hard to tell what each one actually does. This round-up is organized by job, not brand — find the gap you care about, then pick the tool that owns it.
How we chose
Read-only and safe to point at a production app, or clearly scoped to your own code. Catches the failure modes specific to AI-builder stacks (BaaS keys, bundle secrets, headers). Gives you something actionable, not just a CVSS number. Real, maintained tools with a free tier or open-source core.
VibeSafely
Our toolBaaS-aware scanner that confirms data exposure and hands you the fix.
Most scanners check that a Row-Level Security policy exists. VibeSafely actually attempts the read with your public anon key and tells you whether protected rows come back — the difference between a checkbox and an answer. It fingerprints the platform first (Lovable, Bolt, v0, Cursor, Replit and the Supabase/Firebase/Vercel backends behind them), then runs checks tuned to that stack in one read-only pass.
It also sweeps every loaded script for service-role JWTs and provider secrets, probes for exposed files and source maps, and grades headers, TLS and CORS. Every finding comes with a copy-paste fix prompt for Cursor or Claude, so non-experts can actually close the issue.
Actively confirms whether your anon key reads protected data — not just policy presence. Decodes bundle tokens to tell a real leak from a harmless public key. AI fix prompts and re-scan diffing so you can prove an issue is gone.
OWASP ZAP
Open-source dynamic scanner and intercepting proxy.
ZAP is the long-standing open-source DAST tool: point it at a running app and it spiders the site, fuzzes inputs and flags classic web vulnerabilities (injection, XSS, misconfigurations). The automated scan is a solid free baseline; the intercepting proxy lets you inspect and replay requests by hand when you want to dig in.
It’s generic rather than BaaS-aware, and the active scan can be noisy, so run it against staging or with care. But for a free, scriptable, CI-friendly scanner, nothing else open-source matches its breadth.
Completely free and open source, with a CI-friendly baseline scan. Intercepting proxy is excellent for manual investigation.
Snyk
Dependency, code and container scanning wired into your repo.
A lot of risk in a vibe-coded app isn’t the prompt — it’s the dozens of npm packages the builder pulled in. Snyk scans your dependencies for known CVEs, your own code for risky patterns (SAST), and your containers and IaC, then opens fix PRs that bump to a safe version. It plugs into GitHub and your CI so it runs on every push.
It complements a runtime scanner rather than replacing one: Snyk sees your supply chain and source, a DAST tool sees the deployed behaviour. Run both.
Automated fix pull requests for vulnerable dependencies. Catches supply-chain risk a runtime scan can’t see.
GitGuardian & TruffleHog
Detect secrets leaked in code, history and bundles.
Secrets sprawl is the signature vibe-coding mistake: a Stripe sk_live_, a Supabase service_role or an SMTP password prefixed VITE_/NEXT_PUBLIC_ and shipped to every visitor, or committed straight into git history. GitGuardian monitors repositories and alerts on leaked credentials in real time; TruffleHog is an open-source scanner that walks code and history hunting for high-entropy strings and known key shapes — and can verify whether a found key is still live.
Pair one of these with a scanner that reads your deployed bundle. A secret can leak in the repo, in the build output, or both, and you want eyes on each path.
TruffleHog can verify whether a leaked key is still active. GitGuardian watches history and new commits continuously.
Mozilla Observatory & securityheaders.com
Instant grade on your HTTP security headers and TLS.
Missing Content-Security-Policy, HSTS and X-Frame-Options are almost universal on freshly-shipped apps, and they’re the difference between a contained bug and a full account takeover. Both of these tools take a URL and return a letter grade with a checklist of exactly which headers to add — a thirty-second sanity check you can run before anything else.
They only see headers and TLS, so they’re a complement to a full scan rather than a substitute. But they’re free, instant, and the fixes are usually a few lines of config.
Letter-grade output with a precise, copy-pasteable fix list. No signup — paste a URL and read the result.
Supabase Security Advisor
Built-in linter that flags tables without RLS and risky config.
If your app runs on Supabase, the dashboard already ships a security advisor that flags tables with Row-Level Security disabled, overly-permissive policies and exposed extensions. It’s the fastest way to catch the single most common critical issue in vibe-coded apps — a public table behind a public key — right where you’d fix it.
It checks configuration from the inside, so it won’t tell you whether an attacker can actually read data from outside (that’s what an external probe is for). Use it as your first stop, then confirm from an anonymous client.
Lives in the dashboard, next to where you enable RLS. Flags the exact tables and policies that need attention.
How to combine them
Think in layers. A secret-scanner (GitGuardian/TruffleHog) watches your repo and history. Snyk watches your dependencies. A header grader fixes config hygiene in minutes. Then a runtime scanner that understands BaaS — VibeSafely — confirms what an attacker can actually reach on the deployed app and gives you the fix. No single tool covers all four; the cheap ones cover the first three, and they take an afternoon to wire up.
Whatever you choose, only ever scan apps you own or are explicitly authorized to test. Scanning without permission isn’t just against every tool’s terms — it’s against the law.
Frequently asked
Is it safe to run a scanner against my live app?
It depends on the tool. Read-only scanners (VibeSafely, header graders, Supabase’s advisor) are safe to point at production. Active DAST tools like ZAP fuzz inputs and can write or trigger actions, so run those against staging or with their active scan scoped carefully.
Do I need a paid scanner, or is free enough?
Free tiers cover a surprising amount: open-source TruffleHog and ZAP, the free header graders, Supabase’s built-in advisor and a free first VibeSafely scan. You typically pay only when you want continuous monitoring, history and team features.
Why don’t generic scanners catch the Supabase/Firebase issues?
Generic scanners run the same checklist against everything and don’t understand that a public anon key is expected by design — so they either ignore it or flag it without confirming exposure. BaaS-aware tools know the failure modes of these stacks and actively test whether protected data comes back.
See where your app stands.
One free scan grades your security, SEO and AEO in sixty seconds — every finding with a copy-paste fix.
Scan my site — free