🥊 Test your own app before someone else does — seven free AI hitters

Tutorials & Methods
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AI-generated summary

:bullseye: What you get: Seven free, open-source AI tools to automatically find and test security vulnerabilities in your own code.

:white_check_mark: Start here:

  • strix — discovers security flaws and generates the patch.
  • shannon — analyzes your source code before targeting the discovered weak spots.

:toolbox: Also useful:

  • pentagi — handles full penetration testing workflows including recon, exploit, and reports.
  • hexstrike-ai — connects over 150 security tools directly to Claude or Cursor.
  • vulnhuntr — scans large codebases to spot unknown flaws without prior templates.

:warning: Watch out:

  • Run tests only on local copies and systems you strictly own to prevent unintended damage.
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Someone will test your app. Be first. :boxing_glove:

Seven free agents that attack code you own — on your own machine, legally, tonight.

ROUND 1 · :high_voltage: strix — 71.9k★
Finds the hole and writes the patch. If you ship a web app this month, start here and stop reading.

ROUND 2 · :brain: shannon — 49.4k★
Reads your source code, then attacks what it just read. Have the repo? This one sees deeper than a URL scanner.

ROUND 3 · :spider_web: pentagi — 32.4k★
A whole team in one job: recon, exploit, report. For when you want a full engagement rather than a scan.

ROUND 4 · :graduation_cap: PentestGPT — 16.1k★
The classic, and it shows its reasoning at every step. Learn the trade by watching it work.

ROUND 5 · :toolbox: hexstrike-ai — 13.1k★
Hands Claude or Cursor 150+ security tools over MCP. Already coding with an assistant? Give it hands.

ROUND 6 · :microscope: CAI — 9.8k★
The research framework people script their own attack chains on. Built to be extended, not just used.

ROUND 7 · :bullseye: vulnhuntr — 2.8k★
Zero-shot: no example of the bug needed. Point it at a big codebase when you have no idea what to look for.

Where to practise

The undercard matters as much as the fight. Juice Shop (14.2k★) is a store built to be cracked; PortSwigger’s labs run free in the browser. Run an agent, then compare its report to the lab’s own answer key — that comparison is where you learn.

:pushpin: Tonight: clone strix, aim it at Juice Shop, read one report. Your own code never looks the same afterwards.

4 « J'aime »
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This is a useful order for getting started, because it keeps the first test small instead of trying every tool at once. I would begin with one tool on a local copy of my own app, then fix the highest-risk finding before moving to the next round. Keeping a short note for each finding, including what was tested and whether the fix worked, makes the retest much easier. It also helps to limit the test to systems and data that I own, so nothing unexpected is touched. Done this way, the list becomes a repeatable check before release rather than a one-time scan.