Intruder is a cloud-based vulnerability scanner that helps organizations identify security weaknesses across their external attack surface.
The platform combines automated scanning with intelligent threat prioritization, making it accessible for teams without dedicated security expertise while still providing the depth that security professionals need.
What is Intruder?
Intruder operates as a continuous vulnerability management platform that scans internet-facing systems for security flaws.
Unlike traditional point-in-time scanners, Intruder monitors your attack surface continuously and alerts you when new vulnerabilities emerge or when your infrastructure changes.
The platform was designed with simplicity in mind, removing the complexity that often prevents organizations from maintaining regular security assessments.
The scanner identifies vulnerabilities across web applications, APIs, cloud infrastructure, and network services.
It uses a combination of commercial-grade scanning engines and proprietary checks to detect issues ranging from misconfigurations to critical security flaws like SQL injection and cross-site scripting.
Key Features
Continuous Attack Surface Monitoring
Intruder provides ongoing visibility into your external attack surface.
The platform automatically detects changes to your infrastructure, including new subdomains, exposed services, and cloud resources.
When changes are detected, Intruder triggers scans to identify potential vulnerabilities before attackers can exploit them.
The attack surface monitoring extends to cloud environments through native integrations with AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.
These connectors automatically import your cloud assets and keep them synchronized, ensuring complete coverage without manual asset management.
Intelligent Vulnerability Prioritization
Not all vulnerabilities carry equal risk.
Intruder applies context-aware prioritization that considers factors like exploitability, potential impact, and whether a vulnerability is being actively exploited in the wild.
This helps teams focus remediation efforts on the issues that matter most rather than chasing every finding.
The platform also filters out noise by automatically verifying findings and suppressing false positives.
Results include clear remediation guidance with step-by-step instructions that developers can follow without deep security knowledge.
Compliance and Reporting
Intruder generates reports suitable for compliance requirements including SOC 2, ISO 27001, and PCI DSS.
The platform tracks vulnerability trends over time, helping organizations demonstrate their security posture to auditors, customers, and stakeholders.
Reports can be exported in multiple formats and customized based on audience.
Executive summaries provide high-level overviews while technical reports include detailed findings with evidence and remediation steps.
Expert Penetration Testing
Beyond automated scanning, Intruder offers expert-led penetration testing services.
Human testers can identify complex vulnerabilities that automated tools miss, including business logic flaws and chained attack scenarios.
This hybrid approach combines the efficiency of automation with the insight of manual testing.
How to Use Intruder
Getting Started
Intruder is entirely cloud-based, requiring no installation.
After creating an account, you add targets by specifying domains, IP addresses, or importing from cloud providers.
# Example target configuration
targets:
- type: domain
value: example.com
scan_type: web_application
- type: ip_range
value: 203.0.113.0/24
scan_type: infrastructure
- type: cloud_connector
provider: aws
regions:
- us-east-1
- eu-west-1
Running Scans
Scans can be triggered manually, scheduled, or automated based on infrastructure changes.
The web interface provides real-time progress and preliminary findings during scan execution.
# Using the Intruder API to trigger a scan
curl -X POST "https://api.intruder.io/v1/scans" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"target_id": "target_123",
"scan_profile": "comprehensive"
}'
Integration
Intruder provides integrations with development and operations tools to embed security into existing workflows.
CI/CD Integration
While Intruder focuses on external attack surface scanning rather than pre-deployment testing, you can use the API to verify external endpoints after deployment.
# GitHub Actions example - post-deployment verification
name: Security Scan
on:
deployment:
types: [completed]
jobs:
scan:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Trigger Intruder scan
run: |
curl -X POST "https://api.intruder.io/v1/scans" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer ${{ secrets.INTRUDER_API_KEY }}" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"target_id": "${{ secrets.INTRUDER_TARGET_ID }}"}'
Notification Integrations
Intruder connects with popular communication and ticketing tools:
- Slack: Receive vulnerability alerts in team channels
- Microsoft Teams: Get notifications in your collaboration platform
- Jira: Automatically create tickets for new vulnerabilities
- PagerDuty: Alert on-call teams for critical findings
- Webhooks: Send data to custom integrations
When to Use Intruder
Intruder is particularly well-suited for:
- Small to medium businesses that need enterprise-grade vulnerability scanning without dedicated security teams
- Organizations starting their security program who want an accessible entry point to vulnerability management
- Teams with cloud-native infrastructure that benefit from automatic asset discovery through cloud connectors
- Companies requiring compliance evidence who need regular scanning and professional reports for auditors
Intruder may not be the best fit for organizations that need deep DAST capabilities for complex web applications with heavy JavaScript frameworks, or teams that require on-premises deployment.
For comprehensive application security testing during development, consider pairing Intruder with a dedicated DAST tool that integrates into your CI/CD pipeline.