Hadrian: API Security Testing

Hadrian: API Security Testing

Overview

Hadrian is a security testing framework for REST, GraphQL, and gRPC APIs that tests for OWASP API vulnerabilities and custom security issues using role-based authorization testing and YAML-driven templates.

Key Features

  • OWASP API Top 10 Coverage — Tests for BOLA, broken authentication, BFLA, BOPLA, and more

  • Role-Based Testing — Define roles with permissions and test cross-role access violations

  • Mutation Testing — Three-phase setup/attack/verify pattern for proving write/delete vulnerabilities

  • Template-Driven — YAML templates for customizable security tests

  • Multiple Protocols — REST, GraphQL, and gRPC from a single tool

  • LLM Triage — Optional AI-powered finding analysis via Ollama

OWASP API Security Top 10 Coverage

Category

Name

REST

GraphQL

gRPC

API1:2023

Broken Object Level Authorization

Yes

Yes

Yes

API2:2023

Broken Authentication

Yes

Yes

Yes

API3:2023

Broken Object Property Level Authorization

Yes

Yes

Yes

API4:2023

Unrestricted Resource Consumption

—

Yes

—

API5:2023

Broken Function Level Authorization

Yes

Yes

Yes

API6:2023

Unrestricted Access to Sensitive Business Flows

—

—

—

API7:2023

Server Side Request Forgery

—

—

—

API8:2023

Security Misconfiguration

Yes

Yes

Yes

API9:2023

Improper Inventory Management

Yes

—

—

API10:2023

Unsafe Consumption of APIs

—

—

—

Quick Start

# REST API testing
hadrian test rest --api api.yaml --roles roles.yaml --auth auth.yaml

# GraphQL API testing
hadrian test graphql --target https://api.example.com --auth auth.yaml --roles roles.yaml

# gRPC API testing
hadrian test grpc --target localhost:50051 --proto service.proto --auth auth.yaml --roles roles.yaml

# Dry run
hadrian test rest --api api.yaml --roles roles.yaml 

# With LLM triage
hadrian test rest --api api.yaml --roles roles.yaml \  
   --llm-host http://localhost:11434 --llm-model llama3.2:latest

How It Works

Hadrian reads an API specification (OpenAPI for REST, schema for GraphQL, proto for gRPC), a roles definition, and authentication configuration. It then executes security test templates against the API, testing each endpoint as each role to detect authorization failures.

The mutation testing pattern is particularly powerful: it uses a three-phase approach (setup resource as privileged user, attack as unprivileged user, verify the attack succeeded) to prove BFLA and BOPLA vulnerabilities with zero false positives.

Pipeline

Vespasian discovers the API surface. Hadrian tests it for security issues. Together they form a complete API security assessment pipeline: discover endpoints, generate specs, then test for authorization and authentication vulnerabilities.

Installation

go install github.com/praetorian-inc/hadrian/cmd/hadrian@latest

Requires Go 1.24+.

Learn More

Full documentation, tutorials (crAPI for REST, DVGA for GraphQL), and template reference at github.com/praetorian-inc/hadrian.