AiVibeInteractive Application Security Testing (IAST)
A testing method that places instrumentation inside a running application to observe code execution and data flow while the application is exercised by tests or users, reporting vulnerabilities with runtime context.
IAST uses an agent or sensor inside the application runtime, for example in the Java virtual machine or the .NET runtime, to monitor how requests move through the code. When a functional test, DAST scan or manual tester exercises the application, the agent sees untrusted input reaching sensitive operations, such as database queries or file access, and reports the vulnerable request together with the code location and stack trace.
IAST fits naturally into quality assurance and CI/CD pipelines, where existing automated tests provide the traffic, so security findings arrive alongside functional test results. Because it observes actual execution, it typically reports fewer false positives than static analysis alone and can see how libraries, frameworks and configuration behave at runtime.
Coverage is limited to the code paths that are actually exercised, so results depend on the quality of the test suite. Agents are specific to languages and runtimes, add some performance overhead and are generally used in test environments rather than production. Runtime application self-protection (RASP) uses similar instrumentation to block attacks in production, and IAST complements SAST, DAST and software composition analysis.
Key points
- Instruments the application from inside while it runs.
- Combines the code visibility of SAST with the runtime view of DAST.
- Only finds issues in code paths that tests actually exercise.
- Agents are language-specific and mainly used in test environments.
Where AiVibe comes in
AiVibe's code security analysis services cover SAST, DAST, IAST and SCA.