Invicti Security has introduced the Invicti Agentic Pentest, a novel method to penetration testing that integrates autonomous AI reasoning with the company's well-established proof-based Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST). This innovation seeks to streamline penetration testing by identifying and addressing vulnerabilities without the significant delays and costs often associated with traditional approaches.
Frequent code releases by modern development teams pose a challenge for traditional and costly penetration tests. While AI increases automation, it can also lead to high computational expenses when utilised indiscriminately. Invicti's solution is a hybrid approach that merges autonomous AI with proof-based DAST, targeting each technology where it adds the most value.
Quotes and rationale
CEO of Invicti Security, Neil Roseman, stated, "The future of application security isn't about using more AI. It's about using AI more intelligently." This perspective underpins Invicti’s strategy of combining AI reasoning for dynamic application behaviour analysis with its trusted deterministic DAST techniques, offering a quicker, cost-effective method of penetration testing.
Invicti's hybrid strategy utilises specialised AI agents for real-time testing strategy adaptation and relies on proof-based DAST for established vulnerabilities. The outcome is a thorough AI-driven test with lower costs and reliable results for developers to act upon immediately.
Holistic attack planning
Invicti delivered concrete evidence for every vulnerability identified, enabling quick validation and resolution
The Agentic Pentest employs a reconnaissance engine to analyse an application’s attack surface, authentication flows, and overall behaviour. When available, source code integrates to refine attack payloads. Specialised AI agents conduct parallel operations on several vulnerability classes, paving the way for a comprehensive attack strategy akin to experienced pentesters' methodologies.
In early-access deployments, Invicti's system revealed complex attack paths and business logic vulnerabilities that traditional methods missed. By interpreting DAST findings and continuously adapting its testing strategy, Invicti delivered concrete evidence for every vulnerability identified, enabling quick validation and resolution.
Software development integration
Invicti Agentic Pentest smoothly integrates into existing security workflows, potentially replacing or supplementing manual penetration tests with automated assessments that align with modern software development practices. Comprehensive assessments include autonomous reconnaissance, tailored attack planning, and exhaustive reports with steps and guidance for remediation.
As the inaugural feature of Invicti's agentic security strategy, Agentic Pentest facilitates quicker remediation, reduces testing costs, and enhances security coverage for web and API applications undergoing rapid changes. This strategic blend of innovation and proven techniques offers a streamlined path to enterprise-level penetration testing, avoiding complete reliance on advanced AI models.
Invicti Security, a pioneer in web application and API security, announces Invicti Agentic Pentest, a new approach to penetration testing that combines autonomous AI reasoning with Invicti's industry-pioneer proof-based Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST).
Built on more than 20 years of application security expertise, Invicti autonomously discovers, validates, and reports exploitable vulnerabilities, enabling organisations to conduct deeper security testing without the delays, costs, and scalability limitations of traditional manual penetration testing.
Modern development teams
Modern development teams release new code daily, while traditional penetration tests remain expensive, manual, and point-in-time. AI-only approaches improve automation but often incur significant compute costs by applying frontier models across every stage of testing. Invicti addresses both challenges by combining autonomous AI with proof-based DAST.
"The future of application security isn't about using more AI. It's about using AI more intelligently," said Neil Roseman, CEO of Invicti Security. "Many emerging solutions rely on large AI models throughout the entire penetration testing process. We believe there's a better way. Hybrid agentic pentesting combines autonomous AI reasoning with Invicti's proven proof-based DAST technology, applying each where it delivers the greatest value. That architecture enables faster, more cost-effective penetration testing while maintaining the deterministic validation enterprise security teams require."
Deterministic security testing
The hybrid approach combines the strengths of autonomous AI with deterministic security testing. Specialised AI agents reason about application behaviour, identify attack paths, and adapt testing strategies in real time, while Invicti's proof-based DAST engine applies a vast library of fast, reliable deterministic heuristics that are blended into a single report.
Rather than relying on frontier AI models for every stage of testing, Invicti uses autonomous reasoning selectively, while relying on Invicti's proven DAST engine for simpler, established vulnerabilities. This hybrid architecture delivers the depth of agentic AI testing faster, with lower total cost, and with high-confidence findings that developers can immediately reproduce and remediate.
Holistic attack strategy
Invicti Agentic Pentest implements a proprietary reconnaissance engine; it maps an application's attack surface, analyses authentication flows, and builds a contextual understanding of application behaviour before generating customised attack plans. When source code is available, Invicti incorporates code-level context to create tailored attack payloads while continuing to validate every confirmed finding from an external attacker's perspective.
Then, Invicti orchestrates specialised AI agents that operate in parallel across multiple vulnerability classes, including SQL injection, remote code execution, cross-site scripting, server-side request forgery, XML external entity injection, insecure deserialisation, path traversal, NoSQL injection, and other attack techniques. An app-specific agent then synthesises reconnaissance and assessment findings into a holistic attack strategy that mirrors experienced pentesters, including multi-stage attacks.
Uncovered exploitable conditions
During early-access deployments, Invicti Agentic Pentest identified complex attack paths and business logic vulnerabilities that traditional automated scanning alone would not have uncovered. By reasoning over proof-based DAST findings and adapting its testing strategy in real time, Invicti uncovered exploitable conditions while validating every reported vulnerability with concrete evidence.
"We were impressed by what Invicti uncovered beyond traditional scanning. It connected findings, reasoned through the application, and identified attack paths our existing tools hadn't exposed. More importantly, their finds came with evidence our team quickly validated and fixed."
Modern software development
Invicti Agentic Pentest integrates with existing application security workflows, enabling organisations to replace or augment manual penetration testing with autonomous assessments that fit naturally into modern software development.
Each assessment includes:
- Autonomous reconnaissance and adaptive attack planning
- Specialised AI agents targeting distinct vulnerability classes
- Validated findings with proof of exploitability
- Human-readable penetration testing reports with executive and technical summaries
- Detailed reproduction steps, payloads, and remediation guidance
- Enterprise controls including scope enforcement, rate limiting, role-based access, and isolated execution environments
Enterprise-scale penetration testing
As the first capability released under Invicti's agentic offensive security approach, Agentic Pentest helps organisations accelerate remediation, reduce manual testing costs, expand security coverage, and validate the security of rapidly changing web and API applications.
By combining intelligent exploration with deterministic validation, organisations gain faster assessments and a more efficient path to enterprise-scale penetration testing than approaches that rely exclusively on frontier AI models.
