Alexandra Charikova

Alexandra leads Growth & Community at Escape and hosts The Elephant in AppSec podcast, focusing on application security. She’s active in BSides Amsterdam, OWASP AppSec Days, and contributes security research featured in outlets like Help Net Security

Alexandra Charikova — Last Publications

Product updates

AI pentesting, Mission log: July

What we shipped in AI pentesting this month.

Product updates

wp2shell (CVE-2026-63030 + CVE-2026-60137): WordPress pre-auth RCE, now detected by Escape

wp2shell is an unauthenticated RCE chain in WordPress core. It combines two separate vulnerabilities: CVE-2026-63030 and CVE-2026-60137. Escape detects it across DAST and AI Pentesting, confirms exploitability, and shows affected assets within its Attack Surface Management.

DAST

Best AI DAST tools in 2026: ranked, compared, and reviewed for enterprise security teams

Every DAST vendor put "AI" on the homepage this year. The word now means ten different things to different tools, and even when discussing with analysts, they mention they give an "AI" badge when a certain capability checks the box. This is our attempt to fix

Application Security

Best GraphQL security tools in 2026: An in-depth guide, including business logic and enterprise coverage

Discover a practical guide to GraphQL security tools, an in-depth comparison, and how to choose the right ones for your stack.

Product updates

Fix issues with a prompt built for your coding agent

There's a translation step between a security finding and a fix, and it's usually done by hand. Someone opens the issue, reads the description, checks the CVSS score, follows the link to the affected asset, works out which endpoint is actually involved, then writes all of

Case Study

How Escape helped Bridgetech Group replace pentests with automated evidence

Security scanning that doesn't feel like going to the dentist. See how Bridgetech Group uses Escape for authenticated DAST and API scanning, replacing costly manual pentests with customer-ready security evidence for ISO 27001 and enterprise procurement.

AI pentesting

Introducing Cascade: the multi-agent penetration testing that becomes an expert in your business

Escape CASCADE allows you to run deep, human-grade assessments across your whole attack surface, proves every finding with a working exploit, and gets more expert in your business with every engagement.

Case Study

How one of the leading FinTech platforms used Escape to automate business logic security testing at scale

How one of Europe's leading FinTech platforms automated business logic security testing and shifted to continuous, AI-driven coverage at scale.

Application Security

Escape AI Pentesting Agents 2.0 - A Deep Dive

What each agent actually does (BOLA, Regression testing agent, Business logic testing agent, and others..), how they coordinate, and what you can expect from Escape's AI pentesting product in the upcoming weeks.

Agentic Pentesting

Top XBOW Alternatives in 2026

Escape is the best XBOW alternative for continuous AI pentesting across APIs, web apps, and complex authentication — with regression testing, developer-ready remediation, and platform pricing suited for rapidly scaling orgs.

Application Security

DAST Tools: Complete Buyer's Guide & Top 10 Solutions in 2026

Compare the best DAST tools in 2026. Our quick buyer's guide covers 10 dynamic application security testing solutions, key features, pricing & how to choose the right one.

API Security

Types of API security testing: a guide for enterprise teams

APIs account for a growing share of internet traffic, and attackers have noticed. In 2025, APIs accounted for 17% of all published security vulnerabilities, and 43% of newly added CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities were API-related, according to 2026 API ThreatStats Report. Between misconfigured authorization controls, exposed business logic, insecure API

Webinar recap

How Small Security Teams Scale and Optimize Workflows in Decentralized Environments

Practical lessons from security practitioners at Visma and Schibsted on building efficient workflows, empowering engineering teams, and staying sane when you're outnumbered.

API Security

Burp Suite Alternatives: The Complete 2026 Comparison between Escape and Burp Suite

Escape is the leading Burp Suite alternative for modern application security teams. Unlike Burp Suite, Escape automates business logic testing (IDORs, SSRFs, access control flaws), ensures faster scanning with fewer false positives, and provides remediation code snippets.

Webinar

[Webinar] Doing More With Less: How Security Teams Escape Manual Work with Efficient Workflows

Security teams are under constant pressure to do more with the same resources. Manual processes, fragmented tools, and inefficient workflows can slow teams down and pull focus away from what matters most. In this live webinar, experienced security practitioners share how they’ve escaped the constraints of limited resources by

Application Security

DAST vs Penetration Testing: Key Differences in 2026

Learn about the key differences between DAST and pentesting, the emerging role of AI pentesting, their roles in security testing, and which is right for your business.

Product updates

How to Visualize Web & API Coverage with Screenshots and Validate Attack Paths in Escape

How to Visualize Web & API Coverage and Validate Attack Path in Escape DAST

API Security

Best API security testing tools in 2026: top picks, key features and expert comparison

When it comes to securing applications and APIs, the best API security testing tools are indispensable. These advanced solutions detect vulnerabilities by continuously scanning for weaknesses and simulating real-world attacks. But how do you choose between all API security testing vendors? Agentless API security tools are transforming application security by

Pentesting

Top 10 Web Application Penetration Testing Tools (2026)

Explore the best web application penetration testing tools of 2026. Learn how modern pentesting solutions detect business logic flaws and scale continuous security testing, so security teams can support modern web apps with faster, more accurate coverage.

Application Security

MCP Endpoint Discovery & External Scanning in Escape ASM

Escape ASM (Attack Surface Management) now natively supports the discovery and external scanning of unauthenticated MCP (Model Context Protocol) endpoints, extending discovery coverage to a new generation of AI-native APIs and LLM infrastructure. As organizations increasingly adopt MCP to connect large language models (LLMs) with tools, data sources, and internal

Competitor Comparison

Escape vs Bright Security: Full DAST Comparison 2026

Explore how Bright Security differs from Escape, weigh the advantages and disadvantages of both, and determine the best fit for your company.

DAST

Top 11 DAST tools for DevSecOps in 2026: APIs, CI/CD & business logic

Discover an in-depth overview of the top 11 DAST tools for 2026, reviewed for APIs, SPAs, and CI/CD pipelines. Compare strengths, weaknesses, and key features that matter to AppSec and DevSecOps teams.

Application Security

Apple's App Store Source Map Leak: A Preventable Vulnerability We Found in 70% of Organizations

On November 4, 2025, Apple shipped its redesigned App Store website. However, it came with a surprise: JavaScript sourcemaps enabled in production. Within hours, it enabled some to download Apple’s entire front-end codebase directly from the production site. They used a Chrome extension to extract and save all the