ASPM Platforms Explained: How Apiiro, OX Security and Cycode Join Code, Pipeline and Runtime Findings

Most security teams do not lack findings; they have too many, spread across a dozen tools that do not know about each other. Application security posture management (ASPM) is the category that tries to turn that pile into a short list of fixes with owners. This page covers three independent vendors that come up often: Apiiro, OX Security and Cycode.

What ASPM is

An ASPM platform connects to the systems that build and run software and keeps an inventory of applications, repositories, pipelines, artifacts and deployments. It ingests findings from its own scanners and from third-party tools, removes duplicates, and adds context: is this code deployed, is the service internet-facing, does it handle sensitive data, who owns it, did this change introduce it. The output is a prioritised queue and a set of policies, for example "block a merge that adds a secret to a payment service".

How each platform connects

OX Security documents its integrations as connectors grouped into infrastructure (source control, CI/CD, cloud deployment, Kubernetes, registries, git posture), security (its own code, open-source, secret and PII, IaC, container and SBOM scanners, plus third-party tools and DAST) and productivity tools for ticketing and chat. Its Pipeline Bill of Materials (PBOM) links an artifact to the repository, pipeline and environments it came from. OX is independent and raised a Series B in May 2025.

Cycode describes its correlation layer as the Context Intelligence Graph, renamed from Risk Intelligence Graph, and ships native scanners for SAST (after buying Bearer in 2024), SCA with reachability, IaC, containers, secrets, CI/CD security and leaked code detection. Its open-source CLI scans locally and in CI: cycode scan -t secret path ., with cycode ignore writing exceptions to .cycode/config.yaml.

Apiiro builds an inventory of each application's components (APIs, data handling, open-source packages) by analysing code through API integration with the source control system, and links runtime findings back to code owners and locations in what it calls code-to-runtime. Its public product pages describe this at a marketing level; ask for technical detail during an evaluation.

All three added AI features in 2025 and 2026, such as automated fixes and checks on AI coding assistants. Treat vendor claims about accuracy as claims until you test them.

How to use it

Day one: connect the source of truth

Connect source control first, then CI/CD, then registries and cloud. Without the source control connection there are no owners; without CI/CD and registries there is no link from a repository to what was shipped; without cloud there is no runtime context. Check the permissions each connector asks for: read-only where possible, and never a token that can push code unless you have decided the platform should open pull requests.

Week one: inventory before prioritisation

1. Check the inventory against reality. Are all business-critical applications there? Which repositories have no owner? Which deployed images have no known source?
2. Import existing scanner results rather than switching everything off at once, and compare duplicates.
3. Define "critical" in your terms: internet-facing, holding regulated data, or in a payment path. The platform's default scoring does not know your business.

Every day: policies and routing

Write a small number of blocking policies (new secrets, critical reachable vulnerabilities in internet-facing services, unsigned artifacts going to production) and route everything else as tickets to owning teams with deadlines. Review the policy exceptions monthly. Measure mean time to fix for the top tier, not the total count of findings.

Where it stops

• Correlation is only as good as the links. A missing CI connector or an image built outside the known pipelines breaks the chain from runtime back to code.
• It inherits scanner blind spots. Aggregating findings does not find bugs no scanner looks for.
• Scores are opinions. A vendor's risk score hides choices you should be able to see and change.
• Another privileged integration. An ASPM reads every repository and pipeline; its tokens are worth protecting like CI credentials.

How it comes up in interviews

• "We have eight scanners and 40,000 open findings. What would you do?" Inventory, ownership, context, a short blocking list and team-level metrics.
• "How would you test a vendor's code-to-runtime claim?" Plant a known test service and trace it.
• "ASPM, CNAPP or both?" ASPM starts from code and pipelines; CNAPP starts from the cloud. Overlap is in the middle, where image and deployment link them.

Sources

Checked on 13 November 2026: OX Security documentation (supported connectors; pipeline bill of materials); OX Security press release on its Series B (May 2025); Cycode CLI README (cycodehq/cycode-cli) and Cycode's published product description; TechCrunch on Cycode's acquisition of Bearer (5 March 2024); Apiiro product pages for Deep Code Analysis and its code-to-runtime announcement (19 November 2024).