Cybersecurity
Built Your App With AI? Get a Penetration Test Before You Launch
Vibe coding, describing an app to an AI tool and accepting what it builds, has made it possible to ship an MVP in a weekend. The problem is what you can’t see. The login screen works, the dashboard loads, payments go through. But behind the screens, the app may let any logged-in user download every customer’s data, or ship your secret keys to every visitor’s browser. These problems don’t show up in a demo. They show up when real users, and real attackers, arrive.
By WebsNexus · October 5, 2026 · 4 min read · Updated October 5, 2026
Common security holes in AI-generated apps
| Issue | What it looks like | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Broken access control | Changing an ID in the URL or API call shows another user’s data | Data breach |
| Exposed secrets | API keys, database or payment keys in front-end code or the repository | Account takeover, large bills |
| Open database rules | Supabase or Firebase tables readable or writable by anyone | Full data loss or leak |
| Missing server-side checks | Prices, roles or limits only enforced in the browser | Fraud, privilege escalation |
| Injection | Unsanitised input in database queries, prompts or HTML | Data theft, defacement |
| No rate limiting | Unlimited login, signup, or AI API requests | Brute force, runaway costs |
| Prompt injection | User text that changes what your AI feature does | Data exposure, misuse |
Why are vibe-coded apps more likely to have security holes?
AI coding assistants are trained to produce code that works for the request in front of them. Security is usually about what should not work: a user who should not see another user’s invoice, a request that should be rejected, a key that should never leave the server. Unless you ask precisely, and check the result, those rules are often missing.
The person building is also often not a security specialist, and the app grows quickly through many small prompts. Nobody reviews the whole thing end to end. That combination produces apps that pass every manual click-through and fail the first time someone opens the browser’s developer tools.
What does a penetration test actually check?
A penetration test is an authorised, simulated attack on your app by security testers. They try to do what a real attacker would: log in as one user and reach another user’s data, call your API directly without the front end, tamper with prices and roles, inject code through forms, find exposed keys, abuse password reset and signup, and test your hosting, storage buckets and database rules.
A good test follows a recognised checklist such as the OWASP Top 10 and OWASP ASVS, and for AI features, the OWASP Top 10 for LLM applications. You receive a report with each finding, how serious it is, how to reproduce it and how to fix it.
Why test before launch instead of after?
Before launch, a security hole is a bug. After launch, it can be a data breach, with customer notifications, possible legal obligations under laws such as GDPR, refunds, lost trust and sometimes lost data that can’t be recovered. Fixing a broken access rule takes hours; recovering from a leaked customer database can take months.
Investors, enterprise customers and app stores also increasingly ask whether an app has been security tested. A pen test report and a list of fixed findings answers that question.
What can you check yourself before the pen test?
Search your front-end code and repository for API keys and secrets, and move them to server-side environment variables; rotate any key that was ever public. Turn on row-level security or equivalent rules for every database table. Log in as two different test users and try to open each other’s records by changing IDs. Make sure prices, roles and plan limits are checked on the server. Add rate limits to login, signup and any endpoint that calls a paid AI API. Turn on multi-factor authentication for your hosting, database and code accounts.
These checks catch the most common problems, so the pen test can focus on the harder ones.
How WebsNexus tests AI-built and vibe-coded apps
We test apps built with tools like Cursor, Lovable, Bolt, Replit, v0 and Claude Code, as well as traditionally built apps. We combine automated scanning with manual testing of your logins, roles, APIs, database rules and AI features, then give you a clear report with fixes in plain language. If you want, our developers fix the findings and we retest.
Focused security reviews start from $100 and full penetration tests from $800. Message us on WhatsApp at +92 266 379003 with your app link and launch date.
Frequently asked questions
Is code written by AI insecure?
Not always, but it often misses access control, input validation and secret handling unless they are explicitly requested and reviewed. It should be tested like any other code before real users rely on it.
How much does a penetration test cost?
WebsNexus penetration testing starts from $800 for a focused web app. Larger apps with many roles, APIs or integrations are quoted after a short scoping call.
How long does a penetration test take?
A focused test of a small web app usually takes a few days, plus time to write the report. We’ll give you a timeline when we scope it.
Do you fix the problems you find?
Yes, if you want us to. We can fix the findings and retest, or hand the report to your own developers.