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September 23, 2025
Runtime application security monitors code execution from inside applications during production, detecting and blocking attacks that traditional security tools cannot see. Unlike perimeter-based tools that operate from outside, runtime security embeds lightweight sensors directly into the application runtime environment, providing continuous visibility into code execution, data flows, and attack attempts with 100% correlation to real exploits.
This technology fills a critical gap: while EDR protects endpoints and WAF filters network traffic, neither can see what happens when attacks execute within application code. According to Contrast Security's Software Under Siege 2025 report, applications face an average of 81 viable attacks monthly that evade traditional defenses entirely.
Modern security teams have sophisticated tools watching their endpoints and networks. EDR solutions monitor processes, track system calls, and catch malware. Network tools analyze traffic patterns and identify lateral movement. WAFs attempt to filter malicious requests at the perimeter. Yet despite these layers of defense, application breaches continue to rise.
The reason is simple: these tools cannot see inside application runtime where modern attacks execute.
Think of your security stack like building surveillance. EDR watches the doors and windows, monitoring who enters and exits. Network monitoring tracks movement through hallways. WAF acts like a security guard checking IDs at the main entrance. But once an adversary is sitting in an office, there's little to detect forged approvals, rerouted deliveries, or photos of sensitive information on whiteboards. This is where runtime application security comes in, delivering the internal visibility needed to spot application-layer threats.
When an attacker injects malicious SQL into a web form, the attack executes entirely within application code. Your endpoint tools see normal process behavior because no malware is present. Your network tools see encrypted HTTPS traffic that looks legitimate. Your WAF might generate an alert, but it's often buried in mountains of noise. In a recent test by Contrast, fewer than 0.25% of WAF alerts corresponded to a real exploit, underscoring how easily genuine threats get lost in the noise.
Traditional security tools weren't designed for application-layer visibility. Each technology excels at its intended purpose but has inherent limitations when it comes to application runtime:
Endpoint Detection and Response monitors the operating system layer. It sees file access, process creation, and system calls. But application attacks like SQL injection or deserialization happen entirely within the application's memory and logic. No files are created. No suspicious processes launch. From EDR's perspective, the application is behaving normally even while being actively exploited.
Web Application Firewalls operate at the network perimeter, examining HTTP/HTTPS traffic patterns. They match requests against signatures of known attacks. But sophisticated attackers easily bypass these rules through encoding, obfuscation, or by exploiting business logic flaws that don't match any signature. More critically, WAFs cannot see how the application actually processes input or whether an attack successfully exploits vulnerable code.
Network detection tools excel at identifying data movement and communication patterns. They can spot data exfiltration or command-and-control traffic. But they cannot see the application logic being manipulated or the unauthorized database queries being executed. By the time suspicious network activity appears, the application has already been compromised.
Runtime application security takes a fundamentally different approach. Instead of watching from outside, it embeds lightweight sensors directly into applications. These sensors become part of the application itself, observing every function call, data flow, and execution path from within.
Contrast Labs research demonstrates this inside-out approach can achieve 100% correlation to real exploits in controlled testing because it sees attacks as they actually execute, not just their external signatures.
The key advantage is timing and context. Runtime security detects attacks at the moment of exploitation, not after damage occurs. It provides the exact location in code being targeted, enabling immediate response and precise remediation.
Runtime security doesn't replace your existing tools. It completes them by adding the missing application layer to your defense-in-depth strategy:
This layered approach ensures comprehensive coverage. Each technology protects its layer while contributing to overall security posture. More importantly, runtime security enriches other tools with application context, helping SOC teams understand the full scope of attacks and respond more effectively.
Organizations implementing runtime application security through Application Detection and Response (ADR) report transformative results. Mean time to remediate drops from months to hours when security teams can see exactly where attacks occur. False positive investigation time drops significantly when alerts correspond to actual confirmed exploits rather than simply recording ineffective attacks that happened to hit your application.
Security leaders implementing runtime protection typically see value within 30 days. The technology deploys through existing CI/CD pipelines without code changes. Sensors automatically instrument applications, begin monitoring immediately, and integrate with current security tools through standard APIs.
For teams serious about application security, the question isn't whether to add runtime visibility, but how quickly they can close this critical gap before attackers exploit it.
Runtime application security is a cybersecurity approach that embeds sensors directly into applications to monitor code execution in real-time during production. It provides visibility into attacks that traditional tools like WAF and EDR cannot see. In testing by Contrast Labs, this approach achieved 100% correlation to real exploits by observing actual code execution.
WAF operates at the network perimeter, examining traffic patterns. These tools are prone to creating high volumes of false positive alerts, making it difficult to identify genuine threats. Runtime security operates inside the application, seeing actual code execution and data flows, which enables accurate detection of attacks as they happen.
EDR monitors the endpoint's operating system layer, tracking processes and system calls. Application attacks like SQL injection execute entirely within application memory and logic, appearing as normal application behavior to EDR.
No, runtime security complements existing tools by adding application-layer visibility. It works alongside EDR, WAF, and network monitoring to complete your defense-in-depth strategy.
Most organizations see value within 30 days. Deployment happens through existing CI/CD pipelines without code changes, and integration with current security tools uses standard APIs.
Runtime security detects attacks that execute within application code including SQL injection, deserialization attacks, path traversal, command injection, and cross-site scripting, among others.
By monitoring actual code execution rather than patterns, runtime security achieves 100% correlation to real exploits, virtually eliminating the false positives that plague perimeter-based tools.
Jake Milstein is Vice President of Corporate Marketing & Communications at Contrast Security, where he drives awareness of Application Security and Application Detection & Response (ADR). Before entering cybersecurity, Jake spent much of his career leading newsrooms and newscasts at CBS, Fox, NBC, and ABC affiliates nationwide, earning multiple Emmy and Edward R. Murrow awards. He has since led sales and marketing teams at leading cybersecurity companies, helping customers stop breaches with Managed Detection and Response (MDR), Application Detection and Response (ADR), and a wide range of consulting services.
