Guides

How to check if your AI-built app is secure — without being a developer

6 min read · VibeSafe Blog

You built an app with AI. You can't read most of the code. Here's how to verify it's safe anyway — using checks that don't require a security background.

What you're actually checking for

Forget the 400-item enterprise checklists. For an AI-built app, five categories cover the overwhelming majority of real incidents: exposed secrets, open databases, weak authentication, broken error handling, and bad dependencies. Every one is detectable without reading code line by line.

Check 1 — The stranger test

Open your app logged out, in a private window. Can you reach private pages by typing their URL? Can you see other users' data anywhere? This one manual test catches broken auth faster than any tool.

Check 2 — The secrets search

Search your code for the telltale prefixes: sk_live, sk-, AKIA, service_role. If you find them as literal strings in the code (rather than process.env.SOMETHING), that's a critical finding.

Check 3 — The database rules check

If your app uses Supabase or Firebase, open the dashboard and confirm access rules exist on every table or collection. "RLS disabled" on a table of user data is the most common — and most damaging — finding in vibe-coded apps.

Check 4 — The automated scan

An AI scanner reads the code the way a security reviewer would and flags what the manual checks can't see: injection patterns, missing awaits, hallucinated packages, weak comparisons. VibeSafe does this in about ten seconds and explains every finding in plain English, with the fix.

How often to re-check

Every time the AI regenerates a meaningful chunk of your app. Generated code changes wholesale — a feature you fixed last week can reappear broken after a new prompt. Scanning after each big change (or on every push, with a CI integration) keeps the safety score honest.

Scan your code free →

3 free scans every month · Your code is never stored

An honest note. VibeSafe helps catch the most common risks in AI-built apps quickly. It doesn't replace a professional security audit for high-risk applications.

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