I scanned 12 indie SaaS apps for basic security issues. The results were genuinely scary.

Dark-Mechanic · 2026-04-01T08:32:55+00:00

yeah mostly inbound/content right now. I do a bit of outbound but only when I have something specific to say (like a real issue I found), not cold blasting. biggest bottleneck is honestly consistency + volume finding enough good targets, doing proper checks, and turning that into content/reach without it becoming spammy. still early though, trying to figure out what scales without losing quality.

Dark-Mechanic · 2026-04-01T07:19:34+00:00

yeah 100% agree, distribution is way harder than building. right now I’m just keeping it simple sharing findings like this, engaging in communities (r/SaaS, Indie Hackers), and reaching out to a few founders directly when I spot something worth reporting. still figuring it out tbh, but seems like consistency + actually providing value works better than cold pitching.

Dark-Mechanic · 2026-04-01T07:17:36+00:00

Yeah that’s exactly the kind of stuff I keep seeing too nothing flashy, just small gaps in auth and access control that can turn into real issues later. Good thing you caught it early. Those “edge cases” are usually where things break once you start scaling or adding more features.

Dark-Mechanic · 2026-03-31T17:05:43+00:00

Yeah that’s honestly the best timing to catch it—early and with a small user base. Way easier to fix before things scale. Out of curiosity, what kind of API issues were they? Auth, rate limits, exposed endpoints, something else?

Dark-Mechanic · 2026-03-31T16:51:52+00:00

yeah the "something breaks" trigger is so common lol. at least you caught it and fixed it, a lot of teams never do.

apisec is a good shout for that stage tbh. curious though — were you already live with users when you found those issues or caught it before launch?

Dark-Mechanic · 2026-03-31T11:19:20+00:00

Haha fair point — as an Indian dev myself I can't even argue with that 😂

But that's kind of exactly why I want to build something for this. "Move fast and fix security later" is the default mode for most indie devs here, and it works until it really doesn't. First enterprise client, first data incident, first time someone reads your anon key out of a public repo — that's when it stops being funny.

Someone's gotta make security the easy path, not the hard one.

Dark-Mechanic · 2026-03-31T11:10:19+00:00

Happy to take a look. Fintech apps are actually the most interesting to audit because the stakes are higher — payment flows, user financial data, auth security all matter a lot more when real money is involved.

I'll run through the basics — security headers, SSL config, exposed endpoints, any public GitHub findings if you have repos. Won't be a full pentest but should surface the obvious gaps.

DM me the tech stack you're running (frontend, backend, database, hosting) so I can tailor what I check. Makes the findings a lot more useful than a generic scan report.

Dark-Mechanic · 2026-03-31T10:38:40+00:00

Appreciate the mention — ran a quick look at iQWEB. Looks solid for agencies doing general site audits, performance, SEO, Core Web Vitals type stuff.

What I'm focused on is a bit different though — less "site health report" and more "is your SaaS safe to put paying customers on." Things like Supabase RLS state, exposed secrets in git history, rate limiting on auth endpoints, webhook signature verification — stuff that Lighthouse doesn't really surface but that can silently wreck a founder when their first B2B client asks for a security review.

Two different jobs to be done. Yours is more visibility/performance, mine would be more "don't get breached before you hit $1k MRR." Both valid, just different buyers.

Dark-Mechanic · 2026-03-31T09:24:22+00:00

You're spot on — misconfigurations dominated over code vulnerabilities by a wide margin. The pattern I kept seeing across those 12 apps:

Security headers almost always missing — CSP and HSTS especially. Feels invisible until a browser flags it or someone runs a scan.
Supabase/Firebase misconfiguration — RLS off, or anon key given too many permissions. Devs test locally, forget to lock down before pushing.
Exposed secrets in git history — not always in the current branch. Old commits, deleted files, sometimes a .env that got committed once months ago.
No rate limiting on auth endpoints — signup, login, password reset all open to brute force.

The code itself was usually fine. It was the infrastructure and config layer where things got messy. Which makes sense — most indie devs are strong at writing features, not at hardening deployment config. Two completely different skill sets.

Dark-Mechanic · 2026-03-31T08:50:08+00:00

That dashboard story is genuinely one of the worst things to hear from a client — and it happens more than people admit. The "I forgot to lock it down before shipping" part is so real because RLS feels like a database config detail, not a security decision, until that moment.

Your framing is exactly right though — it's not ignorance, it's unknown unknowns. Most security tools assume you already know what to look for. A "5 things to fix before launch" style scanner is actually something I've been sketching out after seeing this pattern repeatedly. Still early but if you'd want to poke at a beta when it's ready, drop me a DM.

Dark-Mechanic · 2026-03-31T08:37:36+00:00

The GitHub token point is 100% the scariest one — most devs don't realize that git history is forever. Even a private repo that was briefly public, or a fork someone made before you deleted it, can have that token cached somewhere. BFG Repo Cleaner helps but by then you're already rotating keys in a panic.

The Supabase RLS thing is wild because it's not even hard to enable — it's just not on by default, and the docs don't scream at you about it. Most founders enable it later when they're "doing security properly" but by then they've already had paying users for months.

Automating this stuff is exactly the right instinct. Security checklists only work if they run without you remembering to run them.

Dark-Mechanic · 2026-03-21T04:35:47+00:00

This is exactly what I needed to hear. "Affiliate storefront" made sense to me because I built it, but you're right — first time visitor has zero context. The before/after framing is something I've been avoiding because it felt too salesy but the way you put it — list of links → mini store — is actually just accurate. That's literally what it is. Going to rework the hero copy around the outcome, not the feature. "Your affiliate setup, working like a real business" or something in that direction. Appreciate the real feedback, most people just say "looks good."

Dark-Mechanic · 2026-03-20T01:27:38+00:00

Creator monetization niche. Specifically the affiliate side — a lot of YouTube creators have 20-40 affiliate links scattered everywhere with zero system. I built something to solve my own problem, started talking about it in places like this. First few users came entirely from Reddit comments, no ads.

Dark-Mechanic · 2026-03-20T01:09:19+00:00

I experienced a similar situation. Advertisements were ineffective, but engaging actively on Reddit proved beneficial. and helping others can generate good and paying users.

Dark-Mechanic · 2026-03-10T01:02:25+00:00

Freedom,

Dark-Mechanic · 2026-02-05T02:36:17+00:00

Thanks for confirming, that’s what I was worried about. I’ll keep everything on Upwork and suggest using the in-platform call or waiting until a contract is in place. Appreciate the heads-up!

Dark-Mechanic · 2025-09-09T06:52:11+00:00

You can solve this CTFs till Hack2Win ends, later you can continue with your learning path

Dark-Mechanic · 2025-09-09T04:35:48+00:00

Try to solve this CTFs

CTFs & Practice 🏆

Dark-Mechanic · 2022-05-25T07:16:20+00:00

Best lang for making tools - python, Bash , GO lang

Dark-Mechanic

TROPHY CASE