What Is Application Detection and Response? A Complete Guide

Thank you!

You're subscribed!

Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

What Is Application Detection and Response? A Complete Guide

Modern applications are the lifeblood of business operations, but they are also one of the most common attack surfaces. From open-source components to proprietary APIs, attackers are constantly evolving their tactics to breach applications in ways traditional tools can no longer stop. Application Detection and Response (ADR) is designed to provide the runtime security organizations now require.

In this guide, we'll break down what ADR is, how it works, the types of threats it detects, and why Miggo's managed application threat detection and response platform stands out in today’s landscape.

What Is Application Detection and Response (ADR)?

Application Detection and Response is a security solution that identifies and neutralizes application-layer threats in real time. ADR inspects how applications behave while they're running in production, offering more targeted and effective protection than solutions that focus solely on the network or development stages.

Whereas traditional "shift-left" approaches and Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) rely on generic rules or code analysis, ADR works inside the application to catch zero-day exploits, logic flaws, and behavioral anomalies. Miggo’s ADR adds context at the function level, allowing teams to know what to fix, how to fix and mitigate it, and how attackers would exploit it.

This makes it a critical component for businesses looking to strengthen their application security capabilities in the age of AI, including application detection and response.

How Does ADR Work?

In the era of AI-accelerated development, we're witnessing an unprecedented shift in both how applications are built and how they're attacked. While AI-native coding tools have revolutionized developer productivity, they've also fundamentally altered the security landscape in ways that traditional vulnerability management approaches simply cannot address.

Exploits: From Days to Hours

AI has shattered the window between vulnerability disclosure and active exploitation. In the past 5 years, time to exploit a new CVE has gone from 64 days on average, to under 24 hours¹. Attackers can now analyze disclosures, generate exploits, and scale reconnaissance efforts within hours. Meanwhile, patching remains slow and manual. The gap between discovery and protection grows wider each day.

The Need for AI-Powered Runtime Protection

ADR fills this gap with real-time, AI-driven runtime protection. Miggo's system observes applications like a security researcher, identifying risky behavior and recognizing attack vectors in flight. Instead of relying on outdated signatures, it learns how real users and attackers interact with your app.

AI-Enhanced Contextual Intelligence

Miggo goes beyond basic monitoring. Using behavioral analysis and graph-based intelligence, it understands how data flows through your applications and which components are truly at risk. This enables more precise and meaningful threat detection.

Automated, Adaptive Response

When a threat is detected, Miggo responds instantly:

Generates custom protection policies including customized WAF rules to mitigate the threat at the perimeter
Blocks code execution at runtime
Quarantines affected pods or services

These are tailored to your unique application environment, ensuring both security and business continuity.

Continuous Learning and Optimization

Every alert, every blocked request, and every anomaly becomes a training signal. The system continuously refines its models to reduce false positives and increase protection accuracy, adapting as your application evolves.

This AI-first mitigation approach transforms ADR from a reactive tool to a proactive guardian, which is capable of scaling alongside modern development velocity and attacker sophistication.

What Types of Threats Can ADR Detect?

Miggo is built to detect threats that bypass traditional security controls. Common attacks include:

SQL Injection and RCE in .NET, Java, and Node.js environments
Authentication Bypass (e.g., Nest.js in Node.js apps)
Malicious File Uploads (e.g., Apache Struts CVEs)
Supply Chain Attacks on widely used dependencies (e.g., Log4Shell, Spring4Shell)
Unauthorized API calls and misuse
Privilege escalation attempts
Insider threat behaviors and abnormal user access patterns

By providing deep inspection and application-aware monitoring, Miggo’s solution offers managed application threat detection and response far beyond standard EDRs or WAFs.

Real-Life Use Cases of ADR

1. Secure AI Applications (AI-First Environments)

Detect & catalog AI components: Miggo automatically discovers every AI-powered service or library in your ecosystem and maps how they interconnect
Runtime AI threat detection: Monitors AI components during execution, flags policy deviations, and stops exploitable behaviors before attackers can exploit them
Always-on AI defense: Maintains continuous, attack-path detection for AI-driven architectures, with live dashboards and actionable alerts

2. Runtime Attack Detection and Response (OWASP-Level Coverage)

Real-time runtime monitoring: Seamlessly identifies attacks across the OWASP Top 10—without any disruption or extra engineering overhead
DeepTracing™ for faster investigations: Automatically connects the dots—attack path, method, and impact—shifting triage from weeks to minutes
Tailored mitigation: Creates service-specific response flows to block threats instantly while maintaining system stability

3. 1st- & 3rd‑Party Application Protection

Visibility across internal and external services: Detects exploitable components in both your own and third-party applications, including shadow APIs
Focused threat prioritization: Uses runtime code and internet reachability data to punt false positives and highlight what really matters
Automated smart responses: Applies context-aware rules and tickets in tools like Jira, so teams can respond quickly with minimal friction

4. Runtime Vulnerability Prioritization

Exploitability-based filtering: Highlights only those vulnerabilities that are actually loaded and reachable in your environment
Function-level attack-path analysis: Pinpoints where in the code a vulnerability is actively exploitable, reducing noise and focusing remediation
Instant compensating controls: Enables immediate enforcement of production-safe rules while full remediation is in progress

Why Businesses Need Advanced Detection and Response Systems

In 2025, ADR is not optional, it’s essential. Here’s why:

Application-layer attacks are surging in complexity and volume
Zero-days are increasing, and many evade left-shifted or perimeter defenses
Traditional tools like WAFs use signature-based approaches that don’t scale to today’s dynamic environments
Compliance demands (PCI, HIPAA, SOC2) are more stringent than ever
Customer trust and uptime depend on immediate threat response

With Miggo, security teams can gain the clarity, control, and confidence to address threats inside the application, before they escalate.

An ADR Platform for Modern Businesses

Miggo’s platform is lightweight (<1% CPU), tech stack agnostic, and delivers in-app, context-aware defense without disrupting performance. Unlike traditional RASP tools, Miggo integrates easily and empowers developers and security teams alike.

Most importantly, Miggo gives you not just alerts, but the actual attack path—the what and the how—so your team can act fast and accurately.

Explore tools that help you choose the right solution: Top ADR Tools

FAQs About Application Detection and Response

What makes ADR different from legacy vulnerability management?

Legacy scanners surface a sea of CVEs without context. Miggo’s ADR focuses on what’s exploitable in your application right now and provides live mitigations—cutting noise by over 85%.

Can ADR replace DAST?

DAST tests pre-production but misses real-world logic flaws. Miggo observes real execution, detects unknown vulnerabilities, and blocks active threats at runtime.

How is ADR different from ASPM, SAST, or SCA?

Shift-left tools surface theoretical risks. Miggo focuses on runtime-exploitable vulnerabilities, providing both compensating controls and accurate prioritization.

Why choose ADR over RASP or IAST?

RASP solutions are require heavy, application-specific instrumentation. Miggo is agentless, broader in coverage, and integrates with your runtime without slowing down development.

Does Miggo replace or enhance WAFs?

Miggo enhances WAFs with real-time, behavior-tuned rules that reduce false positives and protect more effectively. Miggo creates these custom rules for specific domains based on runtime in-application context that a WAF misses.

What does Miggo offer for API security?

Miggo goes beyond endpoint visibility. It traces API execution to data exposure and prevents abuse based on behavior, not just traffic patterns.

Can ADR work with Kubernetes and cloud-native stacks?

Yes. Miggo provides function-level visibility inside containers, mapping application behavior and correlating runtime signals with full attack path analysis.

How does Miggo compare to other CADR or CNAPP players?

Miggo is the only platform offering active runtime defense with exploit detection, custom mitigation generation, and context-rich tracing across cloud-native environments.

Executive Summary: Why ADR Matters in 2025

With the convergence of AI-accelerated development and increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks, the security game has changed. Legacy defenses can't keep up with the speed of modern threats, and traditional patching simply isn't fast enough.

ADR—especially when implemented through Miggo's AI-powered, runtime platform—offers businesses a new kind of resilience. It provides:

Proactive defense against emerging threats
Deep context into how and where vulnerabilities are exploited
Real-time protection without performance hits
A bridge between security and development teams

This is not just about compliance or reducing risk. It's about ensuring operational continuity, protecting brand reputation, and enabling innovation at scale.

Application Detection and Response is the future of modern application security—and the future is now.

Want to learn how Miggo can protect your apps in real time? Book a demo and speak to our security experts today.

_______

¹Analysis based on Mandiant, Cloudflare and Akamai reports

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/gsap@3.12.5/dist/gsap.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/gsap@3.12.5/dist/Flip.min.js"></script>

<script>
  document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", (event) => {
    gsap.registerPlugin(Flip);
    const state = Flip.getState("");
    const element = document.querySelector("");
    element.classList.toggle("");
    Flip.from(state, {
      duration: 0,
      ease: "none",
      absolute: true,
    });
  });
</script>

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/gsap@3.12.5/dist/gsap.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/gsap@3.12.5/dist/Flip.min.js"></script>

<script>
  document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", (event) => {
    gsap.registerPlugin(Flip);
    const state = Flip.getState("");
    const element = document.querySelector("");
    element.classList.toggle("");
    Flip.from(state, {
      duration: 0,
      ease: "none",
      absolute: true,
    });
  });
</script>

What Is Application Detection and Response? A Complete Guide