Over the past 18 months, the application security market has changed. A new category—Runtime Application Security—is gaining traction among investors, innovators, and security teams alike. Not only are they taking notice but they're actively fueling its growth and innovation. The number of startups entering this space has surged, signaling a broader shift in how the industry thinks about application security.
Based on our assessment, investments have surpassed $700 million. Since the concept is new, we need to provide a clear definition of it. We should also show the benefits it brings to the DevSecOps community.
With so much momentum behind it, now is the time to redefine what Runtime Application Security truly means—and why it’s becoming essential for modern DevSecOps teams.
What is Runtime Application Security?
At its core, Runtime Application Security focuses on securing application that are running – i.e., executing its functions. Only at runtime, when the application’s logic executes, do vulnerabilities of all kinds get exposed. Thus, observing a running application is the best way to understand its behavior, logic, and security-flaws.
Runtime security takes a fundamentally different approach than static application security. Tools like SAST and SCA analyze code and dependencies in repositories, attempting to predict how an app or API might behave once deployed. But without runtime context, these tools are often left guessing—leading to false positives, missed issues, and ultimately, unreliable results.
In contract, Runtime Application Security tracks every running application and its processes. It can connect to every active entity, like running applications, microservices, or API processes. Every running entity gets its own detection and protection security. This security stays with it for its entire lifespan, ensuring applications remain secure.
Unlike traditional “black-box” technologies like DAST or WAAP, runtime AppSec offers a view from the inside out. It analyzes execution paths, logic flows, and service behavior directly as they happen. And modern solutions are increasingly powered by eBPF—a powerful Linux technology that enables deep, low-overhead observability into runtime activity.
Runtime Application Security isn’t just a new feature—it’s a new foundation. It brings context, clarity, and control to dynamic environments where traditional tools fall short. Runtime AppSec is poised to transform the application security marketplace.
In the next post, we’ll dive into what makes eBPF-based Runtime Security so powerful—and how it helps DevSecOps teams prioritize real risks, reduce alert fatigue, and better protect their applications in production.
