Phoenix Security Named Leader in Application Security Management 2026

Isometric cybersecurity architecture representing the evolution from ASPM to Continuous Threat Exposure Management in a dark enterprise-style illustration

Recognized in Latio Report, Cloud Security Innovator 2025, and Leader in ASPM & CTEM

Application security has entered a new phase defined by Continuous Threat Exposure Management 2026. Scanners alone no longer differentiate vendors. Dashboards alone no longer impress CISOs. Enterprises are not buying tools — they are buying outcomes: reduced attack surface, faster remediation, measurable risk reduction, and developer-aligned execution.

Scanners alone no longer differentiate vendors. Dashboards alone no longer impress CISOs. Enterprises are not buying tools — they are buying outcomes: reduced attack surface, faster remediation, measurable risk reduction, and developer-aligned execution.

Phoenix Security has been named Application Security Management Leader for 2026 in the Latio Report and recognized as Cloud Security Innovator 2025 and Leader in ASPM and CTEM in the Cloud Security Report.

These recognitions validate what our customers already know: application security must move beyond detection and into contextual remediation.

What Enterprises Are Really Searching For

Large organizations evaluating application security platforms are not asking:

  • “How many scanners do you integrate with?”
  • “Do you support SAST and SCA?”
  • “Can you show me another dashboard?”

They are asking:

  • Who owns this vulnerability?
  • Where is it deployed?
  • Is it reachable?
  • Is it exploitable?
  • What is the fastest, lowest-impact remediation path?
  • How do I prove to the board that risk is decreasing?

The Latio report captured this market transition clearly: the difference between platforms is no longer pure detection capability. It is usability, integration depth, backlog reduction, and time-to-fix.

Phoenix Security has built its platform around exactly that shift.

Overview of the 2026 Application Security Market Report

The 2026 Latio Application Security Market Report captures a discipline in transition. Application security is no longer defined by scanner breadth. It is defined by backlog reduction, developer experience, runtime validation, and measurable remediation velocity.

The report makes several structural observations that directly shape enterprise buying decisions:

  • Platform consolidation has shifted focus away from detection depth and toward workflow, integration, and usability
  • AI-native detection is changing static analysis, particularly around business logic flaws
  • Evaluations should prioritize time-to-fix rather than total findings
  • ASPM has evolved into broader CTEM and universal vulnerability management models
  • Runtime context is emerging as the truth layer for exploitability and prioritization

The market is moving from vulnerability aggregation to exposure reduction.

That shift aligns tightly with the capabilities outlined earlier in What Makes Phoenix Security Different, particularly around attribution, reachability, AI prioritization, and remediation orchestration.

Analytics dashboard comparing traditional ASPM detection metrics with CTEM exposure reduction and remediation velocity

Remediation Is the Real Battleground

The report highlights a painful reality: detection has improved. Backlogs have not.

Enterprises are drowning in:

  • SCA findings
  • Container duplicates
  • Legacy SAST noise
  • Compliance-driven vulnerability counts

The bottleneck is not discovery. It is remediation.

Modern remediation requires more than opening pull requests. It requires:

  • Function-level reachability to confirm exploitability
  • Breaking-change analysis across library upgrades
  • Backporting strategies in high-risk enterprise systems
  • Consolidation of container and SCA duplication

Consider a real supply chain example.

The following packages and versions contain a vulnerability:

React

  • react-server-dom-parcel 19.1.0 to 19.1.1 and 19.2.0
  • react-server-dom-turbopack 19.0.0 and 19.1.0 to 19.1.1 and 19.2.0
  • react-server-dom-webpack 19.0.0 and 19.1.0 to 19.1.1 and 19.2.0

Any framework bundling the server implementation is potentially vulnerable, notably Next.js.

Next.js

  • 14.3.0 and later with App Router
  • All 15.x versions
  • All 16.x versions

Additional frameworks affected include:

  • React Router RSC preview
  • Waku
  • Parcel RSC plugin
  • Vite RSC plugin
  • RedwoodJS

In a typical enterprise, that single vulnerability may appear:

  • In source code dependencies
  • In container base images
  • In multiple services
  • Across staging and production clusters

A scanner reports hundreds of findings.

A remediation-driven exposure platform asks:

  • Which services actually execute the vulnerable function?
  • Which are externally exposed?
  • Which are mapped to Tier 1 revenue applications?
  • Which container images inherit from the same base layer?
  • What is the lowest-impact upgrade path?

That is the difference between vulnerability reporting and vulnerability reduction.

Engineering dashboard showing supply chain vulnerability deduplication from hundreds of findings to a single prioritized exposure

From ASPM to CTEM: The Market Has Evolved

The report highlights a structural transformation:

  • Traditional ASPM focused on consolidating scanner output.
  • Vulnerability Management focused on severity, patching, and infrastructure vulnerabilities.
  • Risk-Based Vulnerability Management tried to reprioritize.

Phoenix was built around the Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) — a methodology centered on validating exploitability, mapping exposure, and driving remediation. 

Phoenix Security did not bolt CTEM onto an existing scanner stack. We engineered the platform around:

  • Code-to-cloud correlation
  • Reachability analysis
  • Container lineage and throttling
  • AI-Powered Security research for Threat intelligence enrichment
  • AI-powered remediation orchestration

That architectural foundation is why Phoenix is recognized as a leader in both ASPM and CTEM.

Runtime Is the Source of Truth

The report is explicit: runtime context delivers the strongest prioritization signal.

Static reachability reduces backlog.
Runtime function-level execution validates exploitability.

Runtime technologies now provide:

  • Function-level execution tracking
  • Attack path simulation
  • Application-layer detection and response
  • Correlation between static findings and production behavior
     

When runtime confirms that a vulnerable function is executing in production, prioritization becomes obvious.

When runtime shows that a dependency exists but is never called, triage effort drops immediately.

This runtime correlation is especially critical in containerized environments, where duplication between SCA and container scanners inflates vulnerability counts.

Exposure management programs that ignore runtime context will continue to inflate backlogs rather than shrink them.

Cybersecurity dashboard illustrating runtime validation reducing static vulnerability findings to confirmed exploitable risks

Ownership Drives Execution

The report repeatedly emphasizes orchestration challenges in enterprises with thousands of repositories.

Detection without ownership mapping leads to:

  • Ticket misrouting
  • SLA theater
  • Unassigned backlog
  • Friction between AppSec and engineering

Ownership must be programmatic.

Modern platforms differentiate on:

  • Application-to-team mapping
  • CI/CD pipeline coverage visibility
  • Deployment mapping
  • Code-to-cloud correlation

This is where management-layer capabilities become decisive, especially in distributed environments.

The earlier section on What Makes Phoenix Security Different describes how attribution, reachability, and AI remediation converge. That alignment reflects the broader market direction outlined in the report.

Prioritization Beyond CVSS

Severity alone is no longer defensible.

The report emphasizes:

  • AI-driven prioritization
  • Static function-level reachability
  • Runtime validation
  • Cloud context correlation

The most effective false-positive reduction comes from combining runtime function-level reachability with cloud context.

When static findings, runtime telemetry, and cloud exposure signals converge, noise collapses.

That convergence defines modern CTEM.

Cloud Runtime and Container Reality

Container scanning introduces duplication and lifecycle complexity.

Scanning a container pulls in:

  • OS packages
  • Language libraries
  • Base image inheritance
  • Build layer metadata
  • Registry artifacts
  • Running workload context

Without lineage awareness, enterprises remediate the same vulnerability repeatedly across derived images.

With lineage mapping, remediation becomes surgical:

  • Upgrade the base image once
  • Rebuild downstream images
  • Eliminate hundreds of inherited findings

Cloud runtime context further enhances prioritization by linking:

  • Public endpoints
  • API exposure
  • Identity permissions
  • Network reachability

Exposure management without cloud runtime integration is incomplete.

Container lineage visualization showing inherited vulnerabilities consolidated through base image remediation in a cloud security dashboard

CTEM Is Not a Dashboard

The report makes it clear that traditional ASPM collapsed because dashboards do not drive remediation.

CTEM requires:

  1. Continuous discovery
  2. Exposure validation
  3. Context-driven prioritization
  4. Remediation orchestration
  5. Runtime validation

Platforms that treat management as aggregation fail.

Platforms that treat management as execution win.

The Strategic Alignment

The 2026 Application Security Market Report signals a decisive industry shift:

  • From scanning to exposure
  • From detection to remediation
  • From severity to exploitability
  • From code-only to code-to-cloud
  • From dashboards to execution

The section above, What Makes Phoenix Security Different, reflects this exact trajectory:

  • Enterprise-grade attribution
  • Tool-agnostic reachability
  • AI prioritization and remediation
  • Code-to-cloud correlation
  • Runtime-aware exposure reduction

The recognition as Application Security Management Leader 2026 validates that this is no longer a niche view.

It is where the market is going.

And for enterprises managing React supply chain risk, container duplication, AI-generated code, and sprawling runtime exposure, remediation-aware CTEM is no longer optional.

What Makes Phoenix Security Different

1. Enterprise-Grade Attribution at Scale

Enterprise vulnerability programs fail when ownership is unclear.

Phoenix Security solves attribution programmatically:

  • Developer first YAML-native CMDB (PYRUS)
  • Native Asset inventory and CMDB Integration with connectors to Backstage 
  • Git metadata correlation
  • Cloud and CI/CD tagging

Every vulnerability is mapped to:

  • Team
  • Service
  • Deployment environment
  • Business tier

Real-World Proof: Measurable Reduction

Recognition means nothing without results.

ClearBank – Fintech

  • 98% reduction in container vulnerabilities
  • 96% reduction in critical vulnerabilities
  • $15M in developer time saved
  • 91–99% weekly critical reduction

“Phoenix helped us move from noise to precision. We now focus on what truly matters — and fix faster than ever before.”

Neil Reed, Principal AppSec Engineer, ClearBank

Read the case study

2. Tool-Agnostic Reachability and Deduplication

Most enterprises already have scanners.

Replacing them is unrealistic.

Phoenix sits on top of:

  • SAST
  • SCA – scanning and enriching
  • Container scanning – aggregating and enriching
  • Cloud security tools – native scanning
  • IaC scanning

Then we apply:

  • Code-level reachability
  • Runtime reachability
  • Container lineage analysis
  • Contextual deduplication

The result?

Instead of 400 Jackson-Databind CVEs across code and containers, teams see:

  • 25 reachable
  • 8 deployed in production
  • 3 externally exposed
  • 1 weaponized

That is exposure management.

That is why enterprises choose Phoenix.

3. AI Agents Built for Remediation, Not Noise

The Latio report emphasizes the shift toward AI-native features — but also warns against AI-wash.

Phoenix Security deploys AI agents only after contextualization.

Three agents power remediation:

The Researcher

  • Maps vulnerabilities to threat actors
  • Tracks weaponization
  • Correlates CTI, EPSS, KEV
  • Classifies root causes

The Analyzer

  • Simulates attack paths
  • Validates reachability
  • Scores based on exposure and business impact
  • Identifies blast radius

The Remediator

  • Clusters vulnerabilities into fixable bundles
  • Suggests framework-aware upgrades
  • Generates IaC patches
  • Routes tickets with full ownership metadata

AI amplifies humans. It does not replace context.

Bazaarvoice – Retail

  • Critical vulnerabilities reduced to zero
  • 40% reduction in high-risk issues in two weeks
  • Container security aligned with engineering workflows

“We didn’t just improve visibility — we eliminated criticals. Phoenix made that operationally possible in days, not months.”

Nate Sanders, Senior Manager, Security Engineering & Operations

Read the case study

Global Ad-Tech Enterprise

  • 78% reduction in container vulnerabilities
  • 82% reduction in SCA noise
  • Unified remediation across code and cloud

“Phoenix gave us the missing bridge between code and cloud. The visibility is deep, the actions are clear — and the results speak for themselves.”

— Director of Application Security

Read the case study

Why Cloud Security Innovator 2025 Matters

Cloud-native environments break traditional security models.

Containers:

  • Multiply vulnerabilities
  • Inflate duplicates
  • Introduce runtime uncertainty

Phoenix Security’s container throttling and lineage model allows enterprises to:

  • Ignore inactive images
  • Map container images to repositories
  • Trace base image inheritance
  • Focus on running workloads

ClearBank alone reduced container noise from hundreds of thousands of findings to a manageable, actionable set.

That is cloud security innovation.

Key Question Raised by the Report  

Built for Distributed, Regulated, Global Enterprises

Large enterprises operate across:

  • Multi-cloud and hybrid environments
  • Thousands of repositories
  • Ephemeral containers
  • Distributed engineering teams
  • Complex regulatory obligations

Phoenix Security was engineered for that reality.

What Global Enterprises Require

1. Consistent Ownership Across Regions

Automated attribution via YAML-native CMDB (PYRUS), ServiceNow, Backstage, and identity provider integrations ensures every asset has a clear owner — across continents.

2. Unified Code-to-Cloud Visibility

Trace vulnerabilities from repository to container to runtime. No silos between AppSec and CloudSec.

3. Regulatory Alignment Without SLA Theater

Support for PCI DSS, NIST, FFIEC, HIPAA, and financial sector controls — driven by risk-based prioritization rather than severity-only patching.

4. Scalable Backlog Reduction

Deduplicate vulnerabilities across SAST, SCA, container, and cloud scanners. Focus only on reachable, exploitable, exposed risks.

5. Board-Ready Exposure Metrics

Translate vulnerability data into measurable exposure reduction and business risk impact.

Phoenix Security enables global organizations to operate securely at scale — without increasing headcount or slowing delivery velocity.

Francesco is an internationally renowned public speaker, with multiple interviews in high-profile publications (eg. Forbes), and an author of numerous books and articles, who utilises his platform to evangelize the importance of Cloud security and cutting-edge technologies on a global scale.

Discuss this blog with our community on Slack

Join our AppSec Phoenix community on Slack to discuss this blog and other news with our professional security team

From our Blog

Phoenix Security named Application Security Management Leader 2026 by Latio, recognized for enterprise attribution, code-to-cloud visibility, and measurable vulnerability noise reduction across global organizations.
Francesco Cipollone
Sha1-Hulud V3.0 is not a typical vulnerability — it’s a malicious npm package that executes on install, steals CI and cloud credentials, and weaponizes npm and GitHub tokens to spread further. If it touched your build system, assume compromise.
Francesco Cipollone
A compression bug in MongoDB turns a core database feature into a silent data exfiltration channel. CVE-2025-14847, nicknamed MongoBleed, allows remote attackers to extract uninitialized heap memory without credentials. With zlib enabled by default and tens of thousands of instances exposed online, this is a real-world data breach waiting to happen.
Francesco Cipollone
React2Shell is a pre-auth, single-request RCE in React Server Components that turned Next.js App Router deployments into high-value internet targets overnight. This write-up breaks down the exploit chain, what attackers do after landing, and the fast-moving follow-up CVEs that forced teams to patch again.
Francesco Cipollone
Contents
Derek

Derek Fisher

Head of product security at a global fintech

Derek Fisher – Head of product security at a global fintech. Speaker, instructor, and author in application security.

Derek is an award winning author of a children’s book series in cybersecurity as well as the author of “The Application Security Handbook.” He is a university instructor at Temple University where he teaches software development security to undergraduate and graduate students. He is a speaker on topics in the cybersecurity space and has led teams, large and small, at organizations in the healthcare and financial industries. He has built and matured information security teams as well as implemented organizational information security strategies to reduce the organizations risk.

Derek got his start in the hardware engineering space where he learned about designing circuits and building assemblies for commercial and military applications. He later pursued a computer science degree in order to advance a career in software development. This is where Derek was introduced to cybersecurity and soon caught the bug. He found a mentor to help him grow in cybersecurity and then pursued a graduate degree in the subject.

Since then Derek has worked in the product security space as an architect and leader. He has led teams to deliver more secure software in organizations from multiple industries. His focus has been to raise the security awareness of the engineering organization while maintaining a practice of secure code development, delivery, and operations.

In his role, Jeevan handles a range of tasks, from architecting security solutions to collaborating with Engineering Leadership to address security vulnerabilities at scale and embed security into the fabric of the organization.

Jeevan Singh

Jeevan Singh

Founder of Manicode Security

Jeevan Singh is the Director of Security Engineering at Rippling, with a background spanning various Engineering and Security leadership roles over the course of his career. He’s dedicated to the integration of security practices into software development, working to create a security-aware culture within organizations and imparting security best practices to the team.
In his role, Jeevan handles a range of tasks, from architecting security solutions to collaborating with Engineering Leadership to address security vulnerabilities at scale and embed security into the fabric of the organization.

James

James Berthoty

Founder of Latio Tech

James Berthoty has over ten years of experience across product and security domains. He founded Latio Tech to help companies find the right security tools for their needs without vendor bias.

christophe

Christophe Parisel

Senior Cloud Security Architect

Senior Cloud Security Architect

Chris

Chris Romeo

Co-Founder
Security Journey

Chris Romeo is a leading voice and thinker in application security, threat modeling, and security champions and the CEO of Devici and General Partner at Kerr Ventures. Chris hosts the award-winning “Application Security Podcast,” “The Security Table,” and “The Threat Modeling Podcast” and is a highly rated industry speaker and trainer, featured at the RSA Conference, the AppSec Village @ DefCon, OWASP Global AppSec, ISC2 Security Congress, InfoSec World and All Day DevOps. Chris founded Security Journey, a security education company, leading to an exit in 2022. Chris was the Chief Security Advocate at Cisco, spreading security knowledge through education and champion programs. Chris has twenty-six years of security experience, holding positions across the gamut, including application security, security engineering, incident response, and various Executive roles. Chris holds the CISSP and CSSLP certifications.

jim

Jim Manico

Founder of Manicode Security

Jim Manico is the founder of Manicode Security, where he trains software developers on secure coding and security engineering. Jim is also the founder of Brakeman Security, Inc. and an investor/advisor for Signal Sciences. He is the author of Iron-Clad Java: Building Secure Web Applications (McGraw-Hill), a frequent speaker on secure software practices, and a member of the JavaOne Rockstar speaker community. Jim is also a volunteer for and former board member of the OWASP foundation.

Join our Mailing list!

Get all the latest news, exclusive deals, and feature updates.

The IKIGAI concept