Contrast Security has announced the release of Northstar, a unified platform that brings runtime visibility, contextual threat analysis, and AI-driven remediation under one roof. Northstar introduces a common operational picture for development, security, and operations teams.At the core of Northstar is the Contrast Graph, which acts as a real-time digital twin of an organization’s application and API environment. It maps active threats, vulnerabilities, and assets together in a single contextual view. This capability marks a shift from the limitations of standalone AST or SIEM tools.“The Contrast Graph unifies telemetry from apps, APIs, libraries, attacks, and vulnerabilities into a real-time digital twin,” said David Lindner, CISO of Contrast Security. “This eliminates guesswork and provides deep, dynamic context that traditional AST and SIEM lack. For security teams, it means dynamic prioritization based on live exploitability and threat signals, drastically reducing alert fatigue and focusing efforts on actual threats.”With its AI-powered remediation, real-time threat intelligence, and shared context across roles, Northstar gives organizations and service providers a structured way to address application-layer threats while reducing time-to-response and team fatigue.Deployment is simplified with features like the Flex Agent and Deployment Hub, helping teams onboard and manage updates across distributed environments with minimal friction. Northstar integrates with tools like Splunk, Wiz, and Sumo Logic, ensuring security data flows into existing DevSecOps pipelines without disruption.
Prioritizing and Remediating What Actually Matters
Northstar introduces dynamic risk scoring that evaluates vulnerabilities based on real-world behavior and attack activity. The integration of Application Detection and Response (ADR) with security testing workflows allows teams to connect incidents to the root causes in real time, aligning remediation efforts around the most pressing risks. For developers and regulated environments, Contrast’s new AI SmartFix helps maintain trust in automated fixes.“Contrast AI SmartFix is an agentic AI that perceives the runtime environment to plan and execute optimal remediation,” Lindner explained. “It uses comprehensive context from the Contrast Graph to generate a pull request with secure code patches and test cases. SmartFix also verifies the fixes are effective when deployed. This means dev teams can choose to put the fix through their typical change approval process, ensuring developer trust and adherence to critical change control, especially in regulated industries.”Built for Security Teams and MSSPs Alike
The platform is designed for both in-house security teams and managed security service providers (MSSPs), with flexible deployment through Flex Agent and centralized management via the Deployment Hub. This makes it easier to scale protection across diverse environments while reducing operational overhead.“Northstar unifies AppSec and SecOps to detect, respond to, and remediate application-layer attacks in real-time,” Lindner added. “This unified approach makes it a perfect fit for MSSPs and security service providers. Its benefits—reduced alert noise, automated remediation, and scalable deployment, enable them to efficiently manage security across multiple client environments.”
