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Rapid API survey findings released in November 2023 revealed that virtually all respondents believed a successful API strategy is critical for safeguarding their organizations' future growth and revenue, making API security a top priority today.
With APIs becoming the cornerstone of modern software systems, their safety has become a central concern in modern security practices.
What Is API Security?
APIs offer users, IoT devices, and applications access to network resources and sensitive data. Without robust security provisions, these APIs become highly susceptible to attacks that could compromise data or networks altogether.
API security ensures API requests can be authenticated, authorized, and validated as part of a service's busy processing capabilities.
Since APIs are utilized by various modern apps and services utilizing different formats and protocols compared with standard web servers that must only protect a few ports/requests simultaneously, their security requirements differ substantially from traditional web server protection measures.
How To Build An API Strategy For Your Enterprise
Also includes:
- Five primary reasons for Adopting an API Management Platform.
- Protect your APIs with these 12 best practices.
- API Testing Checklist and Best Practices.
Security for APIs goes beyond network controls alone - it requires carefully written coded APIs which handle invalid or malicious requests properly, rejecting them to protect integrity, confidentiality, and availability of resources exposed through them.
What Is The Importance Of API Security?
Data theft and malware attacks have become more frequent as businesses rely on APIs to access data and services.
Unprotected APIs pose a severe security threat; their vulnerabilities make them susceptible to DDoS attacks and easy exploitation.
Security's customer data shows that from July 2023, API traffic for each customer increased 168% year over year, with malicious API attacks increasing 117% year-on-year and representing 21% of total API traffic.
Noname Security reported that from September 2023, 76% of respondents experienced some form of API security incident or event.
Common API Security Risks
When designing an API, it is vitally important to take note of several security-related aspects:
- Broken Object-Level Authorization (BOLA): An application or user should never be able to modify or access data that shouldn't belong to them; an unauthorized individual could access another person's account simply by changing their identifier.
- Incorrect Function-Level Authorization: Failure to implement the principle of least privilege (POLP), often due to complex access control policies, allows an attacker to gain entry to endpoints or execute sensitive commands designed only for accounts with higher privileges.
- Failed User Authentication: BOLA demonstrated that authentication could be compromised to allow an attacker to pose as someone else either temporarily or permanently.
- Data Exposure Is Excessive: Responses from API requests typically return more data than necessary or relevant, even though users do not directly see it themselves. But even without their awareness, such information could still be accessed and analyzed - leading to potentially sensitive details being exposed inadvertently.
- Inadequate Asset Management: API development tends to move at a fast clip and requires more documentation; this often results in unintended endpoints being exposed and an inadequate understanding of older APIs' functionalities.
- Rate Limiting And Lack Of Resources: API endpoints can be open to internet traffic and vulnerable to DoS attacks and brute force attacks if left open and without limits on the size or number of requests.
- Injection Flaws: An attacker could launch an SQL or command injection attack if request data weren't correctly parsed and validated, giving them access to execute malicious commands or access information without authorization.
- Mass Assignment: Many software development frameworks include capabilities that enable data from forms to be directly entered into objects or databases using just one line of code - known as mass assignment - without resorting to repetitive form mapping code. While this provides convenience, this leaves room for potential attacks if the data entered does not conform with expected standards.
Web-enabled applications are especially vulnerable to attacks through exposed APIs. Bad actors may gain entry and cause havoc by exploiting this vulnerability to gain entry.
APIs offer protection from security threats through role or attribute-based control mechanisms.Here are some tips for building a safe API.
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API Security Best Practices
These 12 best practices will assist your organization in improving and increasing the security of its APIs.
Authorize And Authenticate
To regulate API access effectively, users and devices must be comprehensively identified. Client-side applications often include an API token so the service can verify who they belong to; OAuth 2.0 (OpenID Connect), JSON Web tokens, or OpenID Connect could all help monitor API traffic more closely.
At the same time, grant types or access control rules could define who, which groups, and roles have access to specific resources, following POLO principles only granting permissions when necessary.
Access Control
The Zero Trust Model (ZTM) is an approach to security that requires organizations to implement and test control measures designed to restrict third-party access to their internal systems and data, including who has access, when, how, and deletion checks for created/updated/deleted records.
For an initial layer of defense, APIs should be protected behind web application firewalls, API gateway, or firewalls that support HTTPS secure protocols - to keep unauthorized parties out.
An effectively designed API can implement rate limitations and geo-velocity checking as part of its geofencing and content validation policies, serving as the enforcement point.
Geo Velocity check offers context-based authentication by looking at the distance between previous and current login attempts. Middleware application code handles this function, which manages requests before passing them along to the API application for processing.
Requests And Responses Can Be Encrypted
API responses and requests should contain encrypted data and credentials, with HTTPS as their underlying protocol of choice; where possible, it would be preferable to enable HTTP Strict transport security rather than redirect HTTP traffic into HTTPS since API clients might behave unexpectedly otherwise.
Validate Your Data
Do not assume API data is validated and cleaned correctly - use server-side cleansing/validation processes to avoid standard injection vulnerabilities and cross-site request forgery attacks.
Debugging tools like Postman or Chrome DevTools may prove helpful in monitoring API data flow, tracking errors, and detecting anomalies in API usage patterns.
Consider Your API Risks
Conducting a risk evaluation of all APIs within your registry is another essential API best practice. Take measures to ensure they comply with security policies, are secure from known vulnerabilities, and comply with security policies set by you and others.
For this, Open Web Application Security Project's "API Security Top 10" vulnerabilities list could prove helpful as an ongoing monitoring mechanism of potential threats or malicious software today.
An API breach should prompt a risk analysis that details all affected systems and data before providing treatment options to reduce any possible threats to an acceptable level.
An API should be carefully assessed whenever new threats or modifications require updates to protect security requirements and comply with data handling needs. Review of documentation is critical as it ensures all necessary protections remain intact when making code modifications and security requirements don't compromise data handling needs.
Only Share The Necessary Information
API responses frequently return all relevant fields rather than only those relevant for processing by users' applications, which is inefficient programming that increases response time and provides potential attackers with additional intelligence on an API's operations.
Responses should only contain data required to complete given requests. For instance, if an employee's age is requested, it shouldn't include the date of birth information, as this will clog up response space with information not needed in its response.
Select Your API for Web Services
APIs are widely utilized for connecting web services. There are two options when choosing APIs - Simple Object Access Protocol is a communication protocol; REST API is a Representational State Transfer API with different formats and semantics as well as security strategies required by both systems.
Security for REST's messaging layer is achieved via digital signatures and encoded parts within XML. At the same time, access control rules rely heavily on API universal resource identifiers - for instance, HTTP tags, URL paths, and HTTP tags as they pertain to REST resources.
SOAP may be ideal if standardization and safety are paramount in your application development endeavors, providing both Secure Sockets Layer, Transport Layer Security as well as Web Services Security via intermediaries rather than the point-to-point authentication provided by SSL/TLS; additionally, it features built-in error management features; however, it exposes application logic components as services rather than data points which could prove challenging to implement and may necessitate a redesign of an app to support SOAP functionality.
While SOAP only supports XML or HTTP, REST can accommodate different data formats, such as JSON and comma-separated values.
Furthermore, REST makes web services simpler since only data accesses are needed; many organizations prefer REST when developing web apps owing to this advantage and ease of use; security considerations should also be carefully considered regarding data exchange, deployments, or client interactions when considering these methods of data transmission and exchange.
Register APIs On An API Registry
No one can protect what they don't understand, so creating a registry of APIs is vital to keeping an overview. A good registry should include information such as API name, purpose, payment terms, and access permission dates as well as retirement dates - this way, no shadow APIs or silos that were forgotten, undocumented, or never developed outside a project can emerge due to mergers/acquisitions/test versions/old deprecated code are left hidden from view.
Record details about what information will be logged, such as who, what, and when. This allows for audit and compliance requirements and potential forensic analyses should a security event arise.
Developers seeking to integrate APIs into their projects will require extensive API security design documentation. API registries should link directly to documents outlining all API technical requirements, including classes, functions, return types, and arguments.
Regularly Test Your Security
Security teams should conduct thorough tests of API development, regularly inspect whether their controls are functioning as intended, and act upon alerts generated from security controls or threat detection that suggest possible API attacks.
A robust incident response team should develop strategies for dealing with any alerts generated from security controls or threat detection that identify an attack against APIs.
Keep Your API Keys In A Safe Place
API keys allow API callers to identify themselves and verify access. API keys are often used for controlling API call volumes as well as to identify patterns of usage.
They should not be embedded directly in source code files within an application's tree as this leaves it open for accidental exposure of its API keys. instead, store them securely using variables or files outside an app's code structure or using secret management services to protect and manage keys within applications.
Even with all these measures taken into account, deleting keys you no longer require to minimize attack surface area and periodically generating keys if there are signs of a breach are prudent steps to be taken.
AI For API Monitoring And Threat Detection
AI-enhanced behavioral analysis enhances API security. Benchmarking API traffic gives developers visibility on how users use and access APIs; threat detection tools then use this information to detect anomalous behavior and flag possible attacks or misuse.
Real-time monitoring of attacks is critical to their detection and response, without predefined rules, policies, or signatures of attacks requiring constant updates.
Real-time monitoring reduces this need.
Understanding The Scope Of API Usage
APIs of third parties that it employs should also be understood and integrated adequately before creating apps or services which utilize data provided via those APIs.
As part of your review process for API documentation, make sure that special attention is paid to security and process aspects, including authentication requirements, call processes and data formats, error messages as well as any possible threats or vulnerabilities that might exist to secure any new application or API you create correctly. Developing a threat model to understand attack surfaces and potential security gaps helps immensely - then put appropriate measures from day one into effect.
Secure API implementation can bring many advantages to your organization, from improved service delivery and productivity gains, customer engagement improvements, and higher profits to customer engagement initiatives and greater profits.
Follow these API documentation examples to gain more knowledge on API security.
APIs have become the go-to way of connecting modern applications. An API is helpful in app development and has become integral in business usage for data exchange between third parties, customers, and developers.
Unfortunately, hackers are interested in accessing and manipulating APIs due to the sensitive information stored therein.
An API First Integration Approach Using A Pragmatic Perspective
Discover a practical strategy to become an API-first organization and speed time-to-market with API integration.
Security measures may be added after API deployment has taken place; however, to secure them properly against threats, you need to build security into each aspect of its design and development from day one - we'll discuss building such an API from scratch in this article as well as components needed in its construction.
Read More: What are the types of APIs and their differences?
Create APIs That Are Built On A Solid Security Foundation
Security threats are ever-evolving; cybercriminals constantly look for loopholes to exploit vulnerabilities. Therefore, individuals must plan their security from day one rather than having to fix things later on.
Security Design
As early in the development process, developers must begin planning a secure API before writing any lines of code.
Starting by designing its essential functions and user requirements is vital to incorporate security practices and controls as you develop it seamlessly.
Users are frequently affected by measures, especially those which require them to enter credentials on an ongoing basis and interrupt their experience with constant hoop-jumping.
Therefore designers must involve users from the start in designing your API - that way, you'll gain insights as to their opinion regarding various security features you are considering.
Security can adversely affect an application's performance, leading to latency increases when features such as signatures or encryption are added to an API development project.
API managers must remain mindful of these consequences during API design to better communicate the tradeoff between speed and security to their API user base.
Focus Points For Security
Developers attempting to construct a safe API must consider three main points: authentication, authorization, and auditing - each will be addressed individually here.
Authentication
Authentication refers to verifying a particular user. APIs offer various authentication techniques, such as HTTP basic and OAuth authentication.
- HTTP basic authentication uses user names and passwords sent from clients as HTTP headers in each request to authenticate themselves against servers before making requests to them. Once verified by an identity verification server, client requests can proceed normally.
- API key authentication works by including a series of letters and numbers into every request's header field; every user receives their API key from the server, which identifies them as the client submitting that particular request.
- OAuth authentication creates an individual token for every client that logs in, which they then use to authenticate themselves against servers when making requests. Another application can use OAuth - login with Facebook or Google accounts.
- MFA (Multi-factor Authentication) push notifications or SMS are typically employed to deliver time Passwords (OTP), frequently TOTPs that only expire for short amounts of time, to users after valid credentials have been submitted and accepted, adding another layer of security. TOTPs reduce the chances that hackers might use stolen credentials against an API by providing temporary codes only valid during brief time windows.
A robust authentication system should be able to confirm client identities reliably, securely, and rapidly. It should also rely on factors other than usernames and credentials.
Authorization
The API authorization process involves identifying what an authenticated user may access and then making that information securely available; additionally, checking whether clients have authorization to perform specific actions requested is also part of this process.
BOLA and BFLA, two threats listed as security risks by OWASP in its Top 10 API Security Risks list, pose significant threats to an API.
BOLA occurs when an API does not enforce its access control policy on objects or resources, allowing clients to gain authorization access without authorization from its administrator.
When an API fails to enforce access control over specific functions or operations, clients with restricted privileges gain unauthorized access.
BOLA and BFLA could lead to data breaches, the modification or destruction of information, and other malicious attacks which would severely compromise an API's security and integrity.
- RBAC (Rights Based Access Control) is a model which monitors clients to see which actions and resources they have access to based on their roles, which should match your business logic - for instance, a free_trial_user role may restrict what features can be accessed within an API trial period.
- The model defines client access by assigning attributes associated with environments or resources; you can restrict resource access using attributes like grant_access false.
Auditing
API security relies upon auditing and logging all requests from clients. By examining incoming traffic patterns to recognize usage patterns, this data can help detect attacks as they happen and assess their impact.
Failing to implement an auditing system could expose your organization to successful and attempted attacks from hackers who can launch API attacks with no warning signs, so regularly auditing APIs is essential in monitoring their security posture and improving it over time.
Secure Your Building With These Tips
API security is vital in any organization that handles sensitive data, particularly where an API exposes sensitive information violating privacy laws, potentially subjecting your company to regulatory action and costly fines.
If an API fails to secure correctly, sensitive data could become exposed, leading to potentially breached laws resulting in regulatory action or substantial financial repercussions for you or regulators suing your business over these security breaches.
- An API gateway acts as the intermediary between clients and your organization's database, eliminating direct connections between microservices on the backend and clients, reducing the risk of attacks in this way. Secure measures include adding robust usage monitoring and decoupling APIs from each other to enhance this protection of API usage and reduce potential attacks.
- Layer your security measures to increase your chances of stopping an attacker, such as RBAC, API Gateway, Data Encryption, API Validation, and API Gateway - to make API abuse harder by setting rules about its appropriate usage and enforcing rules against abuse of APIs.
- Reduce API Calls Limit your data requests to only what's necessary, limiting what data server sends back as a response, and designing response schemas ahead of time can help minimize risks if a data breach does occur.
- Limiting requests at normal levels will help deter brute-force attacks by restricting their rate.
Software AG API Security
Software AG assists businesses in creating safe, dependable APIs with its webMethods Gateway API enabling companies to expose API endpoints securely.
This enables third-party partners, consumers, and developers to connect backend systems via this gateway API securely. WebMethods Gateway API supports REST, SOAP, GraphQL, and OData APIs via its web-based interface that offers API-related functions with complete run-time security protection.
API Security Breach: How It Happens
API vulnerabilities typically stem from authorization, authentication, or business logic issues. When testing APIs, using valid tokens and manipulating their data layers is advisable.
However, one common pitfall in security occurs when organizations undervalue security or make incorrect assumptions regarding third-party or private APIs; whether these APIs be a third-party or private attacks can still happen as developers use APIs as tools rather than considering security as a paramount priority.
Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) can often be directly connected to databases on the backend, with compassionate information contained there.
Once removed from its "link" (API), any access may become vulnerable to manipulation - larger companies, in particular, are vulnerable; moreover, they typically possess more APIs without direct access, and each API typically has unique security measures in place for its security measures.
API Keys
API Keys have become obsolete and hazardous over the years for various reasons.
- Even when an API key is only needed for read-only access, it still allows read/write access. At first, only developers had access to it. Still, real risk comes when many applications use one key and store them without sufficient protection.
- Many APIs support only one key per user. Reusing keys could compromise them and result in significant hassle and downtime for developers.
You Can Use Oauth Tokens Instead
Tokens provide a more straightforward, safer method of providing access to multiple applications. What separates tokens from keys or tokens is their temporary nature - not being tied permanently to any single application but instead assigned per application if need be.
A program with read-only privileges might have one type of token. At the same time, another might need them for different levels of access - which makes this solution better as hackers have limited time available to attack all areas at once; attackers could attack only specific parts of an app at a time or remove tokens when something suspicious appears - potentially saving resources as security-wise.
Secure Sensitive Data
Despite all available measures, data theft still poses a real danger. Encrypting data makes it useless for an attacker - Transport Layer Security provides this feature, and multiple types can be employed as needed; keys should always remain off devices or easily accessible places - we would much prefer not to make mistakes after doing all this work.
Install API Gateways
Gateways are tools designed to manage APIs as an authoritative source for policy control, auditing, logging, and audit trails.
A gateway can serve as an "API firewall," protecting APIs against various attacks while authenticating traffic using its getaway and monitoring its usage. Developers and organizations can use gateways to control API usage as a robust security measure.
Set Limits For DDoS Attacks
DDoS attacks on APIs cannot be stopped immediately; therefore, it's vital to keep them from becoming the target of attacks as much as possible by limiting usage and throttling connections to balance access/availability issues and provide security.
Combine Security Methods And Build A Threat Model
Security should always be addressed when considering API security, so always plan for the worst-case scenario when considering how best to secure APIs.
No doubt the situation in terms of security will only improve slowly, so be patient. API Access Management combined with an API Gateway protects most APIs adequately. At the same time, encryption of data and usage restrictions offer an extra layer of safeguarding.
Threat modeling systems should be utilized as part of an overall prevention strategy to forecast potential security flaws or attacks shortly, inspect APIs for errors, and ensure their maintenance.
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Sum Up
As part of an API team or when setting up your own, take security seriously when working with or setting up one yourself.
Check the access management when choosing private and third-party APIs; are keys or tokens being used for access, are there escape routes available, what would happen under worst-case conditions, etc? It is always better to be safe than sorry regarding security - instead, assume you may already be targeted, then assume they won't target you! Most security problems result from underestimating threats - better assume they are already targeted.
API security has become so critical to businesses that they can no longer ignore its significance.
When designing APIs, including security is critical as this reduces the chance of attack and exposes vulnerabilities to attack. Businesses should utilize an API Gateway with robust authentication, authorization, and audit features for protecting API endpoints - visit Software AG to gain more knowledge on our security products for APIs.
APIs have taken over development by storm; over 90% use APIs - 69% third-party and 20% internal APIs, respectively - making their popularity understandable as it's often simpler and quicker to utilize premade items over building everything from scratch - but with a tiny catch.
However, API is indeed a cool rhyme.
Security reports that in 2023, over 90% of organizations that utilize APIs will experience at least one API security incident.
Unfortunately, large enterprises tend to suffer the most significant data theft incidents; however, this process may also prove complex for smaller firms.
