What are APIs?
Modern software programmes are exposed to several attacks. It's a good idea to stay current on exploits and security flaws; having benchmarks for these flaws is essential to guarantee application security before an attack takes place.
1. Broken Object Level Authorization
2. Broken User Authentication
3. Excessive Data Exposure
4. Lack of Resources & Rate Limiting
Broken Function Level Authorization
Mass Assignment
Security Misconfiguration
Injection
Improper Assets Management
Insufficient Logging & Monitoring
Since APIs make it possible to access things, an insecure authorization system opens up a large attack surface. As a result, authorisation to objects with API access has to be protected.
The use of fraudulent tokens to access endpoints is a typical API vulnerability. It's possible for authentication systems to be broken into or for an API key to be exposed unintentionally. Attackers may use these authentication tokens as a means of access.
It is simple to publish a group of endpoints without specific limitations. However, not all functionalities frequently apply to all users. More data you inadvertently expose means more danger you unnecessarily take on.
Black hats sometimes employ DoS assaults as a brute force technique to overwhelm a server and completely eliminate its uptime. An API is vulnerable to damaging attacks if there are no established restrictions on the amount of resources that may be called.
Access control is challenging to implement correctly, which is a typical pain area for software engineers, according to OWASP. Teams developing internal solutions seldom succeed. The platform's precise administrative levels must be specified consistently and match organisational hierarchies correctly.
Developers can still access an endpoint even if it is not publicly documented. Reverse engineering a private API is simple for hackers to do. Consider this straightforward tutorial, which uses a "private" API and an open Bearer Token. On the other hand, there may be public documentation for something that is exclusively meant for personal use. Black hats can use publicly available data to read and manipulate object characteristics.
Not only are APIs prone to injection, but third-party developer applications may be prone to injection as well. Such malicious code may initiate commands to erase data, or harvest valuable private records.
Versions and documentation should always be current, not just for the benefit of developers, but also for your security.
Teams require an effective reaction strategy in the event of an assault. Developers will continue to exploit vulnerabilities without being discovered in the absence of a reliable logging and monitoring system, increasing losses and harming their reputation.