6 Top API Security Risks! Favored Targets for Attackers If Left Unmanaged

Security threats are always a concern when it comes to APIs. API
security can be compared to driving a car. You must be cautious and
review everything closely before releasing it into the world. By
failing to do so, you’re putting yourself and others at risk.

API attacks are more dangerous than other breaches. Facebook had
a 50M user account affected by an API breach, and an API data
breach on the Hostinger account exposed 14M customer records.

If a hacker gets into your API endpoints, it could spell
disaster for your project. Depending on the industries and
geographies you’re talking about, insecure APIs could get you into
hot water. Especially in the EU, if you’re serving the banking, you
could face massive legal and compliance problems if you’re
discovered to be using insecure APIs.

To mitigate these risks, you need to be aware of the potential
API
vulnerabilities^[1]
that cybercriminals can exploit.

6 Commonly Overlooked API Security Risks

#1 No API Visibility and Monitoring Means’
Risk’

When you expand your use of cloud-based networks, the number of
devices and APIs in use also increases. Unfortunately, this growth
also leads to less visibility on what APIs you expose internally or
externally.

Shadow, hidden, or deprecated APIs which fall out of your
security team’s visibility create more opportunities for successful
cyberattacks on unknown APIs, API parameters, and business logic.
Traditional tools like API gateway lack the ability to offer a
complete inventory of all APIs.

Must have API visibility, includes

• Centralized visibility as well as an inventory of all APIs
• Detailed view of API traffics
• Visibility of APIs transmitting sensitive information
• Automatic API risk analysis with predefined criteria

#2 API Incompetence

Paying attention to your API calls is important to avoid passing
duplicate or repeated requests to the API. When two deployed APIs
try to use the same URL, it can cause repetitive and redundant API
usage problems. This is because the endpoints on both APIs are
using the same URL. To avoid this, each API should have its own
unique URL with optimization.

#3 Service Availability Threats

Targeted DDoS API attacks, with the help of botnets, can
overload CPU cycles and processor power of the API server, sending
service calls with invalid requests and making it unavailable for
legitimate traffic. DDoS API attacks target not only your servers
where the APIs are running but also each API endpoint.

Rate limiting grants you the confidence to maintain your
applications healthy, but a good response plan comes with
multi-layer security solutions like AppTrana’s API
protection^[2]. The accurate and fully
managed API protection continuously monitors the API traffic and
instantly blocks malicious requests before reaching your
server.

#4 Hesitating over API Utilization

As a B2B company, you often need to expose your internal API
utilization numbers to teams outside the organization. This can be
a great way to facilitate collaboration and allow others to access
your data and services. However, it’s essential to carefully
consider to whom you give your API access and what level of access
they need. You don’t want to open your API too broadly and create
security risks.

API calls need to be monitored closely when they’re shared
between partners or customers. This helps ensure that everyone uses
the API as intended and does not overload the system.

#5 API Injection

API injection is a term used to describe when malicious code is
injected with the API request. The injected command, when executed,
can even delete the user’s entire site from the server. The primary
reason APIs are vulnerable to this risk is that the API developer
fails to sanitize the input before it turns up in the API code.

This security loophole causes severe problems for users,
including identity theft and data breaches, so it’s essential to be
aware of the risk. Add input validation on the server side to
prevent injection attacks and avoid executing special
characters.

#6 Attacks Against IoT Devices through
APIs

The effective utilization of IoT depends on the level of API
security management; if that is not happening, you will have a
tough time with your IoT device.

As time goes on and technology advances, hackers will always use
new ways to exploit vulnerabilities in IoT products. While APIs
enable powerful extensibility, they open new entrances for hackers
to access sensitive data on your IoT devices. To avoid many threats
and challenges IoT devices faces, APIs must be more secure.

Therefore, you need to keep your IoT devices updated with the
latest security patches to ensure they are protected against the
latest threats.

Stop API Risk by Implementing WAAP

In today’s world, organizations are under constant threat of API
attacks. With new vulnerabilities appearing every day, it’s
essential to inspect all APIs for potential threats regularly. Web
application security tools are insufficient to protect your
business from such risks. For API protection to work, it needs to
be fully dedicated to API security. WAAP (Web Application and API
Protection) can be an effective solution in this regard.

Indusface WAAP^[3] is a solution to the
ever-present problem of API security. It allows you to limit the
data flow to what is necessary, preventing you from accidentally
leaking or exposing sensitive information. Also, the holistic Web
Application & API Protection (WAAP) platform comes with the trinity
of behaviour analysis, security-centric monitoring, and API
management to keep malicious actions on APIs at bay.