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Aug. 18, 2022 Best Practices for Securing Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)
3 minutes read
Best Practices for Securing Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)

Application programming interfaces (APIs) are increasingly core to many organizations’ product technology stack, playing a central role in the driving the modernization, scalability, and flexibility demanded by technology and business leadership. Owing to their ability to link data and systems, APIs have become central to many companies’ technology strategy, but they have also remained a weakness from a security standpoint, with many organizations failing to adopt API security best practices.

At its core, API security is about securing the interactions facilitated by APIs. To secure your organization’s APIs, security should be integrated as early as possible into the software development process. Ideally, security controls should be defined during the design phase of your solution. There are several considerations to address:

  • Catalog all available APIs. Define both their function and the sensitivity of the data handled. An organization can only secure APIs that they know about.
  • Identify potential attack vectors based on the API's function. If, for example,an API supports the return of customer purchases, then ensure that there are controls in place to protect against multiple returns on the same purchase and validation of the total return value.
  • Perform proper input validation. A zero-trust approach is appropriate. Validate that input is formatted as expected to protect against injection-related vulnerabilities, such as SQL injection (SQLi), cross-site scripting (XSS), command injection, etc.
  • Restrict API output to only expose the minimum necessary data. Leakage of data can result in compromise of sensitive data or help an adversary better understand how the API functions, such as libraries or framework versions in use.
  • Keep up to date with components leveraged by the APIs. If an adversary can identify vulnerable components, the API may be at risk to exploitation of those vulnerabilities.
  • Implement strong, industry standard authentication and authorization mechanisms, such as JSON Web Token (JWT) or OAuth. Custom implementations can sometimes result in security issues as they may not be properly vetted.
  • Implement rate limiting and quotas using API keys to prevent abuse that can lead to denial-of-service attacks.
  • Utilize industry standard encryption, such as TLS v1.2 for HTTPS, to better protect data-in-transit.
  • Add an additional layer of security by using a Web Application Firewall (WAF).

In sum, organizations should take care to address all potential risks associated with APIs, including ensuring that the API is free of logic flaws; has proper authentication and authorization mechanisms; provides effective encryption of the communication channel; and protects against intentional or accidental abuse. Additionally, organizations should be conducting penetration testing of APIs to validate their overall security posture along with associated infrastructure. Failing to prioritize API security can lead to an adversary obtaining persistent access to a customer data or other sensitive information, underscoring the need for technology and security leaders to ensure effective security for APIs.

About the Authors 

Swapnil Deshmukh, CTO & co-founder, Ryan McKamie, CEO & co-founder, and Maxwell Zhou, Senior Security Engineer, contributed to this publication. 

About Certus Cybersecurity Solutions LLC 

Certus Cybersecurity is a provider of industry-leading information security services. With a focus on application security, IoT security, cloud security, and payment security, Certus Cybersecurity currently serves Fortune 100 enterprises and innovative, high-growth businesses worldwide. To learn how we help clients protect their businesses, please visit  us.

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