Top 10 API Security Best Practices

Every day, organizations expose their APIs, unknowingly allowing cybercriminals to try and exploit them. A single vulnerability can lead to massive data breaches or help gain unauthorized access. Worst Part? Most organizations realize the weakness when it’s already too late.

Without strong security measures, your API is a prime target for attackers trying to exploit unpatched vulnerabilities or misconfigurations in the environments. But implementing API security best practices, helps you safeguard your data and protect your businesses from attackers.

Why Does API Security Matter?

APIs often expose sensitive user information or the application logic to external users. If the APIs are not secured, attackers can exploit various vulnerabilities to extract sensitive information about other users or applications. 

This helps them to gain unauthorized access, input malicious code into the applications, or even disrupt the services, causing damage to your organization.

Common API Security Threats:

1. Broken Authentication: Attackers can exploit weak authentication systems and gain unauthorized access to sensitive APIs.
2. Injection Attacks: Attackers can inject malicious code to manipulate API requests and responses.
3. Sensitive Data Exposure: Attackers can exploit weak APIs to expose sensitive user data, including PII (Personally Identifiable Information)
4. DDoS Attacks: Attackers can overload the API endpoints, in turn causing service disruptions.

Why Astra is the best in API Pentesting?

• We’re the only company that combines artificial intelligence & manual pentest to create a one-of-a-kind pentest platform.
• Runs 120+ test cases based on industrial standards.
• Integrates with your CI/CD tools to help you establish DevSecOps.
• A dynamic vulnerability management dashboard to manage, monitor, and assess APIs your web app consumes.
• Conduct 2 rescans in 60 days to verify patches.
• Award publicly verifiable pentest certificates which you can share with your users.
• Helps you stay compliant with SOC2, ISO27001, PCI-DSS, HIPAA, etc.
• Trusted by the brands you trust like Agora, Spicejet, Muthoot, Dream11, etc.

Let’s Talk Get Started

10 API Security Best Practices

1. Use Strong Authentication & Authorization

Weak Authentication mechanisms allow attackers to gain unauthorized access to user accounts and sensitive information and restricted APIs to exploit them.

• Set up OAuth 2.0 for your authorization needs.
• Implement strong JWT (JSON Web Tokens) for secure authentication.
• Implement Multi-Factor Authentication on user and admin accounts.
• Follow the principle of least privilege and implement Role-based Access Controls (RBAC)

2. Encrypt Data in Transit and at Rest

If the attackers can intercept data from insecure APIs, unencrypted data can cause data leaks, leading to privacy violations or financial losses.

• Use TLS 1.2 or higher to encrypt the data in transit
• Store sensitive data at rest with AES-256 encryption.
• Check whether exposed API keys are unencrypted.

3. Implement Rate Limiting and Throttling

Attackers can overload the application by flooding APIs with excessive requests, causing downtime or service degradation and thus increasing the operation costs.

• Define API rate limits to the number of requests per API per a certain time limit.
• Implement throttling to slow down excessive API calls
• Use quota management to prevent service degradation

4. Perform Input Validation and Sanitization

If the input data is not sanitized properly, it can give way to attacks like SQL Injection or Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) that compromise data integrity.

• Use parameterized queries to prevent SQL Injection.
• Implement proper data validation and sanitization rules.
• Implement whitelisting for allowed API parameters.

5. Implement Secure API Development Practices

Poor coding practices from the development teams increase the risk of security flaws, making APIs an easier target for exploitation.

• Avoid hardcoding API keys in the source code
• Follow the OWASP API Security Top 10 guide recommendations.
• Regularly review the API Security policies.

6. Implement API Versioning and Deprecation

When updating the applications, older and outdated APIs with security flaws may remain accessible to external users, increasing the attack surface for exploitation.

• Clearly define the current or updated versioning (e.g., v1, v2, etc.)
• Deprecate older and outdated APIs that are unused in the application.
• Review that all APIs are migrated to newer versioning.

7. Monitor and Manage API Dependencies

Development teams tend to use third-party dependencies and libraries, which in turn may expose APIs to known vulnerabilities.

• Use dependency management tools to look for vulnerabilities.
• Audit dependencies regularly.
• Apply updates and security patches regularly.

8. Implement API Gateways and Web Application Firewalls

Without gateways and WAFs, attackers can exploit security gaps, inject payloads or even access restricted resources through the APIs.

• Implement API gateways to manage authentication, rate limiting, and more.
• Implement WAFs to help block malicious requests with payloads for SQL Injection and XSS or detect and block bot attacks.
• Implement traffic monitoring and analysis through WAFs.

9. Implement API Logging and Monitoring

Lack of monitoring can result in delayed threat detection, allowing attackers to exploit the vulnerabilities for a longer duration.

• Enable real-time logging of API requests and responses.
• Use SIEM tools for threat detection.
• Set up alerts for malicious activity (e.g., requests with XSS payloads or a spike in failed login attempts).

10. Conduct Regular Security Testing

Without regular security testing and audits, vulnerabilities can go unnoticed, leaving APIs vulnerable to exploits.

• Perform regular penetration testing to detect vulnerabilities
• Conduct regular secure code reviews and audits.
• Perform vulnerability scanning using automated tools

What Can Astra Do For Your API Security Needs?

Astra’s API Security platform provides continuous discovery and expert-led penetration testing to secure your APIs against modern threats. It runs more than 13,000 security tests to detect vulnerabilities along with the shadow, zombie, and orphan APIs in your infrastructure. With seamless integrations into your CI/CD pipelines, Astra ensures real-time security and offers compliance-specific reports, making API security efficient and up to the standards.

Final Thoughts

APIs are a critical part of the modern application, and hence, their security should not be overlooked. By implementing strong authentication, rate limiting, encryption, and continuous monitoring, organizations can strengthen their overall API security, prevent data breaches, and maintain user trust and reputation. Performing regular security audits and vulnerability scans by yourself or by partnering with security providers like Astra to further enhance your security posture.