Protecting APIs from advanced security risks

An API means an application programming interface that works as a software middleman for communication between your applications. At the same time, it allows sharing and extracting data between applications in an accessible and effective way. Its web APIs here effectively establish connections between applications and platforms or services like games, social networks, devices, databases and some more. In IoT applications and devices, APIs are good at collecting data, as well as powerful enough to control other connected devices as well.

APIs are generally developed as REST APIs and SOAP APIs. SOAP or Simple Object Access Protocol APIs are based on XML and help as a messaging protocol between computers to exchange information. These APIs are built on the basis of WS security standards that use XML encryption, SAML token, and XML signing to manage transactional messaging security. It can also successfully support W3C and OASIS recommendations. Similarly, REST APIs or Representational State Transfer APIs are developed for remote computer systems that use HTTP to fetch data and perform certain operations in a meaningful way. Here, these APIs enable secure communication using SSL and HTTPS authentication. JSON standards are used in these APIs to consume payloads to simplify data transfer across browsers. REST here is all about stateless state and that means that each HTTP request is made to contain all the necessary information with no need for the server or client to hold any data to satisfy the request.

Security threats to the API

API is often said as self document information. It means that its internal structure and implementation can serve as a pathway for a cyber attack. If any additional vulnerabilities such as lack of encryption, weak authentication, flaws in business logic, and some of the insecure endpoints can also lead to cyber attacks.
Cyber ​​attacks can often lead to a data breach which, in turn, can lead to the loss of an organization’s reputation while keeping their relationships at stake. Very often, the data breach can also attract the latest fines through the latest GPDR guidelines. API security deserves to be viewed in two folds as data breach and disruption to operations. Therefore, it is very imperative to protect your API through its design. Very common phishing acts often happen through the end user. This is making users invaluable allies in the process of attack detection and progress. So it’s often a countermeasure to recruit input from the end user and these loops aren’t supposed to be coded to handle a set of situations that are predetermined. Real-world examples for these end-user input loops should be examined.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the API vulnerabilities

• MITM or Man In The Middle: Very often, MITM involves obtaining sensitive data between two parties by secretly transmitting altered communications by intercepting API messages between the two. These MITM attacks often went through two stages as decryption and interception. To protect against this MITM, it is suggested to have TLS or Transport Layer Security in the API. If your API lacks this TLS, it’s an open invitation to attackers. Therefore, enable this transport layer encryption without fail to protect your API against MITM.
• API Injections – Inserting malicious code into the API to stage an attack is called API injection. These can be seen as XSS or Cross-Site Scripting and SQLI or SQL injection. Vulnerable APIs are often a great possibility for these types of attacks. If your API cannot do the proper filter input or FIEO (escape output), then the best way to launch the XSS attack is through the end user’s browser. This attack can also add some malicious commands to the API like SQL commands to delete or add tables to database forms. The most effective way to control this problem is well proven through input validation.
• DDoS or Distributed Denial of Service – This is a type of attacker where the attacker sends long or huge messages to the server or network with invalid return addresses. This type of attack can result in a non-functioning situation. It deserves proper security precautions when designing the API. It is safe to enable multiple access control method to your API to well mitigate this issue. API keys may be sufficient when your API contains non-sensitive information. For APIs with sensitive information, it is suggested to use strong authentication mechanisms, HTTPS, OAuth, two-way TLSSAML tokens, and more.
• Broken Authentication: These instances of broken authentication can allow the attacker to take over or bypass the authentication methods set in the API. Furthermore, this situation can be attacked through JSON web tokens, passwords, API keys and some more. To mitigate this issue, it is suggested to take care of authentication and authorization requirements with OAuth/OpenID tokens, API key, and PKI. Also, it is prudent and safe not to share credentials between connections that are not even embedded. Also, never reveal the session ID over the web URL.