Introduction to OWASP API Security Top 10

Quick Summary: Securing APIs requires an understanding of critical vulnerabilities including OWASP Top 10 for APIs. It is a list of vulnerabilities that have been described by OWASP, a nonprofit organization, to help security experts detect common API weaknesses and how to fix them. Keep reading to know about it and its importance.

Today, APIs are ubiquitous and used for various digital solutions. In fact, they are the cornerstones of modern applications. However, they are also a prime target for cyber attackers due to their ubiquity. Hence, you need to ensure robust security for APIs.

In most cases, vulnerabilities compromise the security of APIs. Therefore, finding and fixing vulnerabilities is crucial to ensure their security. Knowing the critical vulnerabilities like OWASP API Security Top 10 helps and expedites the security testing initiatives.

You can leverage an automated vulnerability scanning tool to identify common vulnerabilities, including the top ten API security risks defined by OWASP and fortify your digital systems. Such scanners are designed to discover known vulnerabilities in APIs by performing comprehensive security assessments.

Let’s explore more about OWASP top 10 risks for APIs by understanding its meaning and importance in API security.

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What is OWASP API Security Top 10?

OWASP (Open Worldwide Application Security Project) is a community-driven foundation that conducts web app and API security research. Besides, it offers materials, training, and guidance to security experts and developers to help them remediate vulnerabilities.

It also provides lists of the most critical vulnerabilities in APIs and web apps like OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities. These lists outline those vulnerabilities which are most common and frequently occur in web apps and APIs.

They guide developers and security experts in identifying and remediating security vulnerabilities accurately and efficiently. OWASP API Security Top 10 describes the critical security risks in APIs and provides remediation guidance.

Importance of OWASP API Top 10

Ensuring API security requires a robust testing program that covers a wide array of vulnerabilities. It includes OWASP API Top 10 security risks that outline major concerns. Knowing these vulnerabilities helps developers and experts to efficiently perform security testing and address these challenges precisely.

The following points show the importance of OWASP API Top Ten:

• It helps to discover the most critical risks and strengthen security posture.
• By knowing them, security experts can effectively remediate vulnerabilities.
• It is crucial for decision-making in testing and vulnerability assessment.

What Does API Security Top 10 Describe?

OWASP provides a list of top 10 API vulnerabilities that are common and most critical for security. Security experts and developers can refer to this list when analyzing APIs for security vulnerabilities. This list provides a ranking of different vulnerabilities based on the frequency of attacks and severity level. Besides, it also provides remediation guidance to help security experts and developers resolve these risks effectively. The following is an OWASP vulnerability checklist for top API security risks.

1. Broken Object Level Authorization

BOLA or Broken Object Level Authorization is a type of API vulnerability that allows access to data objects without verifying whether the user can access it. Just imagine a case when a user gets access to a document consisting of sensitive data or proprietary company information that they are not entitled to view. If this was the case when an attacker accesses this data, the result would be disastrous.

BOLA is a kind of authorization flaw that could have far-reaching implications. Attackers can bypass authorization mechanisms using this flaw and access critical data.

2. Broken Authentication

It is a type of vulnerability that occurs when authentication and session management features are not implemented properly. By exploiting this vulnerability in APIs, an attacker can access one or more accounts with the same privileges as an authorized user. Broken authentication results in compromised session keys, passwords, user information, and other details. API testing can help to uncover such vulnerabilities and prevent unauthorized access.

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3. Broken Object Property Level Authorization

This type of API vulnerability occurs when users have unnecessary access to an object's properties. Not every user needs access to each property of an object. Providing access to all the properties of an object without necessary restrictions enables attackers to exploit it for their malicious objectives.

For example, there is an object named ‘User’ with properties like ‘name’, ‘age’, and ‘emp_id’. While a user can access and modify properties like name and age, a person with the required permission should be able to modify the last ‘emp_id’ property.

4. Unrestricted Resource Consumption

It is among the OWASP API security top 10 vulnerabilities that result in DoS attacks. Attackers exhaust the resources of a target system by sending lots of requests simultaneously. Unrestricted resource consumption makes a system or application unstable or unavailable by exhausting resources like memory or processing.

5. Broken Function Level Authorization

Authorization flaws and misconfigurations are more common as implementing proper authentication mechanisms is often complex. The complexity comes from many types of user roles, groups, and hierarchies. Broken Function Level Authentication or BFLA is a kind of OWASP API top ten vulnerability that enables attackers to get unauthorized access by manipulating and exploiting API requests.

6. Unrestricted Access to Sensitive Business Flows

It is a kind of OWASP API Top 10 vulnerability that allows an attacker to abuse business logic flaws. These attacks are carried out with automated scripts or bots to exploit business flow vulnerabilities and gain unauthorized access to the system. It requires in-depth vulnerability assessment to identify these vulnerabilities as they involve complexity.

7. Server Side Request Forgery

SSRF or Server Side Request Forgery, is a vulnerability in server-side applications that causes them to send requests to an unintended location. With an SSRF attack, a server is forced to connect to arbitrary external systems.

8. Security Misconfiguration

Security misconfigurations are among common web app and API security risks that could leak sensitive data when unpatched. They occur due to missing or flawed configuration settings. With the best API security practices, you can ensure optimal configuration and avoid security risks.

9. Improper Inventory Management

These vulnerabilities occur due to improper management of API inventories. Improper inventory of APIs results in unknown security gaps and it becomes difficult to identify outdated APIs. You can leverage an automated API security scanner to discover APIs within an organization to assess and document them.

10. Unsafe Consumption of APIs

Today, the use of third-party API services is common, and they are widely used in applications. Often, developers work with weaker security standards when it comes to handling these APIs within their digital ecosystem. They trust the data received from these APIs. Attackers exploit integrated third-party services to target an API.

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To Wrap Up

Finding and fixing vulnerabilities in APIs requires an understanding of the common risks that frequently occur. The list of top API vulnerabilities described by OWASP are among those risks. Identifying and resolving them is critical to ensure API security.

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