Source URL: https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/identity-security/protecting-your-apis-from-owasps-top-10-security-threats/
Source: Cloud Blog
Title: Protecting your APIs from OWASP’s top 10 security threats
Feedly Summary: APIs are an integral part of modern services, and the data they exchange is often highly sensitive. Without proper authentication, authorization, and protection against data leakage, your organization and your end users will face an increased risk of cyberattacks.
The Open Worldwide Application Security Project (OWASP) develops and publishes community-led documentation and standards for critical areas of software security, including APIs. APIs are estimated to comprise over half of internet traffic today.
That number is likely to climb as AI adoption grows, because AI already relies heavily on APIs for building foundation models, streamlining integration of AI capabilities into applications, facilitating interoperability between models running on different platforms, and providing continuous access to the real-time data needed to train and improve AI models.
Given the already large and growing reliance on APIs, organizations should implement an API security strategy. OWASP’s guidance on top 10 API security threats provides a starting point. We have taken their list and added mitigation recommendations for each risk they’ve identified. Our new whitepaper, Mitigating OWASP Top 10 API Security Threats, provides more details on each threat and how Apigee, Google Cloud’s API management platform, can help manage API risk.
aside_block
What you can do about the OWASP top 10 API security risks
For organizations who are just getting started with their API security program, OWASP’s list of top 10 API security risks provides a good starting point. It represents the most critical vulnerabilities that organizations should address to protect their API systems. These threats are broadly categorized into themes of authorization, authentication, resource management, security misconfiguration, and third-party risks.
Authorization flaws, including Broken Object Level Authorization (BOLA), Broken Object Property Level Authorization (BOPLA), and Broken Function Level Authorization (BFLA), are particularly concerning as they allow attackers to bypass access controls and manipulate data or functionalities.
BOLA occurs when an API fails to enforce proper access controls on individual data objects, enabling attackers to access or modify data without proper authorization. BOPLA, on the other hand, arises when access control measures are not effectively enforced on individual properties within a data object, allowing attackers to manipulate sensitive attributes. BFLA occurs when specific functions or operations within the API lack adequate access control mechanisms, enabling attackers to perform unauthorized actions.
Authentication weaknesses, such as broken authentication, can lead to impersonation and unauthorized access. Unrestricted resource consumption and unrestricted access to sensitive business flows can also disrupt operations and expose critical data that can be exploited by attackers.
Security misconfiguration and improper inventory management of APIs can create additional vulnerabilities that attackers can exploit. Finally, unsafe consumption of third-party APIs introduces external risks, as vulnerabilities in those APIs can compromise the security of the consuming API.
Addressing these threats requires a multi-layered approach, including robust access controls, secure authentication mechanisms, proper resource management, thorough security configurations, and careful integration of third-party APIs.
Mitigating security risks with Apigee and Advanced API Security
Apigee, Google Cloud’s API management platform, enables API platform teams to program and deploy secure API proxies that can protect your backend services from these kinds of attacks. The chart below highlights some specific capabilities in Apigee and Advanced API Security that can help you keep your APIs protected from OWASP’s Top 10 API Security risks.
OWASP Top 10 API Security Risks (2023)
Apigee and Advanced API Security mitigation capabilities
Broken Object Level Authorization (BOLA)
Quota management
OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect
Sensitive data protection
API proxy security configuration checks and alerting
Abuse and anomaly detection rules and machine learning models
Security actions, to automatically flag and block suspicious traffic
Broken authentication
Authentication
OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect
API key verification
JSON Web Token (JWT) support
Abuse and anomaly detection rules and machine learning models
API proxy security configuration checks and alerting
Broken Object Property Level Authorization (BOPLA)
Data masking
OpenAPI specification validation
API proxy security configuration checks and alerting
Abuse and anomaly detection rules and machine learning models
Traffic analysis and reporting
Unrestricted resource consumption
Quota management
Spike Arrest policy
Caching
Abuse and anomaly detection rules and machine learning models (to identify activity that could signal a DoS attack or resource exhaustion)
API proxy security configuration checks and alerting (e.g., check to ensure all proxies have a Spike Arrest policy)
Broken Function Level Authorization (BFLA)
API products (for granular access control)
Quota management
Spike Arrest policy
OpenAPI specification validation
API keys and OAuth support for API authentication
Message validation for XML and SOAP payloads, validation of RESTful API requests, and GraphQL validation
API proxy security configuration checks and alerting
Abuse and anomaly detection rules and machine learning models
Unrestricted access to sensitive business flows
Authentication and role-based access control (RBAC)
OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect
API key verification and JSON Web Token (JWT) support
Rate limiting
Payload inspection for SQL injection attacks or cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks
API proxy security configuration checks and alerting
Abuse and anomaly detection rules and machine learning models
Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF)
Input validation
SIEM and WAF integrations
API proxy security configuration checks and alerting
Abuse and anomaly detection rules and machine learning models
Security misconfiguration
API proxy security configuration checks and alerting, to check and alert on security misconfigurations across proxies (and you can use our API to integrate proxy security score checks into your CI/CD pipeline)
Comprehensive built-in security policies, including rate limiting and CORS policies
Access control (including API key verification)
Monitoring, logging, and alerting (supported through a native integration with Cloud Monitoring and support for 3P tools)
Real-time protection against attacks, to prevent exploits of security misconfigurations
Improper inventory management
Versioning and lifecycle management
Centralized API inventory and governance via API hub
Shadow API discovery
Monitoring, logging, and alerting (supported through a native integration with Cloud Monitoring and support for 3P tools)
API proxy security configuration checks and alerting
Unsafe consumption of APIs
API products (for granular access control)
Use an API gateway
Access control policies, including OAuth 2.0, API key verification, and quota management
Message validation for XML and SOAP payloads, validation of RESTful API requests, and GraphQL validation
Monitoring, logging, and alerting (supported through a native integration with Cloud Monitoring and support for 3P tools)
SIEM and WAF integrations
Abuse and anomaly detection rules and machine learning models
Real-time visibility into API consumption and risk, and threat response
Teams who want to take a layered approach to API and application security can use Apigee and Advanced API Security together with a Web Application Firewall (WAF) like Cloud Armor. Cloud Armor’s robust protection against DDoS attacks — including L3/L4 DDoS defense and DDoS thresholds — can help increase protection against unrestricted resource consumption and other security threats.
aside_block
<ListValue: [StructValue([(‘title’, ‘Hear monthly from our Cloud CISO in your inbox’), (‘body’, <wagtail.rich_text.RichText object at 0x3e24539fe850>), (‘btn_text’, ‘Subscribe today’), (‘href’, ‘https://go.chronicle.security/cloudciso-newsletter-signup?utm_source=cgc-blog&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=FY23-Cloud-CISO-Perspectives-newsletter-blog-embed-CTA&utm_content=-&utm_term=-‘), (‘image’, <GAEImage: Cloud CISO Perspectives new header July 2024 small>)])]>
Get started on API security with Apigee
To learn more about how Apigee can help mitigate the OWASP top 10 API security threats, read our free whitepaper. It explores each threat outlined above in more detail, including specific product capabilities that can help protect against each threat.
You can also learn more about Apigee’s built-in security policies and Advanced API Security’s capabilities in our docs. If you’re attending Google Next this April, check out our session on mitigating API and AI security risks with Google Cloud.
AI Summary and Description: Yes
Summary: The text discusses critical API security measures essential for organizations, particularly as API usage surges with AI integration and highlights the OWASP Top 10 API Security Risks. It underscores the importance of implementing a robust API security strategy and offers guidance on addressing various vulnerabilities using Google Cloud’s Apigee platform, along with recommendations for securing APIs against identified threats.
Detailed Description: The provided content emphasizes the increasing reliance on APIs in modern services, especially with the growth of AI technologies that utilize APIs for functionalities like building models and real-time data access. Key points include:
– **Significance of API Security**: APIs now account for over half of all internet traffic, making their security paramount to prevent cyberattacks on sensitive data.
– **OWASP’s Role**: The Open Worldwide Application Security Project (OWASP) is highlighted for developing documentation and standards around software security, particularly for APIs. This serves as a guideline for organizations to protect their API systems.
– **Top 10 API Security Risks**: OWASP’s list identifies the most critical vulnerabilities that organizations should prioritize, categorized into:
– **Authorization Flaws**: Including Broken Object Level Authorization (BOLA), Broken Object Property Level Authorization (BOPLA), and Broken Function Level Authorization (BFLA), which can allow unauthorized data access or manipulation.
– **Authentication Weaknesses**: Such as broken authentication that leads to impersonation.
– **Resource Management Issues**: Including unrestricted resource consumption and access to sensitive business flows.
– **Security Misconfigurations**: Lack of proper security configurations can result in exploitable vulnerabilities.
– **Third-party Risks**: Exploiting vulnerabilities in third-party APIs can jeopardize the security of consuming APIs.
– **Mitigation Strategies**: Organizations are urged to adopt a multi-layered approach to API security—which includes:
– Implementing robust access controls.
– Ensuring secure authentication mechanisms.
– Managing resources properly.
– Configuring security settings thoroughly.
– Safeguarding interactions with third-party APIs.
– **Apigee Integration**: The text promotes Apigee, Google Cloud’s API management platform, as a viable solution for mitigating these threats with capabilities such as:
– OAuth and OpenID Connect for strong authentication.
– Quota management and rate limiting to prevent resource exhaustion.
– Monitoring and alerting for security misconfigurations or abuse detection.
– **Call to Action**: Readers are encouraged to explore a detailed whitepaper to learn more about specific threats and how Apigee can help mitigate them, as well as to attend related sessions at Google Next for further insights into API and AI security risks.
This analysis showcases the pressing need for organizations to proactively address API security in an era where vulnerabilities can have significant repercussions, particularly as they integrate AI technologies into their operations.