Overview

The API attack is one of the most significant threats to an organization’s IT infrastructure and data. This type of attack allows adversaries to exploit vulnerable endpoints and also the underlying applications associated with such API endpoints. Once these API endpoints are maliciously bypassed, attackers can gain unauthorized access to the sensitive data stored within the underlying applications. They can damage application functionality, abuse business logic, and in certain circumstances, access and threaten an organization’s internal infrastructure. Adversaries proficient at exploiting insecure API endpoints can make any business vulnerable to consistent attacks.

What is API Penetration Testing?

API penetration testing is a process that identifies vulnerabilities in your APIs and creates secure endpoints. The reason why this is so important is because API abuse is one of the most prevalent application risks. It can wreak havoc on the normal operation of any digital enterprise.

If your deployed APIs are not thoroughly tested for security, problems such as data leakage, unauthorized access, and parameter tampering might develop.

The goal of an API penetration test is to find ways to exploit an API’s functions and methods as well as circumventing its authorization and authentication mechanisms. At the very least, you will want to find ways to break out of the application, an API penetration test includes checks for the following vulnerabilities (included in the OWASP API Security Top 10):

1. Broken Object Level Authorization
2. Broken User Authentication
3. Excessive Data Exposure
4. Lack of Resources & Rate Limiting
5. Broken Function Level Authorization
6. Mass Assignment
7. Security Misconfigurations
8. Injection
9. Improper Assets Management
10. Insufficient Logging & Monitoring