A couple of months ago, I stumbled upon this list of Secure your API with these 16 practices to secure your API:
- Authentication 🕵️️ - Verifies the identity of users accessing APIs.
- Authorization 🚦 - Determines permissions of authenticated users.
- Data Redaction 🖍️ - Obscures sensitive data for protection.
- Encryption 🔒 - Encodes data so only authorized parties can decode it.
- Error Handling ❌ - Manages responses when things go wrong, avoiding revealing sensitive info.
- Input Validation & Data Sanitization 🧹 - Checks input data and removes harmful parts.
- Intrusion Detection Systems 👀 - Monitor networks for suspicious activities.
- IP Whitelisting 📝 - Permits API access only from trusted IP addresses.
- Logging and Monitoring 🖥️ - Keeps detailed logs and regularly monitors APIs.
- Rate Limiting ⏱️ - Limits user requests to prevent overload.
- Secure Dependencies 📦 - Ensures third-party code is free from vulnerabilities.
- Security Headers 📋 - Enhances site security against types of attacks like XSS.
- Token Expiry ⏳ - Regularly expiring and renewing tokens prevents unauthorized access.
- Use of Security Standards and Frameworks 📘 - Guides your API security strategy.
- Web Application Firewall 🔥 - Protects your site from HTTP-specific attacks.
- API Versioning 🔄 - Maintains different versions of your API for seamless updates.
While it’s debatable whether some points relate to Security, e.g., versioning, I think the list is a good starting point anyway. In this series, I’d like to describe how we can implement each point with Apache APISXI (or not):
- Part 1: Authentication, Authorization, Input Validation & Data Sanitization, IP Whitelisting, Logging and Monitoring, Rate Limiting
- Part 2: Data Redaction, Encryption, Error Handling, Intrusion Detection Systems, Secure Dependencies, Token Expiry, Use of Security Standards and Frameworks, Web Application Firewall, API Versioning