Why is Security Very Important in API Testing?

APIs (Applications Programming Interfaces) are the connecting blocks that facilitate the communication and sharing of data between applications. When building and testing APIs, most developers focus on the functionality of their APIs. This means that they try to make sure that they understand what the API should do and the things it should achieve.

Due to that, they often forget about the security of their APIs. Security is very important when implementing an API. Due to their functionality, APIs are a point of focus for attackers looking to gain access to unauthorized data. In situations where the attackers succeed, they might compromise the operations of the API, something that could end up affecting an entire business’ operations.

It, therefore, means that even though the functionality of an API is important, its security should be given the same attention. API developers need to make sure that their APIs are secure and any vulnerabilities eliminated early enough.

Security is Important in API Testing

There are different ways through which developers can test their APIs. There are tools that come with a host of features for easy testing and automation. It is, therefore, recommended to perform your API tests here
https://rapidapi.com/blog/best-api-testing-tools/.

These tools will help you understand why security is an important part of API testing especially when it comes to the following;

Flaws in Business Logic

APIs connect multiple devices such as computers, gaming consoles, smartphones, and televisions among others through applications. This means that access to the functionality of applications should always work for APIs to do their job.

In addition, APIs offer access to the endpoint subsets in the system hosting them. It means that data has to be accessed as specified. Due to this, attackers come up with sophisticated calls and routes to gain access to data processed by APIs. They exploit any flaws in the business logic of the API design. Developers need to eliminate such issues when testing their APIs.

Encryption and Verification

When testing APIs, you need to make sure that their transactions are encrypted to enforce the security of all transactions initiated by and through the API. In addition, security testing ensures that APIs do not connect to the wrong applications. This is important in creating a certain level of trust to ensure that the API connects to what it intends to connect to. Encryption and verification can be enforced using HTTPS and TLS certificates.

XSS (Cross-Site Scripting)

Global survey reveals companies are investing in more API Management Vendors than ever before to harness data growth. This growth has given attackers an opportunity to explore more vulnerabilities through APIs.

https://www.openpr.com/news/2328558/api-management-market-giants-spending-is-going-to-boom-with

An API can get compromised by attackers who might inject unauthorized code into applications implementing the API. When this happens, clean APIs are not able to identify such code or any content that might have been tampered with. The compromised API might then retrieve information that might be confidential and grant it to the attacker. This might lead to serious complications and might affect a business negatively. Security testing helps eliminate such issues.

DoS Attacks

Some developers might argue that Dos Attacks only affect the application interface. This is wrong since they are also common with APIs. DoS attacks are made to make sure that the API is overwhelmed with requests to cripple its response-ability. When this happens, the API might not be able to stop the incoming calls, leading to over flooding and eventually to a shutdown. This ends up affecting all the applications using the API.

https://us.norton.com/internetsecurity-emerging-threats-dos-attacks-explained.html

Leakage of Service Information

This happens when an API accidentally exposes data regarding its configuration. When this happens, attackers are able to take control of the API and gain access to confidential data. Service information leakage can be caused by many things such as broken Session Keys, IDs as well as authentication. Security testing eliminates the chances of this happening.

Finally, even though developers use frameworks that they trust and that they believe are secure, they should stop taking the security of their APIs casually. Most of them value performance and functionality more than the security of their APIs. This should not be the case, since all of them (performance, functionality, and security) are important.

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