1 – Authentication
- Implement strong authentication mechanisms such as JWT (JSON Web Tokens), OAuth, or OpenID Connect
- Use secure password storage techniques, such as salted hashing or encrypt, to protect user passwords
- Consider implementing multi-factor authentication for sensitive operations or privileged access.
- Protect against brute force attacks by enforcing account lockouts or rate limiting
2 – Authorization
- Implement role-based access control (RBAC) or claims-based authorization to restrict access to API resources based on user roles or permissions
- Validate user roles or claims on the server-side before allowing access to sensitive operations or data
- Implement attribute-based authorization to enforce fine-grained access control at the controller or action level
3 – Input Validation
- Validate and sanitize all input received from clients to prevent common attacks like cross-site scripting (XSS), SQL Injection, or command injection
- Use parameter binding techniques that automatically validate input, such as model binding or request validation
- Avoid dynamic SQL queries or raw SQL concatenation and instead use parameterized queries or an ORM (Object-Relational Mapping) tool
4 – Secure Transmission
- Enforce the use of HTTPS (TSL/SSL) to encrypt the communication between clients and the API server
- Disable or remove support for weak SSL/TLS protocols and ciphers to mitigate known vulnerabilities (example: SSLv3, TSL 1.0/1.1, weak cipher suites).
- Implement HSTS (HTTP Strick Transport Security) to enforce HTTPS usage across all requests
5 – Input and Output Data
- Validate and sanitize all input and output data, including query parameters, headers, and request/response bodies
- Implement input/output validation and encoding techniques, such as XML/JSON parsing libraries that protect against XML/JSON external entity (XXE) attacks or deserialization vulnerabilities
- Apply output encoding or HTML encoding to prevent cross-site scripting (XSS) attachs
6 – Error Handling
- Avoid displaying detailed error messages or stack traces to client in production environments. Instead, log them securely on the server and provide generic error messages to clients
- Implement structured error responses with appropriate HTTP status codes to indicate the result of API requests
- Be cautious about leaking sensitive information in error responses, such as database connection strings or internal server paths
7 – Logging and Monitoring
- Implement comprehensive logging to capture security-related events, such as authentication failures, authorization errors, or suspicious activities
- Monitor and analyze log data to detect anomalies or potential security breaches
- Utilize intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDP/IPS) or security information and event management (SIEM) tools for real-time threat detection and response
8 – Secure Configuration
- Keep sensitive configuration settings, such as API keys, database credentials, or encryption keys, outside the application code and store them securely, such as in environment variables or a secure configuration store
- Regularly review and update the security configuration of the API server, including server hardening, firewall rules, and security patches
9 – API Rate Limiting
- Implement rate limiting mechanisms to prevent abuse, DDoS attacks, or excessive resource consumption by a single client
- Apply rate limits based on client IP addresses, API keys, or user accounts to control the number of requests per unit of time
10 – Third-Party Libraries and Dependencies
- Regularly update and patch all third-party libraries and dependencies used in your API to mitigate known security vulnerabilities
- Monitor security advisories and subscribe to notifications to stay informed about any security patches or updates
11 – Security Testing
- Perform regular security testing, including vulnerability scanning, penetration testing and security code reviews, to identify and address potential security flaws
- Conduct thorough security testing during the development lifecycle and before deploying the API to a production environment
- Use automated security testing tools, such as static analysis tools or dynamic application security testing (DAST) tools, to identify common vulnerabilities and security weaknesses
- Collaborate with security professionals or third-party security firms to perform comprehensive security assessments and ensure a thorough of your API’s security posture
- Regularly review and update security test cases and scenarios to account for emerging threats and attack vectors