API Adoption: Go Faster, Go Safer! Don’t let API security hold you back

Overcoming security challenges across the API lifecycle

Security sometimes feels like an afterthought for applications projects, resulting in security measures being introduced late in the process. This can lead to two significant challenges. First, developers may have to rewrite and restructure the codebase to meet security requirements, which can cause costly delays. Second, security vulnerabilities that are detected late may result in security breaches and expose the organization to a longer exposure window.

In this blog, we’ll discuss the ways Wib’s advanced API security solution can help overcome these challenges. By covering APIs from development to production, tracking changes in code and identifying potential issues in production, Wib helps enable all development and security programs across the API lifecycle, addressing visibility, security and validation in an automated and continuous manner through a unified platform.

Start with the source of truth to prioritize your reality

The logical starting point is to create a universal and completely accurate truth with respect to APIs and their associated information. To do this, Wib integrates into the organization’s SCM (source control management) system, automatically identifying API repositories and monitoring them to build an accurate picture of which APIs should be seen in traffic as their code was committed to production. To align with the velocity of the organization and minimize exposure windows created in code, Wib offers the ability to receive CI/CD triggers, immediately running a scan to eliminate any exposure windows. Alternatively, it can run to a schedule.

To determine which API endpoints need more security ‘attention’ and reduce the risk of data breaches, Wib’s API security platform identifies sensitive data and private information across APIs:

• The platform identifies Personal Identifiable Information (PII) and sensitive data fields/parameters and categorizes them to conclude and quantify whether the data has a possible impact on privacy, customers, payments, and others.

 

Gain visibility across the API lifecycle

To understand which of your end points have no access restrictions and are available to ALL users, we provide you with authentication insights. The Wib platform identifies:

• Different types of authentication requirements and can therefore raise a flag if NO authentication was found. Since APIs frequently transfer sensitive data, having NO authentication is a critical potential issue.
• Any misconfigurations in authentication, e.g. no validation of JWT expiration.
• Which APIs have weak encryption and authentication settings, and the potential impact upon the organization of making it vulnerable to data exposure.

To mitigate vulnerabilities and prevent future potential attacks, we provide you with vulnerability detection and validation. The Wib platform:

• Detects weaknesses and vulnerabilities in the code and in production, including logic-based exploits and OWASP API Top 10 security threats (both the current 2019 list and new 2023 release candidates).
• Enables teams to track vulnerabilities that are deployed into testing and pre-production environments.
• Provides the owner for each change (i.e. developers) with the ability to find and fix any vulnerabilities discovered within their code before they are released to production.

 

Empower individuals and teams to manage and mitigate risk

To manage your risk and prioritize resources, we provide you with risk scoring. The Wib platform:

• Calculates a risk score for each endpoint that represents the level of threat posed to the organization, taking into account information about authentication, vulnerabilities, and sensitive data. The risk scores rely on NIST framework calculations, while also incorporating the potential business impact, ensuring priorities are aligned with the needs of the organization (not just in theory, but in practice).

To track end point’s code changes and understand their impact on each API’s risk, we provide you with API endpoint snapshots:

• Depending on your configuration, the snapshot will present scans or commits histories. Vulnerabilities that are found can be tracked back in order to find them in the code and understand who can fix them. Moreover, the snapshot will link between a specific commit to changes in an API risk score.
• Tracking code changes over time allows organizations to quickly identify potential mistakes in API code that might expose PII or other weaknesses. By automatically and continuously tracking changes by commit, Wib’s solution offers an exact exposure time window snapshot in case of an incident and can identify the source of the exposure.

To improve the security of your code delivery process, Wib provides you best practice training and recommendations on next action steps and remediation:

• By identifying owner patterns in risk-causing commits, you can improve procedures/instructions or enhance secure code delivery, making commit owners accountable for security and empowering them with security responsibility.

 

Immediate value across your organization

While we always prioritize prevention and aim at eliminating risks as far left and close to the code development stage as possible, reality dictates that achieving a fully comprehensive security posture requires live environment traffic to be monitored and taken into consideration while managing each respective risk.

So, while Wib creates multiple prevention points across the API design, development, testing and general release process, some risks must be monitored in live environment traffic, tracking abuse attempts and the appropriate response needed. This part is handled by Wib’s real-time traffic engine, serving as the last line of defense, monitoring usage patterns, exposed risks, attack attempts and more.

Wib’s platform is designed to enable the needs of different security programs throughout the API lifecycle, from development to SOC and incident response, because each department requires different sets of intelligence and tooling to accomplish their objectives. This is what Wib provides for APIs, and it’s rapidly deployable in hours rather than days or months, with no internal departmental or budgetary complications. No more “it depends”, or “we need four different systems”, or “never-ending projects”. Just immediate value arising from enabling continuous and automatic visibility of all known and unknown APIs – and their vulnerabilities, found closer to developers – with the ability to manage risks to business operations in production.

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