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API Security: Authentication, Rate Limiting & Beyond
Secure your endpoints from common attacks
Comprehensive guide to securing REST and GraphQL APIs including JWT best practices, rate limiting strategies, input sanitization, and preventing injection attacks.
- 94% apps have API vulns
- 3x attacks increased
Frequently asked questions
What are the most critical API security vulnerabilities?
The top vulnerabilities are: broken authentication, broken object-level authorization, excessive data exposure, lack of rate limiting, injection attacks, and insufficient logging. OWASP API Security Top 10 provides comprehensive coverage.
How should I authenticate API requests?
Use OAuth 2.0 or JWT tokens for authentication, never API keys in URLs. Implement token expiration, refresh token rotation, and consider mutual TLS for high-security APIs. Always use HTTPS and validate tokens server-side.
What is rate limiting and why is it important for APIs?
Rate limiting restricts the number of API requests a client can make within a time window. It prevents abuse, DDoS attacks, brute force attempts, and ensures fair resource usage. Implement at both application and infrastructure levels.
How do I secure sensitive data in API responses?
Never expose more data than necessary (principle of least privilege), use field-level filtering, encrypt sensitive fields, implement proper access controls, mask PII in logs, and use separate endpoints for sensitive operations.