{“lastseen”:”2025-10-16T12:05:20″,”description”:”Authentication issues seem like low-level attacks. But authentication today \u2013 especially API authentication \u2013 can be more difficult than people expect.\\n\\nCompanies rely on APIs to carry sensitive information every day. If access to those APIs is not properly secured, all the sophisticated security solutions companies use to protect their data _elsewhere_ are completely undermined. \\n\\nA single API authentication slip could expose sensitive information just as well as a major security oversight\u2014with the same devastating results. \\n\\nThis Cybersecurity Awareness Month, we\u2019re legitimizing the fact that API authentication is _hard_. We\u2019ll go over why, what you can do, and how Wallarm can help. \\n\\n## API Authentication: Deceptively Simple \\n\\nAs Wallarm\u2019s Co-Founder Stepan Ilyin asserts, \u201cIt\u2019s not easy to implement authentication correctly.\u201d\\n\\nWhy not? Because modern software is multi-layered and complex, leaving exceptions and inroads open at every turn to get something wrong. A lot of capable security architects flounder when it comes to knowing what to include and what not to.\\n\\nTo top that off, authentication systems (especially the ones protecting APIs) are constantly under attack. Threat actors understand the value of these super-connected hubs of trusted information and are never going to stop picking the lock. \\n\\nUnfortunately, traditional authentication implementations will not suit.\\n\\nWhat works for authentication elsewhere will not automatically work for APIs. States Ilyin, \u201cAPI endpoints that handle authentication need to be designed differently from other endpoints and this is often overlooked.\u201d\\n\\n## API Authentication Flaws \\n\\nWhat are common API authentication flaws? The list includes:\\n\\n * **Weak Tokens:** These fall under the \u201cAPI2: Broken Authentication\u201d category in OWASP API Security Top 10. Weak tokens allow attackers to authenticate if they are improperly validated, or stored insecurely. In token replay attacks they can be used to repeatedly grant access until the token is expired. \\n * **Poor Session Handling:** If authentication is the first line of defense, session handling is the second. Once users are legitimately inside a session, secure code must ensure that they \u2013 and only they \u2013 stay safely inside. Slip-ups here can be caused by: \\n * Failure to rotate cookies after authentication changes\\n * Improperly generating tokens\\n * Allowing sessions to remain active for too long \\n * Not invalidating session tokens on the server side after logging out\\n * Session fixation attacks, in which the attacker already knows the user\u2019s session ID\\n * **Predictable keys:** API authentication session keys are the solution to persistent API tokens. But are equally unsafe if they are predictable and easily guessed or cracked.\\n * **Missing MFA:** If an attacker steals an API key, MFA will prevent them from going too far. Since MFA means an interactive element, it may not be feasible for all APIs all the time. But \u2013 and this is important \u2013 in those cases, something equally strong should be used in its place. Consider: \\n * Client Credentials Grant with MFA\\n * Proof Key for Code Exchange (PKCE) for MFA\\n * Device Authorization Grant\\n * **Improper Implementation:** Using an API endpoint meant for web application will not automatically work on a mobile application as well. \\n\\n\\n\\nThe difficulty comes in crossing every \u201ct\u201d and dotting every \u201ci.\u201d Without an automated, set-it-and-forget-it approach, security teams could be chasing API security all day.\\n\\n## API Authentication Threats in AI: Alive and Well\\n\\nNo security conversation today would be complete without mentioning the impact on AI. Last year, Gartner reported that AI adoption in production environments increased by 50%, a feat that wouldn\u2019t have been possible without the enabling power of APIs.\\n\\nBut it\u2019s not all good news. According to our 2025 API ThreatStats Report, 89% of all AI-powered APIs were operating with insecure authentication mechanisms. Static keys were just one of them, and only 11% used something truly strong like bearer tokens with expiration times.\\n\\nPushing ahead with AI progress is also deceptively simple; if companies fail to protect the APIs that connect them to AI, everything stored in those models is at stake. \\n\\n## The Wallarm Mitigation: Shoring Up API Authentication\\n\\nThe hard part about API authentication is that there are myriad ways to go wrong. \\n\\nIt\u2019s a lot to remember; when to rotate cookies, how secure tokens should be, when and how to use MFA, how to secure which API in which environment. Developers may not know this stuff, and security teams may not be quite sure\u2014or worse, not know where all their APIs are in the first place. \\n\\nWallarm can help. \\n\\nOur platform secures APIs (and AI agents) in any environment and against any threat, including the OWASP API Security Top 10: Broken Authentication. This is how we do it.\\n\\nWallarm nodes analyze traffic and identify a variety of attacks that leverage broken authentication, such as weak JSON Web Tokens (JWT), brute force attacks on authentication endpoints, and using weak encryption. These attacks can be blocked, monitored, or users can configure custom triggers to take a specific action. Users can also leverage Wallarm\u2019s API Leak detection to identify credentials and authentication tokens embedded in URLs.\\n\\nIdentifying and blocking attacks is an effective detective control, but the best way to mitigate broken authentication attacks is to find and fix the corresponding vulnerabilities. Wallarm\u2019s platform also includes vulnerability assessment and security testing, giving security teams the tools to extend their detective controls into proactive risk reduction as well.\\n\\nSprawling APIs might just be the cost of doing business today. As you expand your digital scope, Wallarm makes securing access to your business-critical APIs easy. \\n\\nTo get started, schedule a demo today. \\n\\nThe post API Attack Awareness: When Authentication Fails \u2014 Exposing APIs to Risk appeared first on Wallarm.”,”published”:”2025-10-16T11:00:00″,”modified”:”2025-10-16T11:00:00″,”type”:”wallarmlab”,”title”:”API Attack Awareness: When Authentication Fails \u2014 Exposing APIs to Risk”,”source”:””,”references”:””,”id”:”WALLARMLAB:393345B651E4A88A19D5E8CB54108DCA”,”bulletinFamily”:”blog”,”cwe”:null,”cvelist”:[],”sourceData”:””,”sourceHref”:””,”cvss”:{“score”:0,”severity”:”NONE”,”vector”:”NONE”,”version”:”NONE”},”cvss2″:{},”cvss3″:{“version”:””,”vectorString”:””,”baseScore”:0,”baseSeverity”:””,”attackVector”:””,”attackComplexity”:””,”privilegesRequired”:””,”userInteraction”:””,”scope”:””,”confidentialityImpact”:””,”integrityImpact”:””,”availabilityImpact”:””,”cvssV3″:{“version”:””,”vectorString”:””,”baseScore”:0,”baseSeverity”:””,”attackVector”:””,”attackComplexity”:””,”privilegesRequired”:””,”userInteraction”:””,”scope”:””,”confidentialityImpact”:””,”integrityImpact”:””,”availabilityImpact”:””}},”href”:”https:\/\/lab.wallarm.com\/api-attack-awareness-when-authentication-fails-exposing-apis-to-risk\/”,”category_name”:”News”,”post_link”:””,”product”:””,”version”:””,”vendor”:””,”ai_description”:””,”ai_severity”:””,”ai_vendor”:””,”ai_product”:””,”ai_version”:””,”ai_score”:0}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{“lastseen”:”2025-10-16T12:05:20″,”description”:”Authentication issues seem like low-level attacks. But authentication today \u2013 especially API authentication \u2013 can be more difficult than people expect.\\n\\nCompanies rely on APIs to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6,8,12,13,33,7,11,5,105],"class_list":["post-22048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-category_news","tag-cve","tag-cvss","tag-exploit","tag-news","tag-none","tag-security","tag-tapic","tag-vulnerability","tag-wallarmlab"],"yoast_head":"\n