OWASP API Security Top 10 report 2023

APIs, or application program interfaces, are vital tools for businesses in all industries. Since there is a rise in use of APIs in many domains and APIs are a critical part of modern mobile, SaaS and web applications, it is inevitable to release the importance of API security and its unique vulnerabilities as compared to web applications. OWASP API Security Top 10 report help developers, testers, and users — as well as project managers, security researchers, and educators — provide insight into the most severe and current security weaknesses related to APIs.

Why it matters

The threat landscape for APIs constantly changes. APIs expose application logic and sensitive data such as Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and hence become a target for attackers. These factors make APIs more difficult to analyze, and can significantly change the threat landscape. To keep pace, the OWASP organization came up with the OWASP API Security Top 10 report that focuses on strategies and solutions to understand and mitigate the unique vulnerabilities and security risks of APIs.

OWASP API Security Top 10 Vulnerabilities

ID Name
API1 Broken Object Level Authorization
API2 Broken Authentication
API3 Broken Object Property Level Authorization
API4 Unrestricted Resource Consumption
API5 Broken Function Level Authorization
API6 Unrestricted Access to Sensitive Business Flows
API7 Server Side Request Forgery
API8 Security Misconfiguration
API9 Improper Inventory Management
API10 Unsafe Consumption of APIs