DZone
Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile
  • Manage Email Subscriptions
  • How to Post to DZone
  • Article Submission Guidelines
Sign Out View Profile
  • Post an Article
  • Manage My Drafts
Over 2 million developers have joined DZone.
Log In / Join
Refcards Trend Reports Events Over 2 million developers have joined DZone. Join Today! Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile Manage Email Subscriptions Moderation Admin Console How to Post to DZone Article Submission Guidelines
View Profile
Sign Out
Refcards
Trend Reports
Events
Zones
Culture and Methodologies Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks
Culture and Methodologies
Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering
AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture
Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding
Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance
Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks
  1. DZone
  2. Data Engineering
  3. AI/ML
  4. API Security Weekly: Issue #23

API Security Weekly: Issue #23

Check out the API security news this week and see some vulnerabilities, lessons learned, and research.

Dmitry Sotnikov user avatar by
Dmitry Sotnikov
CORE ·
Mar. 21, 19 · News
Like (2)
Save
Tweet
Share
7.77K Views

Join the DZone community and get the full member experience.

Join For Free

This week, we had another mobile app leaking user data and the first ever CEO resignation because of an API breach. There’s also:

  • The best practices for AWS API Gateway security
  • Gartner’s advice to CISOs on cloud security
  • Security implications of the OpenAPI Specification (OAS)
  • Vulnerabilities in machine learning

Image title

Vulnerabilities

The mobile application 63red Safe had an API breach. This app is a Yelp-like app for US conservatives. A security researcher found the credentials of the app’s author included in the app’s source code. The code also had a list of API endpoints for storing or retrieving data. The backend APIs in question didn’t use any form of authentication. Anyone could look at the app’s source code, get the credentials, get the API endpoints, and extract data from the app’s server with no challenge or restriction.

Lessons Learned

New details emerge from the LandMark White breach that we covered in issue 21 in early March.

LandMark White used to be Australia’s largest independent property valuation and consultancy firm, and their APIs were used by all major banks in Australia. Now, the company is in crisis. Major customers have left and several executives have had to step down.

It turns out that some teams at Landmark White actually knew about the API vulnerability before the breach happened and for about 18 months at that! The information just never reached the right people. Talk about the importance of a shared view on the state of API security in your company.

Best Practices

Daria Kirilenko from Gartner provides the following advice to chief information security officers (CISOs) on cloud security:

  1. Understand that cloud security is shared between vendors and your internal team.
  2. Build a cloud security team.
  3. Build an internal common security platform for APIs and different reference architectures.

Ory Segal, CTO of PureSec, shares his security best practices for AWS API Gateway:

  1. Use different types of APIs for different types of access:
    • Public
    • Authenticated
    • Internal
  2. Use the access control mechanisms on offer to control the access to your APIs:
    • API keys
    • AWS IAM roles and policies
    • Amazon Cognito
    • AWS Lambda authorizer functions

Technology Overview

JAXenter is running my story on why API security is hard, what makes OpenAPI Specification so attractive, and how the free API Contract Security Audit tool comes in handy.

Research

Nicholas Carlini from Google demonstrated hacking machine learning (ML) by tweaking the input signal. For example, he caused the algorithm to report guacamole when actually shown a cat image, and "think" it is hearing a Charles Dickens text narration when in reality (tweaked) Bach music was playing.

Image title

This is fascinating because so many security solutions these days rely almost 100 percent on ML or AI. See the summary from his RSAC session, or check out the full paper.

You can subscribe to this weekly newsletter at https://apisecurity.io.

API security Machine learning mobile app

Published at DZone with permission of Dmitry Sotnikov, DZone MVB. See the original article here.

Opinions expressed by DZone contributors are their own.

Popular on DZone

  • Java Development Trends 2023
  • An Introduction to Data Mesh
  • Why It Is Important To Have an Ownership as a DevOps Engineer
  • Spring Cloud: How To Deal With Microservice Configuration (Part 1)

Comments

Partner Resources

X

ABOUT US

  • About DZone
  • Send feedback
  • Careers
  • Sitemap

ADVERTISE

  • Advertise with DZone

CONTRIBUTE ON DZONE

  • Article Submission Guidelines
  • Become a Contributor
  • Visit the Writers' Zone

LEGAL

  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy

CONTACT US

  • 600 Park Offices Drive
  • Suite 300
  • Durham, NC 27709
  • support@dzone.com
  • +1 (919) 678-0300

Let's be friends: