API Security Glossary

With the introduction of APIs, companies now have a new way to expand their company's reach and also make it easier for customers to perform tasks. One of the most transformative shifts is the increased use of APIs to integrate data and information across channels, platforms, and devices.

A well-designed API can be a key competitive advantage for your business. But what is an API? And what about the other pieces of the API ecosystem? This glossary will give you some short and handy definitions to understand more about APIs, cut through the jargon, and make the processes easier.

API

Application Programming Interface is what API stands for. API is a set of definitions and protocols that allow technology products and services to communicate via the internet.

API Call

The API call is simply the process of sending a request to your API after setting up the right endpoints. Upon receiving your information, it is processed, and you receive feedback. By entering your login and password into a website and hitting 'enter,' you made an API call.

API Economy

The API economy is just another term to describe the exchange of value between a user and an organization. The API economy enables businesses to leverage APIs from other providers such as Google to power their own apps, allowing an ecosystem that makes it possible for users to get value from a platform without having to build the APIs, like Uber does when it uses API calls to connect with Google Maps.

API Endpoint

An endpoint is the end of a communication channel. When APIs interact with other systems, each touchpoint of interaction is considered an endpoint. For example, an API endpoint could include a server, a service, or a database where a resource lives. API endpoints specify where resources live and who can access them.

API Gateway

An API gateway is an API management tool that serves as an intermediary between the client and a set of different backend services. API gateways act as gatekeepers and proxies that moderate all your API calls, aggregate the data you need, and return the correct result. Gateways are used to handle common tasks such as API identification, rate limiting, and usage metrics.

API Integration

In simple terms, API integration connects two or more applications to exchange data between them and connect to the outside world.

API Keys

An API key is a unique identifier that enables other software to authenticate a user, developer, or API calling software to an API to ensure that this person or software is who it says it is. API keys authenticate the API instead of a user and offer a certain degree of security to API calls.

API Lifecycle

The API lifecycle is an approach to API management and development that aims at providing a holistic view of how to manage APIs across its different life stages, from creation to retirement. The API lifecycle is often divided into three stages, the creation stage, the control stage, and the consumption stage.

API Layer

An API layer is a proxy that joins together all your service offerings using a graphic UI to provide greater user interactivity. API layers are language-agnostic ways of interacting with apps and help describe the services and data types used to exchange information

API Portal

An API portal is a bridge between the API provider and the API consumer. An API portal provides information about the APIs at every stage of the API lifecycle. API portals serve to make APIs public and offer content to educate developers about them, their use, and how to make the most of them.

API Request

APIs are everywhere and are part of every aspect of the web. An API request happens when a developer adds an endpoint to a URL and uses that endpoint to call the server or the database.

API Security

The ubiquitous nature of APIs makes them one of the favorite targets for hackers. API security is an umbrella term that defines a set of practices that aim to prevent malicious attacks, misuse, and exploit APIs. API security includes basic authentication and authorization, tokens, multi-factor authentication, and other advanced security measures.

Apigee

Apigee is an API gateway management tool offered by Google to exchange data across cloud services and applications. It enables developers to build and manage APIs. As a proxy layer, Apigee enables you to expose your backend APIs in abstraction or facade and helps protect your APIs, limit their rate, and provide analytics and other services.

APIsec

APIsec is an API security company. It leverages automated testing tools to find logic flaws before your code hits the production stage. APIsec addresses the business need to secure APIs before they reach production and provides the industry's only automated and continuous API testing platform that uncovers security vulnerabilities in APIs.

Application

The term application gets thrown around a lot these days. Application software is commonly defined as a program or a bundle of different programs designed for end-users. Every program can be called an application, and often the terms are used interchangeably.

Burp Suite

Burp —also called Burp Suite— is a set of tools used for penetration testing of web apps. Burp is an all-in-one penetration testing suite that offers users a one-stop shop for all their pen testing needs. BurpSuite contains an intercepting proxy that lets the user see and modify the contents of requests and responses while they are in transit for granular control of your APIs.

CI/CD

Continuous integration (CI) and continuous deployment (CD) are a set of operating principles and a collection of practices and agile methodologies that enable development teams to deliver better and faster changes to their code. CI/CD is one of the most important DevOps practices as it gives teams the tools to focus on meeting their business requirements, code quality, and security needs.

CRUD

CRUD is an acronym for create, read, update and delete. It refers to the necessary functions to implement a storage application, such as a hard drive. Unlike random access memory and internal caching, CRUD data is typically stored and organized into a database, which is simply a collection of data that can be viewed electronically.

Cache

The cache is a software or hardware component that stores data so users can access and retrieve that data faster. Cached data might be the result of a copy of certain data stored elsewhere. Cache reads data and retrieves it faster than you would otherwise.

Client

A client is a device that communicates with a server. A client can be a desktop computer, a laptop, a smartphone, or an IoT-powered device. Most networks allow communication between clients and servers as it flows through a router or switch.

DDoS

A distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack is a malicious attack that aims at disrupting the target's traffic. It usually overwhelms the target's infrastructure with a flurry of internet traffic aimed at saturating the servers and causing them to shut the page down.

DevOps

DevOps —a blending of development and operations— combines cultural philosophies, agile practices, and tools. DevOps practices aim at increasing an organization's ability to deliver software products and services faster than ever before. DevOps uses a toolchain made of interconnected technologies to build a software development infrastructure based on automation to achieve greater time-to-market speeds.

DevSecOps

DevSecOps —a blending of development, security, and operations— refers to the automation and integration of security at every step of the DevOps lifecycle, from the initial design process all the way to software delivery. DevSecOps emphasizes the need for proper security practices along the pipeline to enhance accountability and minimize data breaches.

Developer Portal

Developer portals are interfaces that bridge the gap between API providers and API consumers. It's called a developer portal because most of the API consumers are developers. Developer portals aim at educating developers on how to use APIs and provide all the information users need to leverage APIs.

External APIs

An external API is designed to be accessed by the outside public. Unlike internal APIs, APIs are consumed by external developers outside of the company. External APIs represent a secure way of sharing information and content outside a company.

Framework

A framework contains libraries of code, instructions, and APIs from which developers and API consumers can obtain information from an app.

GET Method

There are two ways to structure HTML (HyperText Markup Language, GET, and POST. GET refers to a method for requesting information from a particular website using HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP). You can also use it to derive a specific variable from a group of variables.

GraphQL

GraphQL is a query language that enables clients to define the structure of the data. That means that developers can use GraphQL to ask for specific data and return that data from multiple sources.

HTTP Methods

POST, GET, PUT, PATCH, and DELETE (or methods are formally called) are the most common HTTP verbs or actions. In other words, they represent Create, Read, Update, and Delete (or CRUD) operations within a database.

JSON

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight data-interchange format based on a subset of JavaScript programming language standards. JSON has the advantage that it is both easy for humans to read and write and for machines to parse and generate. It is a format that is completely agnostic to languages and uses conventions that are familiar to programmers of C-family languages.

Logic Flaw

Business logic flaws result from faulty application logic. In simple terms, a logic flaw happens when an application, be it a web or mobile) behaves unexpectedly. A logic flaw allows attackers to misuse an application and circumvent its rules to change how it performs.

Microservices

Microservices —also known as microservices architecture— is a software architecture style that structures apps as a collection of loosely coupled, independent, and highly maintainable services that are organized to enhance an app, website, or platform's business capabilities.

Monetization

API monetization is a process by which a business can create revenue from its APIs. Since APIs enable users to access and integrate data from different sources, they can be used by different developers to integrate relevant services within their products, digital services, or applications, which could, in turn, become a source of revenue for both public and private services and applications.

OWASP

OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project®) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to enhancing software security. OWASP offers a range of tools to help developers and programmers secure the web through open-source software projects, hundreds of local chapters worldwide, and educational and training events.

Over-Permissioned Container

An over-permissioned container is a container that has all the root capabilities of a host machine. That means that it can access resources that aren't accessible to ordinary containers and users. The problem with over-permissioning is that it gives malicious actors a point where they can attack your infrastructure and compromise your implementation.

Parameters

Parameters are special types of variables used in computer programming to pass information between procedures and functions. An argument to a function is referred to as a parameter. Adding three numbers, for example, may require three parameters.

Penetration Testing

Also called pen testing or ethical hacking, penetration testing simulates attacks on your computer system to identify exploitable vulnerabilities. Pen testing identifies, tests, and highlights vulnerabilities in an organization's security posture. Web application firewalls (WAF) are generally augmented by penetration testing in the context of web application security.

Production Environment

In a production environment, software and other products are actually put into operation in how their intended users intend them to be used. Developers generally use this term to refer to the setting where end-users will actually use the products. In a production environment, software programs and hardware are run in real-time, and they are relied on daily by organizations and companies for their daily operations.

REST

Created by Roy Fielding, a computer scientist, REST, which stands for representational state transfer, is an application programming interface that conforms to the constraints of REST architectural style and enables a quicker interaction between different RESTful web services. A stateless Web service must be able to read and modify its resources using a predefined set of operations and a textual representation.

Red Teams

Red teams are cybersecurity professionals trained in attacking systems and breaking into them by finding compromised entry points or exploitable logic flaws. The objective of the red team is to improve a company's cybersecurity standing by showing it how they managed to gain access and exploit their system vulnerabilities.

SDK

SDK stands for software development kit and is a set of instructions, integrated practices, pieces, code samples, and documentation that enables developers to create software applications on a specific software platform. SDKs can be seen as workshops with everything developers need to build specific software for a determined platform.

SDLC

SDLC —also called software development lifecycle— is the process for planning, creating, testing, and deploying an information system. SDCL aims at producing quality software at the lowest cost in the shortest time possible. SDLC gives developers a structured flow divided into phases to help companies produce high-quality software.

SOAP

Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) is a protocol specification for exchanging structured information to implement web services. SOAP leverages XML Information Set for message format and other application-layer protocols, such as HTTP or SMTP for message transmission. The messaging services provided by SOAP are exclusively XML-based. Microsoft originally developed the SOAP protocol to replace old technologies such as Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) and Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) that cannot work over the internet.

SQL Injection

An SQL injection technique is a way to inject code into a database that may damage it. SQL injections are one of the most common web hacking techniques and rely on the placement of malicious SQL code in SQL statements via web input using forms or other editable fields.

Webhook

A webhook (also called a web callback or HTTP push API) is a way for an app to provide other applications with real-time information. Webhooks deliver data directly to other applications, so data is available immediately instead of standard APIs requiring frequent polling for real-time data. Webhooks are beneficial to both consumers and providers in this way, but the only drawback is the difficulty of setting them up at first.

ZAP

Also called OWASP Zed Attack Proxy (ZAP) is one of the world's most popular free security tools, which lets you automatically find security vulnerabilities in your applications. With ZAP, you can also do nearly everything you can do with the desktop interface using its powerful API. By automating penetration testing and security regression testing, developers can automate an application's security testing during the CI/CD process.

Conclusion

If there’s a term missing here? Talk to us. If you’re looking for automated API security, set up a free pen test.

FAQs

1. What does API mean in cybersecurity?

API, meaning in cybersecurity, refers to Application Programming Interfaces, the connections that allow software systems to communicate and exchange data securely.

2. What are common API security terms?

Key API terminology includes authentication, authorization, endpoints, rate limiting, OAuth, JWT tokens, BOLA, and the OWASP API Security Top 10.

3. Why is API terminology important for security teams?

Understanding API terminology enables teams to identify vulnerabilities, communicate risks clearly, and implement proper security controls across all endpoints.

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