OWASP API Security Top 10 (2023) Reference

Purpose

Identify API-specific security vulnerabilities based on the OWASP API Security Top 10 (2023 edition), including REST, GraphQL, and gRPC patterns. APIs are the primary attack surface for modern applications, and these vulnerability classes represent the most critical and commonly exploited API security risks.

When to Use

Activate this skill when:

• Auditing REST API endpoints and route handlers
• Reviewing GraphQL schemas, resolvers, and configurations
• Assessing gRPC service definitions and interceptors
• Evaluating API authentication and authorization logic
• Testing rate limiting and resource consumption controls
• Reviewing API gateway configurations

API1:2023 - Broken Object Level Authorization (BOLA)

Description: API endpoints that accept object IDs and do not verify that the authenticated user has permission to access the referenced object.

Pattern: ID parameters used directly in database queries without ownership checks.

Vulnerable Code Examples:

Express.js:

// VULNERABLE: No ownership check
app.get('/api/orders/:id', auth, async (req, res) => {
  const order = await Order.findById(req.params.id);
  res.json(order); // Any authenticated user can access any order
});

Flask:

# VULNERABLE: No ownership check
@app.route('/api/orders/<int:order_id>')
@login_required
def get_order(order_id):
    order = Order.query.get_or_404(order_id)
    return jsonify(order.to_dict())  # Missing: order.user_id == current_user.id

Spring:

// VULNERABLE: No ownership check
@GetMapping("/api/orders/{id}")
public Order getOrder(@PathVariable Long id) {
    return orderRepository.findById(id)
        .orElseThrow(); // Any authenticated user can access any order
}

Go (net/http):

// VULNERABLE: No ownership check
func getOrder(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
    id := mux.Vars(r)["id"]
    order, _ := db.GetOrder(id) // Missing: order.UserID == authenticatedUser.ID
    json.NewEncoder(w).Encode(order)
}

Detection Patterns:

# Express: Route params used directly in DB queries
grep -rniE "req\.params\.\w+" --include="*.js" --include="*.ts" -A 5 | grep -iE "(findById|findOne|findByPk|where)"

# Flask: Route parameters in DB queries without ownership check
grep -rniE "def\s+\w+\(.*_id\)" --include="*.py" -A 10 | grep -iE "(query\.get|filter_by|find_one)"

# Spring: PathVariable in repository calls
grep -rniE "@PathVariable" --include="*.java" -A 5 | grep -iE "(findById|getOne|findOne)"

# Go: URL parameters in DB calls
grep -rniE "(mux\.Vars|chi\.URLParam|r\.URL\.Query)" --include="*.go" -A 5 | grep -iE "(GetOrder|FindBy|QueryRow)"

# Generic: Look for endpoints with ID params lacking authorization
grep -rniE "(/:id|/<int:|/{id}|\{id\})" --include="*.js" --include="*.ts" --include="*.py" --include="*.java" --include="*.go"

Fix Pattern: Always verify that the authenticated user owns or has permission to access the requested resource:

order = Order.query.get_or_404(order_id)
if order.user_id != current_user.id:
    abort(403)

API2:2023 - Broken Authentication

Description: Weak or missing authentication mechanisms on API endpoints.

Vulnerable Patterns:

Pattern	Risk	Detection
API key in URL query string	HIGH	grep -rniE "api[_-]?key=.*[?&]" --include="*.js" --include="*.py"
No rate limiting on auth endpoints	HIGH	Check /login, /auth, /token for rate limit middleware
JWT with none algorithm	CRITICAL	grep -rniE "algorithm.*none|alg.*none" --include="*.py" --include="*.js"
Missing token expiration	HIGH	grep -rniE "expiresIn|exp" --include="*.js" --include="*.py" (check if absent)
Hardcoded JWT secret	CRITICAL	grep -rniE "(jwt_secret|JWT_SECRET|secret_key)\s*=\s*[\"']" --include="*.py" --include="*.js"
Password in API response	HIGH	Check serialization excludes password fields
No authentication on sensitive endpoints	CRITICAL	Routes without auth, authenticate, login_required middleware

Per-Framework Detection:

# Express: Routes without auth middleware
grep -rniE "app\.(get|post|put|delete|patch)\s*\(" --include="*.js" --include="*.ts" | grep -viE "(auth|protect|verify|middleware|passport)"

# Flask: Routes without login_required
grep -rniE "@app\.route" --include="*.py" -A 2 | grep -viE "(login_required|jwt_required|auth)"

# Spring: Endpoints without @PreAuthorize or security config
grep -rniE "@(Get|Post|Put|Delete)Mapping" --include="*.java" -B 3 | grep -viE "(PreAuthorize|Secured|RolesAllowed)"

# Go: Handlers without auth middleware in chain
grep -rniE "HandleFunc|Handle\(" --include="*.go" | grep -viE "(auth|middleware|protect)"

API3:2023 - Broken Object Property Level Authorization

Description: API exposes object properties that the user should not be able to read (excessive data exposure) or write (mass assignment).

Excessive Data Exposure Patterns:

# Returning entire ORM objects without field filtering
grep -rniE "\.to_dict\(\)|\.toJSON\(\)|jsonify\(\w+\)|res\.json\(\w+\)" --include="*.py" --include="*.js"

# Spring: Returning entity directly
grep -rniE "return\s+\w+Repository\.find" --include="*.java"

# Missing field selection in serialization
grep -rniE "JSON\.stringify\(user\)|json\.dumps\(\w+\.__dict__\)" --include="*.js" --include="*.py"

Mass Assignment Patterns:

# Express: Spreading request body into model
grep -rniE "\.create\(\s*req\.body\)|\.update\(\s*req\.body\)|Object\.assign\(\w+,\s*req\.body\)" --include="*.js" --include="*.ts"

# Flask: Direct assignment from request
grep -rniE "request\.(json|form|data)" --include="*.py" -A 3 | grep -iE "\*\*|update\(|setattr"

# Spring: No @JsonIgnore on sensitive fields
grep -rniE "class\s+\w+(Entity|Model|DTO)" --include="*.java" -A 20 | grep -iE "(password|role|admin|isAdmin|permissions)"

# Ruby on Rails: permit all params
grep -rniE "params\.permit!" --include="*.rb"
grep -rniE "attr_accessible" --include="*.rb"

API4:2023 - Unrestricted Resource Consumption

Description: API does not restrict the size or number of resources that can be requested, leading to denial of service, excessive costs, or resource exhaustion.

Vulnerable Patterns:

Pattern	Risk	Detection
No pagination on list endpoints	HIGH	List endpoints returning all records
Missing limit/offset caps	HIGH	User-controlled page sizes without maximum
Unbounded file uploads	HIGH	No size limits on multipart/form-data
Regex DoS (ReDoS)	MEDIUM	Evil regex patterns on user input
No rate limiting	HIGH	Endpoints without express-rate-limit, flask-limiter, etc.
Unbounded query depth (GraphQL)	HIGH	No query depth limit configuration

Detection Patterns:

# Unbounded queries (no limit/pagination)
grep -rniE "\.(find|findAll|select|query)\s*\(" --include="*.js" --include="*.ts" --include="*.py" | grep -viE "(limit|paginate|take|first|top)"

# Missing rate limiting middleware
grep -rniE "(express-rate-limit|flask.limiter|RateLimiter|throttle)" --include="*.js" --include="*.ts" --include="*.py" --include="*.java"

# Unbounded file upload size
grep -rniE "(multer|busboy|formidable|FileUpload)" --include="*.js" --include="*.ts" | grep -viE "(limit|maxFileSize|maxSize)"

# User-controlled page size without cap
grep -rniE "(pageSize|page_size|limit|per_page)\s*=\s*(req\.|request\.)" --include="*.js" --include="*.ts" --include="*.py"

API5:2023 - Broken Function Level Authorization

Description: Administrative or privileged endpoints accessible to regular users due to missing role-based access control.

Vulnerable Patterns:

# Admin routes without role check
grep -rniE "(\/admin|\/manage|\/internal|\/debug|\/system)" --include="*.js" --include="*.ts" --include="*.py" --include="*.java" --include="*.go" | grep -viE "(role|admin|isAdmin|authorize|permission)"

# Different HTTP methods with inconsistent auth (e.g., GET is protected but DELETE is not)
grep -rniE "app\.(delete|put|patch)\s*\(" --include="*.js" --include="*.ts" -B 1 | grep -viE "(auth|admin|role)"

# Internal APIs exposed externally
grep -rniE "(internal|private|admin).*api" --include="*.yaml" --include="*.yml" --include="*.json" | grep -viE "(#|//|<!--)"

API6:2023 - Unrestricted Access to Sensitive Business Flows

Description: APIs that expose sensitive business flows (purchasing, posting, reservations) without protections against automated abuse.

Key Indicators:

• No CAPTCHA or bot detection on high-value operations
• No velocity checks on purchase/transfer endpoints
• Missing device fingerprinting on account creation

API7:2023 - Server Side Request Forgery (SSRF)

Description: API fetches remote resources based on user-supplied URLs without validation.

See the vuln-patterns skill for detailed SSRF patterns. API-specific concerns include:

• Webhook URL registration without URL validation
• URL preview/unfurl features
• PDF generation from user-supplied URLs

Detection Patterns:

# Webhook registration endpoints
grep -rniE "(webhook|callback|notify).*url" --include="*.js" --include="*.ts" --include="*.py" --include="*.java" --include="*.go"

# URL fetching based on user input
grep -rniE "(axios|fetch|requests\.get|http\.Get|HttpClient)\s*\(" --include="*.js" --include="*.ts" --include="*.py" --include="*.go" --include="*.java" | grep -iE "(req\.|request\.|params|body|query)"

API8:2023 - Security Misconfiguration

Description: Missing security hardening, overly permissive CORS, unnecessary HTTP methods enabled, verbose error messages.

Detection Patterns:

# Overly permissive CORS
grep -rniE "Access-Control-Allow-Origin.*\*|cors\(\s*\)|origin:\s*true" --include="*.js" --include="*.ts" --include="*.py" --include="*.java"

# Verbose error responses
grep -rniE "(stack|stackTrace|traceback|debug.*true)" --include="*.js" --include="*.ts" --include="*.py" --include="*.java" | grep -viE "(test|spec|__test__)"

# Missing security headers
grep -rniE "(helmet|security-headers|X-Content-Type-Options|X-Frame-Options)" --include="*.js" --include="*.ts" --include="*.py"

API9:2023 - Improper Inventory Management

Description: Exposed old API versions, unpatched endpoints, unnecessary debug endpoints, lack of API documentation matching actual endpoints.

Key Indicators:

• Multiple API versions deployed (/v1/, /v2/, /v3/)
• Debug or test endpoints in production (/debug/, /test/, /swagger/)
• Undocumented endpoints not in OpenAPI spec

API10:2023 - Unsafe Consumption of APIs

Description: Application trusts data from third-party APIs without validation, leading to injection or logic flaws.

Detection Patterns:

# Third-party API responses used without validation
grep -rniE "(axios|fetch|requests)\.(get|post)" --include="*.js" --include="*.ts" --include="*.py" -A 5 | grep -iE "(\.data\.|response\[|res\.json)"

# External data inserted into DB without sanitization
grep -rniE "(insert|create|update)\s*\(" --include="*.js" --include="*.ts" --include="*.py" -B 5 | grep -iE "(response|apiResult|externalData)"

GraphQL-Specific Patterns

Introspection Enabled in Production

Risk: Exposes entire schema including types, fields, mutations, and internal documentation to attackers.

# Check for introspection configuration
grep -rniE "introspection\s*:\s*(true|!)" --include="*.js" --include="*.ts" --include="*.py" --include="*.java"

# Check for introspection disabled
grep -rniE "introspection\s*:\s*false" --include="*.js" --include="*.ts" --include="*.py"

# Environment-conditional introspection (common pattern to verify)
grep -rniE "introspection.*NODE_ENV|introspection.*process\.env" --include="*.js" --include="*.ts"

Nested Query Depth Attacks

Risk: Deeply nested queries can cause exponential backend processing, leading to denial of service.

# Check for depth limiting
grep -rniE "(depthLimit|queryDepth|maxDepth|depth-limit)" --include="*.js" --include="*.ts" --include="*.py" --include="*.java"

# Apollo Server: check for validation rules
grep -rniE "validationRules" --include="*.js" --include="*.ts" -A 5

# Graphene (Python): check for middleware
grep -rniE "(DepthAnalysisBackend|depth_limit)" --include="*.py"

Batching Attacks

Risk: GraphQL allows sending multiple queries in a single request, bypassing rate limiting.

# Check for batching controls
grep -rniE "(allowBatchedHttpRequests|batching|maxBatchSize|batch)" --include="*.js" --include="*.ts" --include="*.py" | grep -iE "(graphql|apollo|schema)"

# Array of queries in request handling
grep -rniE "Array\.isArray\(req\.body\)|isinstance.*list" --include="*.js" --include="*.ts" --include="*.py"

Mutation Authorization

Risk: Mutations that modify data without proper authorization checks in resolvers.

# Resolvers with mutations
grep -rniE "Mutation\s*[:=]|type\s+Mutation" --include="*.js" --include="*.ts" --include="*.py" --include="*.graphql" -A 20

# Check resolvers for auth checks
grep -rniE "(resolve|resolver)" --include="*.js" --include="*.ts" --include="*.py" -A 10 | grep -iE "(auth|permission|role|context\.user)"

gRPC-Specific Patterns

Reflection Enabled in Production

Risk: gRPC reflection allows clients to discover all services and methods, similar to GraphQL introspection.

# Go: gRPC reflection
grep -rniE "reflection\.Register" --include="*.go"

# Java: gRPC reflection
grep -rniE "ProtoReflectionService|ServerReflection" --include="*.java"

# Python: gRPC reflection
grep -rniE "reflection\.enable_server_reflection" --include="*.py"

# Check for conditional reflection (should be dev-only)
grep -rniE "reflection" --include="*.go" --include="*.java" --include="*.py" -B 3 | grep -iE "(debug|dev|environment|NODE_ENV)"

Metadata Injection

Risk: gRPC metadata (similar to HTTP headers) can be injected if user-controlled data flows into metadata without sanitization.

# Go: Metadata from context
grep -rniE "metadata\.(New|Pairs|FromIncomingContext)" --include="*.go"

# Java: Metadata handling
grep -rniE "Metadata\.(Key|put)" --include="*.java"

# Python: Metadata in calls
grep -rniE "metadata\s*=\s*\[" --include="*.py"

Missing Per-RPC Authentication

Risk: Individual RPC methods may lack authentication even when the service has a global interceptor, due to bypass or misconfiguration.

# Go: Check for per-RPC auth interceptors
grep -rniE "(UnaryInterceptor|StreamInterceptor)" --include="*.go" -A 10 | grep -iE "(auth|token|jwt)"

# Java: Check for security interceptors
grep -rniE "(ServerInterceptor|@GrpcGlobalServerInterceptor)" --include="*.java"

# Check for auth bypass lists
grep -rniE "(skip_auth|noAuth|public_methods|whitelist)" --include="*.go" --include="*.java" --include="*.py"

Methodology

Step 1: Map API Surface

# Find all route definitions
grep -rniE "(app\.(get|post|put|delete|patch)|@(Get|Post|Put|Delete|Patch)Mapping|@app\.route|HandleFunc)" --include="*.js" --include="*.ts" --include="*.py" --include="*.java" --include="*.go"

# Find OpenAPI/Swagger specs
find . \( -name "openapi*.yaml" -o -name "openapi*.json" -o -name "swagger*.yaml" -o -name "swagger*.json" \) 2>/dev/null

# Find GraphQL schemas
find . \( -name "*.graphql" -o -name "schema.js" -o -name "schema.ts" -o -name "schema.py" \) -not -path "*/node_modules/*" 2>/dev/null

# Find gRPC proto files
find . -name "*.proto" -not -path "*/node_modules/*" 2>/dev/null

Step 2: Check Authentication and Authorization

For each endpoint:

1. Verify authentication middleware is applied
2. Check for authorization logic (BOLA, BFLA)
3. Verify role-based access where applicable
4. Test for mass assignment protections

Step 3: Assess Resource Controls

1. Check rate limiting configuration
2. Verify pagination limits
3. Assess file upload size limits
4. Review GraphQL depth/complexity limits

Step 4: Review Data Exposure

1. Check API response serialization for sensitive field leakage
2. Review error responses for information disclosure
3. Verify CORS configuration
4. Check for debug endpoints in production

Step 5: Classify and Report

Severity Mapping:

• CRITICAL: BOLA on sensitive data, broken auth on admin endpoints, mass assignment enabling privilege escalation
• HIGH: Missing rate limiting on auth endpoints, unrestricted GraphQL introspection in production, gRPC reflection in production
• MEDIUM: Excessive data exposure, missing pagination caps, verbose error messages
• LOW: Minor CORS misconfigurations, missing security headers on non-sensitive endpoints

Integration with Findings Artifact

Map results to .claude/findings.json with:

• type: "bola", "broken-auth", "mass-assignment", "excessive-data-exposure", "missing-rate-limit", "graphql-introspection", "ssrf", or "security-misconfiguration"
• kind: "finding" for confirmed authorization bypasses, "hotspot" for patterns requiring manual review
• source_tool: "manual" or "semgrep"
• evidence: Include the endpoint, HTTP method, file, line, and description of the missing control

Integration with Other Skills

• Use vuln-patterns for general injection and SSRF patterns
• Use business-logic for authorization logic flaws beyond BOLA
• Use framework-patterns for framework-specific API security behaviors
• Use security-misconfiguration for broader misconfiguration patterns
• Use data-flow-tracing to trace user input through API handlers to sinks