WAF Solutions against OWASP Top 10 API Security Risks
Modern applications increasingly rely on APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) to enable seamless integration and data exchange. However, APIs also introduce new security challenges that attackers exploit to gain unauthorized access, manipulate data, or disrupt services.
The OWASP API Security Top 10 outlines the most critical API vulnerabilities, and FortiWeb provides comprehensive protection by enforcing strict security policies, real-time threat detection, and AI-driven traffic analysis.
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Broken Object Level Authorization (BOLA)
BOLA is a common API vulnerability where unauthorized users can access or modify objects they should not have permissions for. This can lead to data breaches, privilege escalation, or unauthorized data modifications.
FortiWeb mitigates this risk by enforcing strong authentication and role-based access controls (RBAC) at the API gateway, ensuring that only authorized users can access specific API resources.
For the related use case, see Account Takeover & Data Manipulation in a Banking API.
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Broken User Authentication
APIs often require authentication mechanisms to verify user identities, but weak or misconfigured authentication can allow attackers to compromise user accounts.
FortiWeb enhances API authentication security by supporting OAuth 2.0, API keys, JWT validation, and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). These mechanisms help prevent unauthorized access and account takeover attacks.
For the related use case, see Account Takeover & Data Manipulation in a Banking API.
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Excessive Data Exposure
Many APIs return more data than necessary, increasing the risk of data leaks and exposure of sensitive information such as personally identifiable information (PII).
FortiWeb’s Data Loss Prevention (DLP) capabilities analyze API responses and block the transmission of unnecessary or sensitive data, ensuring compliance with data protection regulations like GDPR and PCI-DSS.
For the related use case, see Ensure API schema compliance and threat prevention in a government digital services portal.
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Lack of Resources & Rate Limiting
Without proper rate limiting, APIs are vulnerable to abuse, such as denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, brute force attempts, and excessive API calls that degrade performance.
FortiWeb prevents API abuse by implementing rate limiting, IP reputation filtering, and anomaly detection, ensuring fair usage and mitigating automated attack attempts.
For the related use case, see Account Takeover & Data Manipulation in a Banking API.
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Broken Function Level Authorization
This vulnerability arises when API functions expose endpoints without properly enforcing user authorization. Attackers can exploit it to perform unauthorized actions such as modifying user settings or escalating privileges.
FortiWeb enforces function-level authorization by integrating RBAC policies and access control mechanisms that restrict API functions to the appropriate users and roles.
For the related use case, see Account Takeover & Data Manipulation in a Banking API.
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Mass Assignment
Mass assignment vulnerabilities occur when attackers manipulate API requests to update unintended object properties. This can lead to unauthorized modifications of security settings, user privileges, or sensitive data fields.
FortiWeb mitigates this risk by implementing strict schema validation and enforcing input sanitization policies to prevent unintended data modifications.
For the related use case, see Ensure API schema compliance and threat prevention in a government digital services portal.
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Security Misconfiguration
APIs often have misconfigured security settings, such as exposed debug endpoints, overly permissive CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) rules, or missing security headers.
FortiWeb prevents access to sensitive or undocumented API endpoints by enforcing URL access policies and using machine learning with OpenAPI integration to block unexpected requests outside approved API definitions.
For the related use case, see Account Takeover & Data Manipulation in a Banking API.
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Injection Attacks (SQLi, XSS, Command Injection, etc.)
APIs are vulnerable to injection attacks, where attackers insert malicious code into API requests to execute unintended commands or extract data.
FortiWeb’s AI-powered WAF (Web Application Firewall) detects and blocks SQL injection (SQLi), cross-site scripting (XSS), command injection, and other API-based exploits, ensuring that only safe and validated API requests are processed.
For the related use case, see Ensure API schema compliance and threat prevention in a government digital services portal.
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Improper Asset Management
Exposed or outdated APIs can introduce security risks, as attackers may discover deprecated or vulnerable endpoints that should no longer be accessible.
FortiWeb enhances API security posture by enabling API discovery, version control enforcement, and automated deprecation management, ensuring that only secure and actively maintained APIs are available.
For the related use case, see Ensure API schema compliance and threat prevention in a government digital services portal.
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Insufficient Logging & Monitoring
A lack of monitoring makes it difficult to detect API abuse, unauthorized access, or suspicious activities in real time.
FortiWeb provides comprehensive API traffic logging, SIEM integration, and real-time alerts, allowing security teams to detect, analyze, and respond to API-related threats proactively.
For the related use case, see Security Logging and Monitoring Failures.
Watch the following videos on FortiWeb's API Protection features: