API Abuse Analytics
The use of data analysis techniques to monitor, identify, and report on abnormal or malicious usage patterns within API traffic, supporting real-time defense and investigation.
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Application Security
Browse Application Security terms for cybersecurity professionals.
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API Abuse Monitoring
Continuous observation and analysis of API traffic to detect misuse patterns, abuse, or automated attacks, such as scraping, brute force, or denial-of-service.
View termAPI Contract Validation
The process of verifying that an API’s requests and responses strictly conform to the documented interface specification, reducing integration errors and security vulnerabilities.
View termAPI Endpoint Discovery
The process of identifying available API endpoints, often through automated tools or by analyzing documentation and application behavior, which may expose unintended or sensitive functions to attackers.
View termAPI Gateway Enforcement
Operational policy and control enforcement at the API gateway layer, ensuring only validated and authorized API traffic is allowed and all relevant security checks are applied per organization’s security standards.
View termAPI Key Rotation
The operational practice of periodically replacing and invalidating existing API keys to minimize the risk of key compromise and limit the window of exposure if a key is leaked.
View termAPI Quota Enforcement
The process of applying limits to the number of API requests allowed for each user, application, or key, to prevent resource abuse and maintain service availability.
View termAPI Rate Limiting
A security control mechanism that restricts the number of API requests from a user or client within a specified timeframe to prevent abuse, denial-of-service, and brute-force attacks.
View termAPI Resource Tampering
The unauthorized modification or manipulation of API resources, typically by altering request parameters or payloads to access or change data not permitted by the user's role.
View termAPI Schema Enforcement
The practice of validating incoming and outgoing API requests and responses against a defined schema to prevent structural vulnerabilities and data inconsistencies.
View termAPI Throttling Strategy
A structured approach to limit the number of API requests made by a client or IP within a specified timeframe, preventing abuse and maintaining service reliability.
View termAPI Version Obsolescence
The process and risk associated with retiring or deprecating old API versions, often resulting in unsupported endpoints and increased security exposure.
View termApplication Layer DDoS
A type of distributed denial-of-service attack that targets the application layer (OSI Layer 7) with malicious HTTP or API requests to exhaust server resources.
View termAuthentication Relay Attack
A cyberattack in which authentication credentials are intercepted and forwarded (relayed) to impersonate a legitimate user, often bypassing traditional access controls.
View termAutomated Threat Mitigation
The use of automated controls, tools, and workflows to detect, respond to, and neutralize cyber threats in real time, minimizing manual intervention and accelerating incident response.
View termBroken Access Control
A critical security flaw where access restrictions are incorrectly implemented, enabling users to perform actions or access data beyond their authorization.
View termBroken Authentication Flow
A security flaw in authentication workflows allowing users to bypass, disrupt, or abuse login and identity verification mechanisms.
View termBroken Authorization Schema
A security flaw where access control logic is incomplete or inconsistent, enabling unauthorized users to gain access to restricted functions or data.
View termBroken Cryptographic Storage
A vulnerability where sensitive data is improperly encrypted, decrypted, or stored using weak cryptographic algorithms, leading to potential data exposure.
View termBroken Function Level
An API vulnerability where improper function-level authorization allows attackers to access or execute functions beyond their privileges.
View termBroken Object Level
A critical API vulnerability where improper access controls allow attackers to manipulate or access objects belonging to other users, leading to data exposure or modification.
View termBusiness Logic Abuse
The exploitation of legitimate business logic in applications to gain unauthorized advantages, often bypassing technical controls without exploiting traditional vulnerabilities.
View termBusiness Logic Validation
The process of systematically verifying application workflows and rules to ensure that implemented business logic enforces intended controls, prevents abuse, and resists circumvention or manipulation.
View termBusiness Rule Enforcement
Implementation and monitoring of business logic controls within applications to prevent unauthorized or unintended actions and ensure compliance with organizational policies.
View termClient Certificate Validation
A process that verifies the authenticity and trustworthiness of client certificates during mutual TLS connections, enabling strong identity assurance and encrypted communication.
View termClient Side Enforcement
Reliance on client-side logic to enforce security controls, which can be bypassed or manipulated, undermining the intended protection mechanisms.
View termCode Dependency Analysis
The process of examining software dependencies for known vulnerabilities, outdated components, or license compliance issues in application development.
View termCORS Policy Enforcement
The process of strictly applying Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) policies to control which origins can interact with APIs or web resources, reducing the risk of cross-origin attacks.
View termCredential Management Policy
A formal set of rules and procedures for creating, storing, rotating, and revoking authentication credentials to ensure security and regulatory compliance.
View termCredential Stuffing Detection
The identification and mitigation of automated attacks in which attackers use lists of compromised credentials to gain unauthorized access to user accounts.
View termCross Tenant Isolation
Security controls that strictly separate data, processes, and resources among different tenants in multi-tenant cloud or SaaS environments to prevent unauthorized cross-tenant access.
View termData Tampering Detection
Mechanisms and monitoring used to detect unauthorized or malicious modification of data in storage, transit, or processing, ensuring data integrity.
View termDynamic Code Instrumentation
The process of inserting monitoring hooks or logic into running code to analyze application behavior, detect anomalies, or identify security weaknesses at runtime.
View termExcessive Authorization Grant
A security misconfiguration where a user or entity is assigned more access rights than necessary, violating the principle of least privilege.
View termExcessive Data Exposure
A security weakness where APIs expose more data than necessary to clients, increasing the risk of sensitive information disclosure and regulatory non-compliance.
View termFederated Identity Mapping
A process that links a user’s identity and credentials across multiple trusted identity providers, enabling Single Sign-On (SSO) and cross-domain authentication in federated environments.
View termFunction Level Authorization
A control mechanism that verifies a user’s or system’s permission for each specific API endpoint or business function before allowing the requested action.
View termHMAC Validation Process
A procedure using Hash-based Message Authentication Code (HMAC) to verify data integrity and authenticity during transmission or storage.
View termHTTP Parameter Pollution
A web security vulnerability where multiple HTTP parameters with the same name are sent in a single request, potentially bypassing security logic or causing application misbehavior.
View termImproper Asset Inventory
A failure to maintain a complete, accurate, and up-to-date list of all hardware, software, and cloud assets, leading to unmanaged risks and blind spots in security monitoring.
View termImproper Caching Control
Failure to configure cache settings securely, leading to the unintended storage or exposure of sensitive data in shared or public caches.
View termImproper Error Handling
Failure to securely process or sanitize application errors, leading to information disclosure or security bypass opportunities.
View termImproper Logout Mechanism
A logout process that fails to fully invalidate all session tokens and authentication artifacts, allowing potential session hijacking or unauthorized access.
View termImproper Rate Limiting
A security weakness where APIs or web services do not sufficiently restrict the frequency or volume of requests, allowing brute force, enumeration, or denial-of-service attacks.
View termImproper Resource Sharing
A security risk where system resources are shared without proper isolation or access controls, leading to unintended data exposure or privilege escalation.
View termImproper Secret Storage
A vulnerability where sensitive secrets, such as API keys or passwords, are stored in insecure locations, such as plaintext or unsecured repositories.
View termInput Canonicalization Control
Processes that convert various possible input formats to a standard, canonical form before validation, helping to prevent injection or encoding-based attacks.
View termInsecure Deserialization
A vulnerability where untrusted or tampered data is deserialized without proper validation, potentially leading to remote code execution or privilege escalation.
View termInsecure Direct Object
A vulnerability where applications expose internal object references, such as file or database keys, directly to users without proper access controls, enabling unauthorized access.
View termInsufficient Audit Trail
A deficiency in logging or tracking system activities that undermines the ability to reconstruct security events, investigate incidents, or demonstrate compliance.
View termInsufficient Entropy Check
Failure to verify that cryptographic functions use sources of randomness with adequate entropy, increasing the risk of predictable keys or tokens.
View termJWT Audience Restriction
A security control ensuring a JWT token is only accepted by the intended recipients (audiences), preventing token reuse by unauthorized services.
View termJWT Revocation List
A security control that maintains a list of invalidated JSON Web Tokens (JWTs), preventing previously issued tokens from being accepted after revocation or compromise.
View termJWT Signature Verification
The process of validating the cryptographic signature of a JSON Web Token (JWT) to ensure its integrity and authenticity, preventing tampering or unauthorized modifications.
View termMass Assignment Exploit
A vulnerability where an attacker assigns values to object properties that should not be directly set by the user, often leading to privilege escalation or data corruption.
View termOAuth Consent Delegation
Process by which a resource owner grants a client application delegated access to protected resources, based on explicit consent, using the OAuth protocol.
View termOAuth Token Introspection
A protocol mechanism defined in RFC 7662 that allows resource servers to query an authorization server about the status and meta-information of an OAuth access token.
View termOpen Redirect Mitigation
Security controls that detect and prevent web applications from redirecting users to untrusted external URLs, reducing the risk of phishing and credential theft.
View termParameter Tampering Attack
An attack technique where an adversary manipulates input parameters in client requests to alter application behavior, bypass access controls, or exploit vulnerabilities.
View termPreflight Request Handling
The process of managing HTTP preflight requests (OPTIONS method) sent by browsers to check CORS permissions before the actual API request is made, ensuring proper cross-origin policy enforcement.
View termPrivileged API Restriction
Controls that limit access to sensitive API endpoints or functions to only those users or services with explicit privileged rights.
View termRate Limiting Bypass
A technique or vulnerability where attackers evade rate limiting controls to send more requests than intended, potentially enabling brute-force or denial-of-service attacks.
View termReplay Attack Detection
A security mechanism to identify and block attempts where valid data transmissions are maliciously repeated or delayed, often to gain unauthorized access or privileges.
View termReplay Attack Mitigation
Security controls implemented to detect and prevent replay attacks, where previously valid data transmissions are maliciously resent to gain unauthorized access or privileges.
View termReplay Nonce Validation
A security mechanism that ensures a unique nonce value is included and validated in each request or transaction, protecting against replay attacks by rejecting reused nonces.
View termSecret Sprawl Prevention
The implementation of processes and tools to prevent sensitive secrets—such as API keys, credentials, and certificates—from being dispersed across source code, repositories, and environments.
View termSecurity Event Logging
The systematic recording of security-related activities, alerts, and incidents within systems or networks to support detection, response, investigation, and compliance.
View termSecurity Misconfiguration
A common vulnerability where systems, servers, or applications are deployed with insecure default settings, incomplete configurations, or unintentional exposure of services.
View termSensitive Data Exposure
A risk where confidential or regulated data is unintentionally disclosed through insecure APIs, weak encryption, or improper access controls.
View termSensitive Function Exposure
A flaw where critical application functions, such as admin features or payment operations, are accessible to unauthorized users due to insufficient access controls or misconfiguration.
View termSensitive Logging Control
Procedures and mechanisms to ensure that confidential or regulated information is never written to logs, reducing the risk of accidental data leakage or regulatory violations.
View termSession Hijacking Defense
Countermeasures and controls implemented to detect, prevent, and respond to session hijacking attacks, such as session fixation, token theft, or cookie manipulation.
View termSession Replay Protection
Controls and mechanisms designed to prevent attackers from capturing and reusing legitimate session tokens or data packets to impersonate users or replay actions.
View termSession Timeout Enforcement
Policy and technical controls to ensure user sessions automatically expire after a defined period of inactivity, minimizing unauthorized session reuse risk.
View termSession Token Binding
A security mechanism that cryptographically ties a session token to a specific user device or connection context, preventing token theft and reuse across different sessions.
View termStatic Code Scanning
The process of automatically analyzing source code or binaries for security vulnerabilities, coding errors, or policy violations without executing the program.
View termStatic Secrets Detection
The process of identifying hardcoded or unchanging secrets such as API keys or passwords within source code or binaries.
View termThird Party Trust Boundary
A defined security demarcation between an organization’s internal systems and those of third-party entities, used to enforce controls and monitor external access.
View termToken Expiry Validation
The process of checking the expiration date and time of authentication or authorization tokens to ensure that expired tokens cannot be used for access or transactions.
View termToken Leakage Prevention
Measures and controls implemented to prevent authentication or authorization tokens from being inadvertently exposed, intercepted, or exfiltrated by attackers.
View termToken Scope Enforcement
The process of restricting token privileges to the minimum necessary set of actions or resources, ensuring that access tokens cannot be misused beyond their intended purpose.
View termUnintended Information Disclosure
The accidental or unauthorized exposure of sensitive data due to flawed application logic, misconfigurations, or insufficient access controls.
View termUser Impersonation Control
Mechanisms and safeguards that prevent or detect unauthorized use of a legitimate user's identity within a system or application.
View term