I'm kicking off a series of articles on API Security 🔐 to help us—developers 👨💻👩💻—better understand and implement secure coding in our software design. 🛡️
Here is the ninth one: Improper Inventory Management
Have you ever lost track of your API endpoints? 🧭 That’s exactly what API9:2023 – Improper Inventory Management is all about.
When organizations fail to properly inventory their APIs, especially the undocumented or deprecated ones, they open the door to serious risks. 🚪💥
📌 Why it matters
Unmanaged APIs can:
- ❌ Bypass security controls
- 🦹 Be exploited by attackers
- 🛠️ Contain outdated or vulnerable components
- 🕳️ Be forgotten but still publicly accessible
📉 Common Causes
- Lack of automated discovery
- No versioning discipline
- Shadow APIs (used by devs, forgotten by ops)
- No centralized API catalog
✅ How to fix it
- 🔍 Implement API discovery tools (e.g. gateway analytics, traffic sniffers)
- 📓 Maintain a real-time inventory (including internal & 3rd-party APIs)
- 🚦 Tag and classify APIs by environment (dev, staging, prod)
- 🛑 Decommission old/deprecated APIs properly
- 🔁 Apply consistent versioning and change management
💬 Think about it:
If you don’t know an API exists… how can you protect it?
📚 Improper Inventory Management may not sound flashy, but it’s a silent killer of API security strategies. Don’t let forgotten endpoints become your next breach headline. 🔍📉
👉 Let’s build resilient, observable, and well-documented API ecosystems! Have you seen this issue in the wild? Let’s chat in the comments. 👇
#API9 #OWASPTop10 #APIs #SecurityBestPractices #ZeroTrust #CyberAwareness #TechLeadership
Additional Resources