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🔐 API Security Spotlight: API9:2023 - Improper Inventory Management

· apisec,security

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  • 🛠️ Contain outdated or vulnerable components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

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