I'm kicking off a
series of articles on API Security
๐ to help usโ
developers
๐จ๐ป๐ฉ๐ปโbetter understand and implement
secure coding
in our software design. ๐ก๏ธ
Here is the fourth one: Unrestricted Resource Consumption
APIs are built to handle requests efficiently, but what happens when there are no limits? ๐คฏ Attackers can exploit APIs by overwhelming resources, leading to downtime, performance issues, and financial losses.
โ ๏ธ What is Unrestricted Resource Consumption?
This vulnerability occurs when an API fails to enforce limits on:
- CPU usage ๐ฅ๏ธ โ High-load requests slow down the system.
- Memory consumption ๐ง โ Large payloads crash the server.
- Storage usage ๐พ โ Unchecked uploads fill up disk space.
- Network bandwidth ๐ โ Excessive requests cause DDoS-like effects.
- Database queries ๐ โ Unoptimized queries degrade performance.
๐ฏ How Does It Happen?
๐ซ No rate limiting โ Attackers flood the API with thousands of requests.
๐ซ Large file uploads โ Unrestricted file sizes consume all available storage.
๐ซ Expensive operations โ APIs allow computationally heavy queries.
๐ซ Unbounded loops โ Recursive processing eats up CPU and memory.
๐ Real-World Risks:
โ Denial of Service (DoS) โ System becomes unresponsive ๐
โ Increased operational costs โ Overuse of cloud resources ๐ธ
โ Data integrity issues โ API overload leads to failed transactions โ ๏ธ
๐ก๏ธ How to Prevent It?
๐ธ Enforce rate limiting โณ โ Limit requests per user/IP with throttling.
๐ธ Set quotas on resource usage ๐ โ Restrict CPU, memory, and bandwidth.
๐ธ Limit payload sizes ๐ฆ โ Reject oversized requests.
๐ธ Monitor API usage ๐ โ Detect abnormal activity early.
๐ธ Use async processing ๐ โ Prevent long-running requests from blocking resources.
๐ APIs should be scalable, but not limitless!
#APISecurity #OWASP #CyberSecurity #RateLimiting #SecureCoding
- "Availability" - Web Service Security Cheat Sheet
- "DoS Prevention" - GraphQL Cheat Sheet
- "Mitigating Batching Attacks" - GraphQL Cheat Sheet
- CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling
- CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
- CWE-799: Improper Control of Interaction Frequency
- "Rate Limiting (Throttling)" - Security Strategies for Microservices-based Application Systems, NIST