API Security Testing
Implementation Effort: Medium
Integrating API security testing requires coordination between development, DevOps, and security teams to embed testing tools into CI/CD pipelines and source code repositories.
User Impact: Low
This process is handled by development and security teams; no direct action is required from end users.
Overview
Microsoft Defender for APIs, part of Microsoft Defender for Cloud, provides runtime protection for APIs published through Azure API Management. To extend this protection earlier in the development lifecycle, Microsoft Defender for Cloud supports API security testing integrations with partner tools. These integrations enable proactive testing of APIs during development, including in source code repositories and CI/CD pipelines 1.
API security testing helps identify vulnerabilities such as:
- Broken authentication
- Excessive data exposure
- Injection flaws
- Misconfigured access controls
By integrating security testing early, organizations can shift left on security, reducing the risk of deploying vulnerable APIs into production. These tools complement Defender for APIs' runtime detection capabilities, which monitor live traffic for threats like those in the OWASP API Top 10 2.
Without proactive testing, vulnerabilities may go undetected until APIs are exposed in production, increasing the risk of exploitation. This capability supports the Zero Trust principle of "Verify explicitly" by ensuring APIs are validated for security throughout their lifecycle.