10 Essential Tips for Writing Secure REST API

REST APIs are used to access and manipulate data using a common set of stateless operations. Let’s make them robust

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Application programming interfaces (APIs) are everywhere. Most modern web applications expose APIs that clients can use to interact with the application.

They enable software to communicate with other pieces of software — internal or external — consistently, which is a key ingredient in scalability, not to mention reusability.

Like any technology, REST APIs bring their own unique security challenges. The question that remains is how to reduce those vulnerabilities.

Today we will discuss the following topics:

1. What is REST API?
2. Importance of REST API and application security
3. Describe the top 10 best practices to secure REST APIs

If you want to secure the Spring boot Rest API using Spring Security, JWT, and JPA, there are many ways to do that.

What is a RESTful API?

• An application programming interface (API) is a set of clearly defined methods of communication between various software components.
• REST APIs are used to access and manipulate data using a common set of stateless operations.
• These operations are integral to the HTTP protocol and represent essential create, read, update, and delete (CRUD) functionality, although not in a clean one-to-one manner
• It’s more of an approach to design and communication than a single tool or programming library.
• RESTful programming is stateless and provides a uniform interface, commonly using HTTP-based URLs with query parameters that mask the backend infrastructure from the user.
• Responses typically come back as simple JSON-based key/value pairs, but APIs can support any type of content, including XML, test documents, or even images. Frontend software can then serve that data up in a format appropriate for the user.
• A good API makes it easier to develop a computer program by providing all the building blocks.