Speed is everything in the modern business world. Our attention spans are shorter than ever, consumers demand short and seamless interactions, and the slightest delay in service delivery can see organizations fall far behind their competitors. This is why real-time APIs are so important; they enable systems to communicate and exchange data with minimal delay, allowing for near-instantaneous updates and interactions to create a more dynamic and responsive user experience. 

However, as with so many critical technologies, real-time APIs come at a price. While powerful, their unique characteristics make them more vulnerable than traditional APIs. But they don’t have to be. A considered, intelligent API security strategy ensures you reap the rewards of real-time APIs – without taking on the extra risk. Let’s look at how. 

What are Real-Time APIs?

Traditional request-response APIs rely on repeated polling, whereby a client continuously requests from a server, which can lead to inefficiencies like high network traffic and latency. Real-time APIs, however, employ efficient communication protocols like WebSockets, gRPC, and MQTT to maintain persistent connections. This eliminates unnecessary network overhead, reduces latency, and enhances user experience by ensuring data is always up to date.

Their ability to facilitate data in real-time makes them ideally suited for applications that require immediate updates, such as live chat platforms, financial trading systems, collaborative tools, and Internet of Things (IoT) networks. 

Why are Real-Time APIs Vulnerable?

Unfortunately, the characteristics that make real-time APIs powerful, make them more vulnerable than traditional APIs. They present unique security challenges when compared to traditional APIs due to:

• Persistent connections: Real-time APIs maintain persistent connections, creating a much larger window of opportunity for attackers than traditional APIs with short-lived requests and responses. Think of them like a door that’s always slightly ajar rather than one that’s opened and closed quickly. 
• High data flow: Because real-time APIs deal with a constant stream of data, it’s harder to monitor and analyze every piece of information for malicious content or anomalies. 
• Complexity: Real-time APIs are typically more complex than their traditional counterparts. This complexity introduces more potential vulnerabilities, especially if developers fail to adhere to security by design principles.
• Scalability Challenges: As the applications they power grow, real-time APIs are forced to handle increasing concurrent users and requests. Securing these APIs as they grow can be a serious challenge, like policing an overpopulated city. 

Ultimately, real-time APIs are vulnerable because they are more complex, handle larger amounts of data, and maintain connections for longer than traditional APIs. But what vulnerabilities do these characteristics lead to? Keep reading to find out. 

Security Challenges in Real-Time APIs

Many of the security challenges inherent in real-time APIs are the same as those in traditional ones. However, due to the characteristics outlined above, these vulnerabilities are more likely to appear in real-time APIs. Let’s explore them. 

Broken Access Control

One of the most common API security vulnerabilities, broken access control is when an API fails to enforce strict permission checks, potentially allowing unauthorized users to access sensitive data or system functionalities. This means that attackers can manipulate API endpoints to retrieve information they should not have access to or perform actions they should not be able to. 

Broken Authentication

Broken authentication mechanisms cannot ensure that only legitimate users and applications can access them. Weak or misconfigured authentication methods can allow attackers to impersonate users, steal credentials, or bypass authentication altogether, while vulnerabilities like weak passwords or improper session management further compound the issue. 

Data Exposure

Many APIs, including real-time APIs, expose more data than is necessary, resulting in unintentional data leaks. Data exposure vulnerabilities typically arise from developers returning full data objects rather than filtering responses to include only necessary fields. 

Injection Attacks

When APIs fail to validate and sanitize user inputs, attackers can conduct injection attacks. They insert malicious code into API requests to manipulate backend databases, extract confidential data, or execute unauthorized commands. 

Rate Limiting and Resource Exhaustion

Some real-time APIs lack proper rate-limiting, which allows attackers to overwhelm them with excessive requests, leading to service disruption, denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, or resource exhaustion. For example, a stock market API without rate limiting could be flooded with automated bots, consuming resources and delaying responses for legitimate traders. 

Lack of Encryption

Failing to encrypt data transmitted via real-time APIs can result in man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks where threat actors intercept, steal, or modify information. For example, a healthcare API that shares patient records over unencrypted channels risks exposing confidential medical information. 

Insufficient Monitoring and Logging

Without proper monitoring, security teams can miss suspicious behavior.  Attackers often attempt multiple exploits before finding a vulnerability, meaning undetected attempts often lead to successful breaches. An e-commerce API, for example, that fails to log failed login attempts may miss credential-stuffing attacks, where attackers test large volumes of username-password combinations.

How to Mitigate These Challenges 

Right, so now that we understand why real-time APIs are especially vulnerable and what those vulnerabilities are, we can get to the important bit: how to mitigate those vulnerabilities. Implementing strong authentication, data protection, and proactive threat monitoring – such as with a tool like Wallarm – can dramatically reduce the risks associated with APIs. 

• Real-Time Blocking Is King: By instantly detecting and mitigating threats such as API abuse, credential stuffing, and injection attacks, organizations can prevent data breaches, service disruptions, and unauthorized access. Real-time blocking also enhances user experience by ensuring seamless service availability while reducing the operational burden on security teams.
• Strong Authentication and Authorization: Strong authentication and authorization should be built into the API itself, or provided by an API gateway. Wallarm goes further to secure API access by detecting vulnerabilities and attacks that target authentication and authorization.
• Input Validation and Sanitization: The API should sanitize any input it receives, but we know that's not always the case. Wallarm uses traffic analysis to detect and block attacks that leverage weak input validation, such as SQL injection and Cross-Site issues.
• Rate Limiting and Throttling: Wallarm uses customizable rules to limit API requests per second/minute, preventing abuse and overload, ensuring availability, and protecting against DoS attacks.
• Regular Security Audits: Wallarm continuously analyzes API traffic for anomalies and vulnerabilities, using machine learning and behavioral analysis to identify and report potential security risks.

And so there you have it. Your guide to real-time APIs and how to secure them. Want to know more about the world’s only unified, best-in-class API Security platform and how it can protect your entire API and web application portfolio? Book a demo with Wallarm today.