API front door (API gateway): what it is and how it is attacked
One controlled entrance for the automatic requests other software makes of yours, without a person involved.
Also known as
- API gateway
Typing it into the editor finds this object.
Why it matters on a security diagram
It is where authentication, rate limits and logging for automated traffic are applied, or forgotten.
How it gets attacked, and what reduces it
How it gets attacked
- Individual services reachable behind the gateway's back
- Keys valid far longer and far wider than intended
What reduces it
- Make services unreachable except through it
- Issue short-lived keys scoped to one caller, and record which caller used which
- Inventory endpoints, because one published without being listed is one nothing reviews
Where it sits
- Group
- Security and edge · The things that sit in front of something else and check what is trying to reach it.
- Whose side, by default
- Ours · Belongs to the organisation the diagram is about.
- Catalogue identifier
- api-front-door
Reviewed . CC BY 4.0.
Others in security and edge
- FirewallNGFW · packet filterDecides which connections are allowed between two networks.
- Web app shieldWAF · web application firewallChecks visits to your website and blocks the ones that look like an attack.
- Outbound web filterforward proxy · secure web gateway · SWG · web filter · web proxyChecks and records everything staff and servers send out to the internet.
- Traffic splitterload balancer · LB · ADCSpreads incoming requests across several servers.
- Global content cacheCDN · content delivery network · edge cacheCopies your content to servers worldwide so pages load faster.
- Endpoint protectionEDR · antivirus · AV · XDRSoftware on each computer watching for hostile behaviour.
- Log collectorSIEM · log server · syslogCollects the records of what happened, from every computer and system, into one place.
- Secrets storevault · secrets manager · credential store · password safeThe safe where passwords, keys and certificates are kept.
- Encryption key serviceKMS · key management service · key vault · HSM · customer-managed keyThe service that holds the keys used to scramble stored data, and decides who may use them.
- Cloud activity recordCloudTrail · activity log · control plane log · audit trailThe provider's own record of every change made to the cloud, and of who made it.
The security and edge group lists all 11 of them side by side.
API front door on your own diagram
Open the editor, press N, and type API gateway. The object is placed and connected to whatever was selected, and Tab adds the next one already joined to it. Nothing is uploaded: the page is served with a Content Security Policy that forbids the browser from making any outbound request at all.
Open the diagram maker