Practical, battle-tested techniques to recognize and prevent attacks on your APIs.
Hackers know how important your APIs are, and they also know how to find the weak spots in your API security. As a result, APIs have become principal vectors of attack against apps and sites. Secure APIs: Design, build, and implement shows you reliable methods you can use to counter cracks, hacks, and attacks on your internal and external APIs.
In this innovative new book, you’ll learn:
Addressing the OWASP Top 10 API security vulnerabilities
API security by design
Zero-trust security
Automated API testing strategies
Observability and monitoring for threat detection
Written for developers and architects, Secure APIs: Design, build, and implement shows you how to create and deploy APIs that are resistant to the most common security threats. Author José Peralta illustrates each vulnerability with extended code samples and shows you exactly how to mitigate them in your own APIs. You’ll find insights into emerging AI-powered security threats, along with tips and patterns for using LLMs in your own security testing.
about the technology
APIs are the primary way to share data and services privately inside applications and publicly with customers and partners. Unfortunately, they’re also a prime target for cyberattacks. Here’s the good news! There are proven strategies for finding vulnerabilities, locking out intruders, and building APIs that are secure by design.
what's inside
API security by design
Zero-trust security
Automated API testing strategies
Observability and monitoring for threat detection
about the reader
For software developers and architects, cybersecurity professionals, and QA engineers. Examples are in Python.
AI Reading Assistant
Whole-book reading guide from stratified index samples; jump to passages in the text
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AI guide
【One-Line Pitch】
A practical, code-driven guide for developers, architects, and QA engineers who want to build APIs that resist real-world attacks, covering everything from OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities to zero-trust design and AI-powered threats.
【Book Arc】
- **Opening (~0%–10%)**: Establishes why APIs are the primary attack vector in modern applications and frames the book's core promise: security must be designed in from the start, not bolted on later.
- **Early (~10%–30%)**: Walks through the OWASP Top 10 API security vulnerabilities, illustrating each with concrete Python code samples that show both the weakness and the fix.
- **Middle (~30%–60%)**: Moves from reactive patching to proactive design, introducing zero-trust security principles and how to apply them to API architecture, authentication, and authorization.
- **Late (~60%–85%)**: Focuses on verification and defense-in-depth, covering automated API testing strategies that catch vulnerabilities before deployment and observability/monitoring techniques for detecting threats in production.
- **Ending (~85%–100%)**: Looks ahead to emerging AI-powered security threats and demonstrates how to use LLMs in your own security testing workflows, closing with a holistic view of secure API lifecycle management.
【Key Takeaways】
- **APIs are the new frontline of cyberattacks** (Early): Because APIs expose data and services both internally and to partners, they've become the principal vector for breaches—so security must be treated as a core design requirement, not an afterthought.
- **OWASP Top 10 is your starting checklist** (Early): The book systematically addresses each of the top API vulnerabilities with extended code examples, giving you a practical, prioritized list of what to fix first in your own APIs.
- **Security by design beats security by patch** (Middle): Instead of reacting to incidents, you'll learn to bake security into the architecture from the first line of code, which reduces both risk and remediation costs.
- **Zero-trust is a mindset, not a tool** (Middle): The book explains how to apply zero-trust principles—never trust, always verify—to API design, ensuring that every request is authenticated and authorized regardless of where it originates.
- **Automated testing is your safety net** (Late): You'll get concrete strategies for building automated API security tests that run continuously, catching regressions and new vulnerabilities before they reach production.
- **Observability is how you spot attacks in real time** (Late): Monitoring and logging aren't just for debugging—they're essential for threat detection, and the book shows you what to track and how to interpret the signals.
- **AI cuts both ways** (Ending): While AI-powered attacks are emerging, you can also harness LLMs to automate and enhance your security testing, turning a new threat into a defensive advantage.
【Reading Tips】
- **Skim the opening chapters** if you're already familiar with API security basics; the real value starts with the OWASP Top 10 walkthroughs, which are code-heavy and actionable.
- **Deep-read the zero-trust and testing sections**—these are where the book differentiates itself from generic security guides, and the Python examples are meant to be adapted to your own projects.
- **Keep the code samples handy**: Don't just read them—run them. The vulnerabilities are demonstrated in a way that's meant to be reproduced so you can see the attack and the fix side by side.
- **If you're a QA engineer**, focus on the automated testing and observability chapters; if you're an architect, prioritize the design-by-security and zero-trust material. The book supports both reading paths.
- **Take notes on the AI/LLM testing patterns**—this is forward-looking content that most competing books don't cover, and it will become increasingly relevant as AI threats grow.
【Coverage Limits】
The excerpts provided cover the book's overall structure, target audience, and key themes, but do not include detailed chapter-by-chapter content, specific code examples, or the full OWASP Top 10 walkthroughs. For those, you'll need to read the actual book.
Excerpt 1
书名: Secure APIs Design, build, and implement (José Haro Peralta)(Z-Library) 作者: José Haro Peralta Practical, battle-tested techniques to recognize and preven...
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