0002-api-security-best-practices

What problem does it solve?

It helps teams reduce real-world API security risks by providing practical guidance for authentication, authorization, validation, throttling, and safer handling of sensitive data.

Core Features & Use Cases

• Authentication & Authorization Patterns: Implement JWT/OAuth/API key approaches and enforce RBAC to prevent unauthorized access.
• Input Validation & Sanitization: Validate and sanitize requests to mitigate SQL injection, XSS, and command injection risks.
• Rate Limiting & DDoS Mitigation: Apply per-user/IP throttles and graceful 429 responses to limit abuse and expensive operations.
• Data Protection & Error Handling: Use HTTPS/TLS, sanitize error messages, and avoid leaking sensitive details.
• Security Testing Guidance: Perform checks aligned with OWASP API Security Top 10 to verify defenses.

Use case example: Before shipping a new REST API endpoint, apply these patterns to ensure only properly authenticated and authorized clients can access resources, reject malicious input, and limit abusive traffic.

Quick Start

Ask an AI to provide an actionable security checklist and example implementation plan for protecting a new REST endpoint with strong authentication, validation, rate limiting, and safe error handling.