Partner APIs security

Partner APIs extend your platform to third parties and invert traditional perimeter assumptions. Access is granted through contracts, tokens, and delegated identities, which introduces supply chain style risks around authentication, authorization, and data exposure. Because the API surface is distributed, you need an independent black-box view that does not rely on internal code or configurations.

With a scanner that requires no agents or SDKs, you validate the observable behavior of each partner integration using read-only methods. The approach covers authentication bypass checks, authorization verification, and sensitive data exposure without needing access to source repositories or deployment pipelines. This supports audit evidence for frameworks such as SOC 2 Type II and maps findings to OWASP API Top 10 (2023) and PCI-DSS 4.0 where relevant controls intersect with API interactions.

Partner APIs often rely on bearer tokens, API keys, Basic auth, and cookies. Misconfigured JWT handling, such as alg=none or weak key derivation, can allow token substitution or impersonation. The scanner checks for multi-method bypass techniques, missing claims validation, and exposure of sensitive data within token payloads.

Authorization logic flaws include BOLA and BFLA patterns where ID or privilege parameters are weakly enforced. The scanner performs sequential ID enumeration and active adjacent-ID probing to detect insecure direct object references, and it probes for admin endpoints or role/permission field leakage that could enable privilege escalation. Findings align with OWASP API Top 10 categories and help you prepare for SOC 2 Type II controls over access management.

Partner integrations commonly accept diverse input sources, increasing exposure to injection and privacy issues. The scanner performs strict input validation checks, including CORS wildcard detection with and without credentials, dangerous HTTP methods, and debug endpoint exposure.

Data exposure findings target PII patterns, such as email addresses and context-aware SSNs, as well as API key formats for AWS, Stripe, GitHub, and Slack. Error and stack-trace leakage is also detected. The tool surfaces these issues and provides remediation guidance without performing intrusive payloads, keeping its scope limited to what can be observed through read-only methods.

Rate limiting and resource consumption issues can degrade availability for partner services. The scanner detects rate-limit header configurations, oversized responses, and unpaginated arrays that could lead to denial of resource exhaustion. Encryption checks verify HTTPS redirects, HSTS presence, and cookie flags to ensure transit safety.

For ongoing protection, the platform supports scheduled rescans at intervals from six hours to monthly, with diff detection across scans to highlight new findings and resolved issues. Email alerts are rate-limited to one per hour per API, and HMAC-SHA256 signed webhooks can notify systems of critical changes, auto-disabling after five consecutive failures to preserve stability.

Modern partner APIs increasingly expose endpoints for LLM interactions, introducing prompt injection and jailbreak risks. The scanner conducts 18 adversarial probes across three tiers—Quick, Standard, and Deep—to test for system prompt extraction, instruction override, DAN and roleplay jailbreaks, data exfiltration, cost exploitation, and token smuggling. These tests are designed to surface LLM-related findings while remaining non-intrusive.

OpenAPI analysis parses versions 3.0, 3.1, and Swagger 2.0 with recursive $ref resolution, cross-referencing spec definitions against runtime behavior. This identifies undefined security schemes, sensitive fields, deprecated operations, and missing pagination. The results help you prepare for security reviews and align with documented API contracts without claiming certification or compliance guarantees.