As organizations increasingly depend on APIs to drive their applications—especially with AI enabling developers to ship code up to 200x faster—the demand for strong API security solutions has never been more critical. However, not all API security methods are equally effective. One of the most pressing and sometimes overlooked aspects of API security is ensuring that all APIs are accurately documented and protected. Automatic API discovery is emerging as a critical solution for this gap, efficiently identifying and documenting APIs with API portfolios big and small. Also within this realm is the tools associated with API monitoring. However, which should be prioritized, and where does each solution fit?
The debate between API discovery and API monitoring is gaining traction, with proactive security solutions like StackHawk leading the charge in shifting the industry’s approach. In this blog, we will look at the different aspects of each solution, the use cases they cover, and how you should use them to secure your APIs. Let's get started by looking more in-depth at both solutions.
Understanding API Discovery and API Monitoring
API monitoring has long been the standard approach to API security. It involves tracking and analyzing API traffic in production environments, often using tools that monitor for anomalies, unauthorized access, and other potential threats. While monitoring is essential, it tends to be reactive—identifying issues only after they occur. This late-stage detection can leave your organization vulnerable to attacks that could have been prevented with earlier intervention.
On the other hand, automated API discovery helps identify APIs as they are created, even before they reach production. This method allows for earlier detection of security vulnerabilities, enabling organizations to address potential threats before they can be exploited. In the world of API security, this proactive stance is becoming increasingly necessary, especially with the rapid proliferation of APIs in today’s interconnected applications.
Unlike API monitoring, which is generally automated, manual API discovery exercises are possible. Manual API discovery, a hands-on approach where teams manually track and document APIs, is more suitable for smaller environments. However, it presents challenges in larger settings, such as being time-consuming, error-prone, and requiring significant human effort and knowledge that might not always be up-to-date. In most cases, using API discovery tools to automate API discovery will be the most efficient way to ensure all APIs are discovered and documented as part of your attack surface.
Why Proactive and Automatic API Discovery Matters
Continuous and automated API discovery is a critical piece of security for a few reasons:
Immediate Onboarding and Integration
One key advantage of proactive API discovery is the speed and ease of onboarding. Solutions like StackHawk enable organizations to get started in just 15 minutes and integrate seamlessly with their existing development processes, compared to the months-long integrations required by traditional API monitoring tools. Systematically reviewing API endpoints ensures security and compliance from the outset.Comprehensive Coverage Before Production
Proactive API discovery doesn’t just focus on what’s already in production. It identifies APIs before they go live, including internal APIs, B2B APIs, and those that may otherwise fly under the radar. This includes managing API sprawl by connecting discovered APIs directly to the teams responsible for their development, ensuring that security is baked in from the start. By covering 30% of your applications with this approach, you can catch vulnerabilities before they see the light of day.Source Code Driven Accuracy
Unlike traditional API monitoring tools that rely on production traffic, StackHawk’s approach is driven by source code analysis. This bottoms-up method provides far more accuracy, allowing you to identify and fix issues at the code level before they become larger problems in production. This shift-left approach—discovering APIs as they are created, not just after they are deployed—ensures early and precise vulnerability detection.Extensive API Type Compatibility
StackHawk supports a wide range of API types, including REST, GraphQL, and gRPC. It also excels at identifying shadow APIs—those that exist in your environment but are unknown to your security teams—and zombie APIs, which are inactive and have no recent development activity. By addressing these hidden vulnerabilities, you can secure your API ecosystem more comprehensively.
The Competitive Edge: Why StackHawk is Different
While traditional API monitoring tools like Noname, Salt, and Traceable focus on monitoring production traffic, StackHawk takes a proactive approach with shift-left API discovery. This methodology identifies and secures APIs from the moment they are created, minimizing risks before deployment. This proactive stance is especially crucial in the age of AI, where the speed of development makes it impossible to rely solely on reactive security measures.
Managing the entire API lifecycle from creation to retirement enables organizations to develop, monitor, test, and secure APIs efficiently, addressing the complexities involved in managing numerous internal and external APIs in today's IT infrastructures.
Infrastructure Flexibility: StackHawk’s solution requires no infrastructure changes, offering a one-click deployment that immediately begins discovering APIs. Additionally, StackHawk covers both internal and B2B APIs—an area where many competitors fall short.
Attack Surface Discovery (ASD) vs. API Discovery: StackHawk’s approach goes beyond simple API discovery by offering a complete attack surface discovery and testing solution. This ensures that your entire digital footprint is secured, not just the APIs you know about.
Why CISOs Should Care
In an era where it only takes one breach to cause significant damage, proactive API discovery is no longer a luxury—it’s a necessity. CISOs need full visibility into their organization’s attack surface, and StackHawk’s proactive API security solution provides just that. Accurate API documentation supports security and compliance efforts by providing detailed information about APIs, including their purposes and security measures. By identifying and securing APIs before they reach production, you can prevent vulnerabilities from ever becoming a threat.
The Role of API Management in API Security
Although API discovery and monitoring are key parts of the API security puzzle, they still sit under the larger umbrella of API management. It serves as the backbone for identifying, cataloging, and securing all existing APIs within an organization, including shadow APIs, zombie APIs, and rogue APIs. By leveraging advanced API discovery tools, organizations can gain comprehensive visibility into their API usage and traffic, which is crucial for detecting vulnerabilities and mitigating security risks proactively.
API management is not just about keeping track of APIs; it involves using automated tools to streamline API discovery processes, thereby reducing the risk of human error and enhancing the accuracy of API documentation. This ensures that APIs are not only secure but also well-documented and compliant with regulatory requirements. Unfortunately, most API management solutions do not extensively implement API discovery like StackHawk does, with the capability to scan source code and look for these potentially hidden endpoints.
A key component of API management is implementing API gateways and management tools. These tools monitor and control API traffic, enforce security policies, and apply rate limiting to prevent overloading. This multifaceted approach helps prevent unauthorized access and significantly reduces the risk of security breaches. This is a cornerstone of API security, but if APIs are not documented, they can easily fall outside of the protection of an API management solution.
By leveraging API management and StackHawk's API discovery tools, organizations can ensure continuous API discovery processes that identify and prioritize security risks. By doing so, organizations can take proactive measures to secure their APIs before they become targets for malicious actors. This proactive stance is essential for maintaining a robust security posture in an increasingly interconnected digital landscape.
Effective API management encompasses several critical activities:
API Discovery: Identifying and cataloging all existing APIs, including shadow APIs, zombie APIs, and rogue APIs.
API Documentation: Creating and maintaining accurate and up-to-date documentation for all APIs.
API Security: Implementing security measures to protect APIs from unauthorized access and security breaches.
API Traffic Management: Monitoring and controlling API traffic to prevent overloading and unauthorized access.
API Compliance: Ensuring that APIs comply with regulatory requirements and industry standards.
By implementing these activities, organizations can ensure that their APIs are secure, well-documented, and compliant with regulatory requirements. This reduces the risk of security breaches and improves the overall security and compliance of their APIs.
Adopting effective API management practices includes ensuring that comprehensive API discovery is part of your playbook. By ensuring that every API is documented and covered under an API management solution, organizations can enhance the security and compliance of their APIs, reduce the risk of security breaches, and ensure that their APIs comply with regulatory requirements.
The Future of API Security
The need for proactive, shift-left security solutions will only grow as the API landscape expands. API discovery offers a forward-looking approach to API security that goes beyond the limitations of traditional API monitoring. With StackHawk, you’re not just monitoring APIs—you’re discovering and protecting them from the moment they are created, ensuring that your security posture is as advanced as the threats you face.
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