APIs are the nervous system of modern software. They power mobile apps, connect microservices, and expose business logic to the world. But every exposed endpoint is an attack surface. In 2026, API-targeted attacks account for over 60% of all web application breaches. Mubbits engineers every API with defense-in-depth security—here are the practices we implement on every project.
Authentication & Authorization
We implement short-lived JWT access tokens (15-minute expiry) paired with HTTP-only, Secure, SameSite refresh tokens stored in cookies—never localStorage. For machine-to-machine communication, we use OAuth 2.0 client credentials flow with automatic key rotation. Authorization is enforced at the middleware layer using attribute-based access control (ABAC), where every request is evaluated against the user's role, the resource owner, and the action being performed.
Rate Limiting & Throttling
We implement multi-tier rate limiting using Redis-backed sliding window counters. Public endpoints get aggressive limits (100 req/min), authenticated endpoints get higher ceilings (1000 req/min), and critical mutation endpoints (payment, account deletion) get per-user burst limits with exponential backoff. All rate limit headers (X-RateLimit-Remaining, Retry-After) are included in responses to help well-behaved clients self-regulate.
Input Validation & Sanitization
Every API input is validated against a strict Zod/Joi schema before touching business logic. We reject unknown fields, enforce type constraints, and sanitize string inputs against XSS payloads. For GraphQL APIs, we implement query depth limiting (max depth: 7), query complexity analysis, and field-level authorization to prevent information disclosure through introspection abuse.
Zero-Trust Architecture
We design APIs on the principle that no request is trusted by default—even from internal services. Every service-to-service call uses mTLS (mutual TLS) with certificate pinning. Network policies enforce microsegmentation, ensuring that even if one service is compromised, lateral movement is impossible. All sensitive data is encrypted at rest (AES-256) and in transit (TLS 1.3), with encryption keys managed through AWS KMS or HashiCorp Vault.
Monitoring & Incident Response
Security isn't a feature you ship once—it's an ongoing practice. We instrument every API with structured logging (request ID, user ID, IP, action, response code) and feed logs into SIEM systems for real-time anomaly detection. Automated alerts fire on suspicious patterns: unusual geographic access, credential stuffing attempts, and privilege escalation signatures. Combined with quarterly penetration testing, this creates a continuously hardened attack surface.
