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shieldfy/api-security-checklist

★ 23,230Audience · developerComplexity · 1/5MaintainedLicenseSetup · easy

TLDR

A practical checklist of security best practices for building and reviewing web APIs, covering authentication, validation, deployment, and common attack prevention.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((API Security Checklist))
    What it covers
      Authentication
      Input validation
      Error handling
      Deployment
    Security areas
      Rate limiting
      Secrets management
      Debug mode
      HTTPS enforcement
    Use cases
      Design new APIs
      Review existing APIs
      Team training
    Advanced topics
      GraphQL risks
      CI/CD security
      Monitoring

Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Check off security requirements when designing a new API to avoid common vulnerabilities.

USE CASE 2

Review an existing API against the checklist to identify missing security controls.

USE CASE 3

Train developers on API security best practices using the organized, language-specific guides.

Getting it running

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min
Use freely for any purpose, including commercial use, as long as you keep the copyright notice.

In plain English

API Security Checklist is a practical, action-oriented reference document for developers and security teams who are building or reviewing web APIs. An API (Application Programming Interface) is how software systems communicate with each other over the internet, and a poorly secured one can expose user data, allow unauthorized access, or enable attacks. The checklist is organized by the lifecycle of an API request, authentication (proving who you are), access controls, input validation, processing, output, and deployment. For each area it lists specific, concrete things to check or implement: for example, always use HTTPS, don't put secret keys in URLs, validate every piece of incoming data, don't return overly detailed error messages that reveal system internals, and make sure debug mode is turned off in production. It also covers cross-cutting concerns like rate limiting (to prevent brute force and denial-of-service attacks), CI/CD pipeline security, monitoring, and more advanced topics like GraphQL-specific risks and secrets management. There is no code to run, it is a documentation checklist. You would use it when designing a new API from scratch to make sure you haven't missed a security concern, when doing a security review of an existing API, or as a training resource for developers who are new to API security. It is available in over 30 languages.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
I'm building a REST API. Walk me through the API Security Checklist to make sure I haven't missed any authentication, validation, or deployment security steps.
Prompt 2
Use the API Security Checklist to audit my existing API and tell me which security practices I'm missing.
Prompt 3
What are the most critical items in the API Security Checklist for preventing unauthorized access and data leaks?
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Generated 2026-05-18 · Model: sonnet-4-6 · Verify against the repo before relying on details.