API Security

API Sprawl: Understanding the Problem & 5 Ways to Solve It

Ofer Hakimi
Ofer Hakimi
October 28, 2024
7
min to read

What Is API Sprawl? 

API sprawl occurs when the number of APIs within an organization becomes unmanageable. This often results from the rapid creation and deployment of APIs without proper oversight or planning. 

As organizations increasingly rely on APIs for application interfacing, integration, and communication, the uncoordinated expansion of APIs can lead to complexities. This can make it difficult to keep track of all the APIs, leading to inefficiencies.

An unmanageable number of APIs can cause system integration challenges and increased operational costs. This uncontrolled growth can make maintaining and securing APIs difficult, potentially impacting system performance and reliability. 

This is part of a series of articles about API security

The Impacts of API Sprawl 

Having too many APIs can affect organizations in several ways.

Poor Developer Experience

API sprawl can degrade the developer experience by creating a complicated landscape for them to navigate. Developers face challenges in understanding which APIs are available and relevant, leading to wasted time and effort as they sift through documentation and versions. 

This environment can foster frustration and reduce productivity, as developers might struggle to find the right API to meet their needs. The proliferation of APIs can also lead to inconsistent design and standards, increasing learning curves and hampering developers' ability to create cohesive applications. 

Security Vulnerabilities

When organizations experience API sprawl, security vulnerabilities often increase, as it becomes harder to maintain consistent security practices across numerous interfaces. APIs that are inadequately secured or not regularly updated can expose sensitive data and provide points of entry for unauthorized access. As the number of APIs grows, it becomes increasingly challenging to monitor all endpoints.

Lapses in API management might lead to absent or outdated security patches, creating exploitable vulnerabilities. This makes it vital for organizations to maintain a security strategy, ensuring APIs are monitored, managed, and updated to prevent potential breaches. 

Complex Lifecycle Management

API sprawl complicates lifecycle management by making it difficult to track and update all existing APIs. Without proper oversight, determining which APIs require updates or deprecation can become a challenge. 

This lack of management often results in outdated or obsolete APIs remaining in the system, contributing to inefficiencies and security risks. The absence of structured lifecycle management also leads to inconsistent information about API versions, making integration more challenging for developers and partners.

What Causes API Sprawl? 

Here are some of the main reasons that organizations accumulate a large number of APIs.

Rapid Development and Deployment Cycles

Rapid software deployment cycles can inadvertently contribute to API sprawl. Agile development emphasizes quick iterations, often leading to APIs being created with little regard for existing infrastructure, causing overlap and redundancies. This uncontrolled growth complicates system architecture and increases maintenance requirements.

The need to meet business demands quickly can result in shortcuts that prioritize immediate functionality over planning. As a result, organizations may find themselves with a multitude of APIs, each developed in response to particular needs but lacking alignment with an overarching strategy.

Legacy Systems and Technical Debt

Legacy systems pose challenges to managing APIs due to their outdated architecture and protocols. Integrating new functionalities often involves creating APIs tailored to work with these old systems. This process can lead to numerous APIs designed for short-term solutions, contributing to sprawl as organizations upgrade infrastructure incrementally.

Technical debt further exacerbates this issue, where previous shortcuts or quick fixes create a backlog of future work. Over time, APIs built to bridge gaps between new and old systems accumulate, increasing the complexity of the environment. 

Integration with Third-Party Services

Integration with third-party services requires creating new APIs to interface with external systems. While essential for expanding capabilities, these integrations add to the existing ecosystem’s complexity. As organizations continuously seek to enhance functionality through third parties, the number of APIs grows, requiring more strategic management.

Each third-party integration can introduce different standards, protocols, and security considerations, complicating the API landscape. Organizations must carefully evaluate the necessity of each integration, ensuring it aligns with their goals and is properly utilized.

Shadow IT

Shadow IT contributes to API sprawl as various departments within an organization deploy their own APIs without IT department oversight. This decentralization can lead to the creation of unsanctioned APIs that may duplicate existing functionalities or lack proper security and management practices. Over time, shadow IT complicates the API landscape.

This unauthorized growth can result in many APIs that are poorly documented or entirely unknown to the central IT team, increasing risks and management challenges.

Related content: Read our guide to shadow API

author
Tzvika Shneider
CEO, Pynt

Tzvika Shneider is a 20-year software security industry leader with a robust background in product and software management.

Tips from the expert

  • Use automated discovery tools: Implement automated tools to continuously discover and catalog APIs across the organization. These tools can scan your network to find active APIs, helping to identify undocumented or shadow APIs and provide an up-to-date inventory.
  • Leverage API design-first principles: Adopting an API design-first approach ensures that APIs are designed with a clear purpose and standardization from the outset. This helps in avoiding redundant APIs and ensures consistency in design, making APIs easier to manage and integrate.
  • Create a centralized API catalog: Develop and maintain a centralized catalog or portal that documents all APIs within the organization. This catalog should include API descriptions, version information, usage policies, and links to documentation, which helps developers easily find and use existing APIs.
  • Implement a strict API deprecation policy: Establish clear policies and procedures for deprecating old or obsolete APIs. Communicate these timelines and changes well in advance to stakeholders and provide migration paths to newer APIs, reducing legacy overhead and technical debt.
  • Establish API usage quotas and rate limiting: Set usage quotas and rate limiting policies to prevent misuse and abuse of APIs. These measures help maintain service quality, protect backend systems from overload, and can provide insights into how APIs are utilized, identifying candidates for optimization or retirement.

Mitigating API Sprawl: Strategies and Best Practices 

Here are some of the ways that organizations can prevent and address API sprawl.

1. Implement an API Governance Strategy

An API governance strategy provides the framework to control API sprawl, outlining rules and procedures for their development and management. This strategy involves design standards, security policies, and maintenance protocols to ensure consistency across the board. 

By establishing governance, organizations can prevent uncontrolled API creation and enforce alignment with business objectives. Centralized oversight of API development ensures that any new API adheres to established standards, reducing duplication and fostering a cohesive API ecosystem. 

2. Implement API Gateways

API gateways act as central hubs for managing API traffic, providing a practical solution to control API sprawl. They offer a unified interface for routing API requests, enforcing security policies, and logging transactions, ensuring consistent management across all APIs. This centralization simplifies maintenance and offers insights into usage patterns, reducing sprawl.

By managing APIs through gateways, organizations can optimize resource usage, monitor performance, and scale as needed. API gateways also enable better security practices by inspecting incoming and outgoing requests for compliance with security policies. 

3. Ensure Proper Versioning and Documentation

Accurate versioning and documentation aid in managing APIs and mitigating sprawl. Versioning ensures that APIs coexist without conflicts, allowing for updates without disrupting existing services. It also helps trace changes over time, maintaining stable environments amidst ongoing developments and reducing redundant API creation.

Comprehensive documentation supports developer understanding and reduces the need for additional, duplicative APIs by clearly explaining existing functionalities. Clear documentation simplifies onboarding, minimizes errors, and promotes effective utilization of APIs. 

4. Provide Metrics and Visibility

Tracking metrics related to API usage is useful for identifying and addressing sprawl. Metrics provide data on performance, usage frequency, and error rates, enabling informed decisions about which APIs to maintain, update, or retire. 

Visibility ensures that all stakeholders are aware of the API landscape, fostering informed collaboration. Regularly monitoring APIs through established metrics enables proactive management, allowing organizations to optimize resources and improve performance. 

5. Establish Feedback Mechanisms

Feedback mechanisms aid in managing API sprawl, offering insights into user experiences and development needs. Establishing channels for developers and end-users to share experiences allows organizations to identify pain points and areas for improvement in the API landscape. This feedback supports iterative enhancement and responsive management.

An effective feedback loop helps ensure that APIs evolve according to real-world usage, reducing the likelihood of unnecessary APIs being developed. It encourages a user-centric approach to API development, enabling continuous improvement and alignment with business goals. 

Reducing Security Risks of API Sprawl with Pynt

Pynt is an innovative API Security Testing platform exposing verified API threats through simulated attacks. We help hundreds of companies such as Telefonica, Sage, Halodoc, and more, to continuously monitor, classify and attack poorly secured APIs, before hackers do. 

Pynt's leverages an integrated shift-left approach, and unique hack technology using home-grown attack scenarios, to detect real threats, discover APIs, suggest fixes to verified vulnerabilities, thereby eliminating the API attack surface risk.

Thousands of companies rely on Pynt to secure the no. 1 attack surface - APIs, as part of their AppSec strategy, by implementing Pynt into the CI/CD and using Pynt’s API discovery capabilities, Pynt’s customers eliminate the growing risk of API Sprawl.

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