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High Severity | OWASP API Top 10

🟠 API Rate Limiting Bypass

CWECWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits
OWASPAPI4:2023 Unrestricted Access to Sensitive Business Flows

🧠 Description

APIs lack rate limiting or have bypassable rate limits, allowing attackers to perform brute force attacks, enumeration, or resource exhaustion.

Impact: Brute Force, Account Takeover, DoS, Resource Exhaustion

⚡ Bypass Techniques

Use multiple IP addresses (proxy rotation)
Change User-Agent header per request
Use different API endpoints for same action
Add null bytes or case variations
Use different OAuth tokens
Slow down requests (timing attacks)

🛡️ Mitigation

✅ Implement rate limiting per user/IP/device

✅ Use progressive delays after failed attempts

✅ Add CAPTCHA after threshold

✅ Monitor for anomalous traffic patterns
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