API Security System Identifying Sensitive Fields
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional API systems lack effective mechanisms to protect sensitive information fields in API requests, making them vulnerable to interception and modification by bad actors, which can lead to unauthorized access to user data.
Innovation Solution
An API security system that analyzes a subset of API transactions to identify sensitive fields by determining the uniqueness of field values across multiple users, and then implements security measures such as changing field formats or requiring additional authorization to protect these fields.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If object level authorization is implemented in conventional API systems, then users can retrieve their own objects using authorized information in API requests, but sensitive information fields become vulnerable to interception and modification by bad actors
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary analysis of API transactions to identify sensitive fields before actual security threats occur. By proactively analyzing field uniqueness across multiple users and pre-identifying sensitive information, the system can apply security measures before interception vulnerabilities are exploited, thus maintaining ease of operation while preventing harmful factors
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary security system that sits between the conventional API authorization mechanism and the actual data transmission. This intermediary analyzes API transactions, identifies sensitive fields based on uniqueness criteria, and applies protective measures such as encryption or format changes, thereby preserving the original authorization functionality while blocking the vulnerability to interception
2Reliability
If sensitive fields are identified and protected using uniqueness analysis across multiple users, then security against interception is improved, but system complexity increases due to transaction collection and analysis requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The security system performs multiple functions using a unified approach: it collects API transactions, analyzes field uniqueness, identifies sensitive fields, and applies protection measures all through a single multi-functional platform. This universal system handles different user data types and protection scenarios using the same core methodology, which manages complexity while achieving reliable security protection
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses parameter-based identification of sensitive fields by analyzing the uniqueness parameter across multiple user transactions. By changing the protection parameters dynamically based on field uniqueness analysis, the system achieves high reliability without requiring complex rule sets, as the protection level is automatically adjusted based on the sensitivity parameters discovered through transaction analysis
Data Source
AI summary
An API security system that implements techniques for learning sensitive information fields from a group of API requests. The API security system implementing security measures for protecting the identified sensitive information fields.