Secure Proxy for Selective API Request Encryption
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Solution Overview
Problem
Monitoring and securing API request information is burdensome, especially as the number of requests increases, due to difficulties in determining user interactions and maintaining security while managing API usage statistics.
Innovation Solution
A secure proxy system that encrypts specific attributes of API requests and communicates them to a monitoring service, allowing for secure data storage and retrieval of usage summaries, while ensuring attribute encryption and decryption based on user permissions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If API request information is monitored and stored for usage statistics, then productivity and monitoring capability are improved, but device complexity and security management burden increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments API request information into encrypted and unencrypted attributes. The encryption module selectively encrypts sensitive attributes (e.g., user identifiers, authentication tokens) while leaving non-sensitive attributes (e.g., request timestamps, endpoint URLs) unencrypted. This segmentation allows the monitoring service to store and analyze usage statistics effectively while reducing security management complexity by applying encryption only where necessary.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies different quality treatments to different parts of the API request data. Sensitive attributes receive encryption protection while non-sensitive attributes remain in plaintext for easy analysis. This local quality approach enables the system to maintain high security for critical information while preserving monitoring efficiency and reducing overall system complexity.
2Reliability
If encryption is applied to API request attributes, then security is improved, but processing time and operational complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies encryption selectively to only the sensitive attributes of API requests rather than encrypting the entire request payload. This partial action approach maintains data security for critical information while minimizing processing overhead and operational complexity by leaving non-sensitive attributes unencrypted and easily accessible for monitoring and analysis.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the state of attributes based on their sensitivity parameters. Sensitive attributes undergo encryption transformation while non-sensitive attributes remain in their original state. This parameter-based approach allows the system to balance security requirements with processing efficiency, applying computational overhead only where security demands it.
3Reliability
If all API request attributes are encrypted, then security is improved, but monitoring and analysis capability deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments API request attributes into encrypted and unencrypted categories based on sensitivity. This segmentation enables the monitoring service to access and analyze non-sensitive attributes (such as request patterns, endpoints, and timestamps) in plaintext while sensitive attributes remain encrypted for security. This resolves the contradiction by maintaining both security protection and monitoring information accessibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies different quality treatments to different attributes locally. Non-sensitive attributes maintain their original readable format for easy monitoring and analysis, while sensitive attributes receive encryption protection. This local quality approach ensures that security enhancement does not come at the cost of monitoring capability, as the system can still effectively analyze usage patterns from unencrypted attributes.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems, methods, and software described herein manage and process application programming interface (API) statistics associated with an API provider. In one implementation, a secure proxy is used to obtain API request information and encrypt at least a portion of the API request information. Once encrypted the API request information is communicated to a monitoring service. The secure proxy is further configured to receive a summary request associated with usage of the API provider and encrypt at least one attribute in the request. The secure proxy also retrieves summary information from the API monitoring service using the request with the at least one encrypted attribute and generates a summary using the summary information.