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OWASP Risks Atlasby Jer Catallo

Issue Details

Lack of Resources and Rate Limiting

api04-2019 • Rank #4 in OWASP 2023

Explanation

When APIs lack hard limits on requests, payload size, concurrency, and backend cost, attackers can trigger denial-of-service and resource exhaustion. Abuse may target CPU-heavy search routes, file uploads, expensive third-party calls, or high-cardinality filters. Even non-malicious traffic spikes can degrade availability when quota policies are missing.

Remedy

Implement layered controls: per-user and per-IP rate limits, request quotas, payload caps, pagination limits, timeout boundaries, and circuit breakers for downstream dependencies. Isolate expensive operations with queues and budgets. Monitor saturation metrics and block clients that repeatedly exceed safe usage thresholds.

YearRankCategory
2019#4api04-2019 - Lack of Resources and Rate Limiting