What Developers Need to Know About Business Logic Attacks

In this episode of The New Stack Makers, Peter Klimek, director of technology in the Office of the CTO at Imperva, discusses the vulnerability of business logic in a distributed, cloud-native environment. Business logic refers to the rules and processes that govern how applications function and how users interact with them and other systems. Klimek highlights the increasing attacks on APIs that exploit business logic vulnerabilities, with 17% of attacks on APIs in 2022 coming from malicious bots abusing business logic.

The attacks on business logic take various forms, including credential stuffing attacks, carding (testing stolen credit cards), and newer forms like influence fraud, where algorithms are manipulated to deceive platforms and users. Klimek emphasizes that protecting business logic requires a cross-functional approach involving developers, operations engineers, security, and fraud teams.

To enhance business logic security, Klimek recommends conducting a threat modeling exercise within the organization, which helps identify potential risk vectors. Additionally, he suggests referring to the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) website's list of automated threats as a checklist during the exercise.

Ultimately, safeguarding business logic is crucial in securing cloud-native environments, and collaboration among various teams is essential to effectively mitigate potential threats and attacks.

More from The New Stack, Imperva, and Peter Klimek:

Why Your APIs Aren’t Safe — and What to Do about It

Zero-Day Vulnerabilities Can Teach Us About Supply-Chain Security

GraphQL APIs: Greater Flexibility Breeds New Security Woes