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* The Expanding API Attack ...

# The Expanding API Attack Surface

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By [Andrea Halsted](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/author/andrea-halsted/?ts=markdown "Posts by Andrea Halsted") and [Amit Biton](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/author/amit-biton/?ts=markdown "Posts by Amit Biton")  
Sep 24, 2025  
4 minutes  
[API Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/api-security/?ts=markdown)  
[Cloud Runtime Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/cloud-runtime-security/?ts=markdown)  
[Cloud Workload Protection](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/cloud-workload-protection/?ts=markdown)  
[CWPP](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/cwpp/?ts=markdown)  
[Web Application \& API Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/web-application-api-security/?ts=markdown)

The API attack surface is exploding. Cloud-native development teams ship often, and security can't keep up. The result? A dangerous mix of shadow, zombie and misconfigured APIs --- all invisible to most security tools.

With APIs sitting at the data and action layer, the stakes for organizations are high. Gartner reports that "[the average API breach leaks at least 10 times more data than the average security breach](https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/5471595)." The difference reflects how quickly an overlooked path can widen the blast radius to turn a small gap into a material loss. It also drives home the question, *How can we keep pace with rapid releases and secure a moving API estate without adding drag to developers?*

Cortex Cloud's API Security removes the choice between speed and protection. The platform builds visibility across gateways and workloads, reconciles configuration with live traffic to maintain a current API map, and elevates the routes that matter most. Teams cut exposure while continuing to ship on schedule.

## A Costly Lesson from DeepSeek AI

The [DeepSeek AI API breach](https://www.darkreading.com/cyberattacks-data-breaches/deepseek-breach-opens-floodgates-dark-web) earlier this year serves as an example of how a lack of visibility can prove costly. The incident, involving an exposed and unauthenticated database that leaked sensitive user data and internal API keys, highlights that even organizations demonstrating engineering maturity can succumb to basic misconfigurations when their API landscape isn't fully understood or monitored.

## 4 Steps to Secure Your API Landscape

Securing your APIs requires both tools and strategy. Cortex^®^ Cloud^TM^ delivers full-lifecycle protection via a set of key capabilities that make your strategy a reality.

### 1. Complete API Discovery \& Validation

You can't secure what you can't see. Cortex Cloud continuously identifies every API across your cloud environments, from sanctioned and third-party services to rogue and abandoned APIs. We do this by gathering data through various methods, including API gateway traffic and logs, as well as workload traffic collected through the Cortex XDR^®^ agent. Additionally, we build a living, accurate inventory of domains, paths and authentication types, giving teams the visibility to understand and secure their entire attack surface.

### 2. Risk-Based Visibility

An inventory, of course, is only useful if it helps you act. Cortex Cloud takes your team from a raw inventory to an actionable, risk-based view. By analyzing API traffic and payloads, it gives you the context needed to quickly assess and prioritize risks based on critical factors like internet exposure, sensitive data transmission and weak authentication.

### 3. Proactive Protection and Data Insights

Visibility and prioritization are what enable proactive protection. The rich context gathered by the platform helps security teams and workload owners understand not only the risks associated with an API, but also how to defend against them.

Cortex Cloud delivers real-time detection and protection for APIs and web applications through agentless API gateway integrations and agent-based workload protection. Coverage includes the OWASP API Security Top 10 risks like [SQL injection](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cyberpedia/sql-injection?ts=markdown) and [cross-site scripting (XSS)](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cyberpedia/xss-cross-site-scripting?ts=markdown), as well as authentication bypass, sensitive [data leakage and](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cyberpedia/data-leak?ts=markdown) bot activity. You can run in monitor mode or enforce blocking, maintaining policy control while keeping coverage across your API estate.

### 4. Flexible, High-Performance Deployment

Flexible deployment options deliver [API security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cyberpedia/what-is-api-security?ts=markdown) without compromising development velocity. Cortex Cloud's API gateway integrations with AWS API Gateway, Azure APIM, Apigee, Kong and F5 BIG-IP LTM provide agentless visibility across traffic and logs, so you can spot anomalies and suspicious behavior without slowing production workloads.

For posture and traffic analysis, agentless scanning surfaces vulnerabilities, compliance gaps and misuse across APIs. And with agent-based protection through the Cortex XDR agent, teams gain real-time protection against active threats within workloads. As environments grow, these deployment options scale with them, ensuring consistent coverage across dynamic cloud workloads.

## Beyond Point Solutions: The CNAPP Advantage

Many security teams rely on point tools or weakly integrated solutions for cloud security, which creates costly complexity. [Cortex Cloud's API Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cortex/cloud/api-security?ts=markdown) removes blind spots and the need to manage multiple consoles.

By embedding API security directly in our [CNAPP](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cyberpedia/what-is-a-cloud-native-application-protection-platform?ts=markdown), Cortex Cloud provides unified, full-lifecycle protection from code to cloud, giving teams the visibility and risk context to close security gaps before incidents occur.

## Ready to See What's Hiding in Your APIs?

Help your team gain the confidence to accelerate innovation while securing the APIs that power your organization. Request a [personalized demo of Cortex Cloud](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cortex/cloud/trial?ts=markdown).

*** ** * ** ***

## Related Blogs

### [Cloud Runtime Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/cloud-runtime-security/?ts=markdown), [Cloud Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/cloud-security/?ts=markdown), [Cloud Workload Protection](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/cloud-workload-protection/?ts=markdown), [CWPP](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/cwpp/?ts=markdown)

[#### Agentless Vs. Agent-Based Scanning in Kubernetes: A Deep Dive](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/agentless-vs-agent-based-scanning-in-kubernetes-a-deep-dive/)

### [Cloud Runtime Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/cloud-runtime-security/?ts=markdown), [Cloud Workload Protection](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/cloud-workload-protection/?ts=markdown), [Vulnerability Management](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/vulnerability-management/?ts=markdown)

[#### Why EPSS Scores Matter for Vulnerability Management](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/epss-scores/)

### [Cloud Workload Protection](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/cloud-workload-protection/?ts=markdown), [Web Application \& API Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/web-application-api-security/?ts=markdown)

[#### API Discovery Made Simple](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/api-discovery-security/)

### [Cloud Workload Protection](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/cloud-workload-protection/?ts=markdown), [Web Application \& API Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/web-application-api-security/?ts=markdown)

[#### Mitigate GraphQL Risks and Secure Your APIs with Prisma Cloud](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/mitigating-graphql-risks-with-prisma-cloud-waas/)

### [API Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/api-security/?ts=markdown), [Application Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/application-security/?ts=markdown), [Cloud Workload Protection](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/cloud-workload-protection/?ts=markdown), [Cloud Workload Protection Platform](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/cloud-workload-protection-platform/?ts=markdown), [Code Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/code-security/?ts=markdown), [Code to Cloud](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/code-to-cloud/?ts=markdown)

[#### API Security and Threat Intelligence Reduce Attack Surface in Prisma Cloud Workload Protection Release](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/api-security-threat-intel-reduce-attack-surface/)

### [Announcement](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/announcement/?ts=markdown), [Cloud Workload Protection](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/cloud-workload-protection/?ts=markdown), [DevSecOps](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/devsecops/?ts=markdown), [Web Application \& API Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/web-application-api-security/?ts=markdown)

[#### OpenSSL Vulnerability Rating Downgraded to High](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/prepare-openssl-vulnerability/)

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