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Protecting API Access on Apache/Cloudways

Unsolved Security
  • Hello Mark,

    Hope you’re doing well! Got a quick security question for you. I have a website that runs on Apache with Cloudways hosting, and we’re using APIs in PHP files. Recently, I noticed some random users accessing the APIs with URLs like domain.com/file.php?data=xxxx?, which seems like an attempt to misuse the server.

    Could you suggest a way to protect my server so only authorized requests can access these APIs?

    Thanks a lot!

  • @Hari Much of this response depends on whether these API’s are internal or external, and who manages/supports them. If they are your own API’s, then you should ideally send a predefined key in the header to ensure that the request is authentic.

    This is the standard way of doing it, but I’ll need a bit more detail to comment further.


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    Heztner’s DDoS protection is superior, and I know they have invested a lot of time, effort, and money into making it extremely effective. However, if you consider that the largest ever DDoS attack hit Cloudflare at 71m rps (and they were able to deflect it), and each attack can last anywhere between 8-24 hours which really depends on how determined the attacker(s) is/are, you can never be fully prepared - nor can you trace it’s true origin.

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    It’s even possible to get DDoS as a service these days - with a credit card, a few clicks of a mouse and a target IP, you can have your own proxy campaign running in minutes which typically involves “booters” or “stressers” - see below for more

    https://heimdalsecurity.com/blog/ddos-as-a-service-attacks-what-are-they-and-how-do-they-work

    @DownPW said in Setting for high load and prevent DDoS (sysctl, iptables, crowdsec or other):

    in short if you have any advice to give to secure the best.

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    https://www.immuniweb.com/websec/

    I’d start with the findings reported here and use that to branch outwards.

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