Slide 4 of 28
Part 1 · What Is It?Slide 4
Slide 4 · The Definition — Part II
The official definition — in plain English.
Here's what OWASP says, and what it actually means.
📄 OWASP API Security Top 10 · 2023 · API1
OWASP Definition

"APIs tend to expose endpoints that handle object identifiers, creating a wide attack surface for Object Level Access Control issues. Object level authorization checks should be considered in every function that accesses a data source using an ID supplied by the user."

Translation — sentence by sentence

"APIs expose endpoints that handle object identifiers" — Every API has URLs that include IDs: /users/42, /orders/1042, /documents/9. Those IDs are the target.

"Wide attack surface" — There are a lot of these endpoints. Every single one is a potential door.

"Object level authorization checks should be considered in every function that accesses a data source using an ID supplied by the user" — Every time a user sends you an ID, you must verify they're allowed to access what that ID points to. Every time. Not sometimes. Every time.

Why developers miss this

Most developers check authentication — "Is this user logged in?" — but forget authorization — "Does this logged-in user own this specific record?" They're two different questions. BOLA is what happens when you only ask the first one.

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