Lab: API Security — AWS API Gateway Scanner

A Python script that scans AWS API Gateway for insecure APIs, identifying security misconfigurations and weak authentication mechanisms.

Junior security analyst task: complete the provided starter script by following a 7-step process. The AWS calls are simulated with mock data, so no live AWS credentials are required to run it.

Vulnerabilities assessed

• Missing authentication mechanisms (open / public endpoints)
• Weak authentication (e.g. Basic Auth instead of OAuth2 / Cognito)
• Insecure HTTP usage (unencrypted traffic instead of HTTPS)
• Overly permissive CORS settings

Files

• API_final.py — the completed script (submit this to CodeGrade)
• requirements.txt — Python dependencies
• API_starter.py — the original provided starter (kept for reference in history)

Setup & run

pip install -r requirements.txt
python API_final.py

The scanner runs on a loop, re-scanning every 5 minutes (press Ctrl+C to stop).

Commit history

The repo is committed one step per lab task so the full process is traceable: Task 1 (scope) → Task 2 (env) → Task 3 (enumerate) → Task 4 (misconfig checks) → Task 5 (simulated request) → Task 6 (findings report) → Task 7 (scheduling).