The Evolving Threat of Credential Stuffing

Imagine installing a fancy deadbolt lock with a state-of-the-art alarm system for your front door but leaving the back door wide open. No one would do that, right? Yet many companies make a similar mistake with their cybersecurity defenses. They put Fort Knox-like security on the front end of their apps and websites while leaving their back-end critical APIs exposed to the world.

Gartner predicts that by 2022, API abuses will become the most common attack vector resulting in data breaches. “Despite growing awareness of API security, breaches continue to occur,” the analyst firm says. When one adds up the total number of breached records over the past few years, more than 50% are exfiltrated via applications and APIs.

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It used to be that hackers’ preferred method to gain access to online accounts was through user-facing login pages in an account takeover method called credential stuffing. Credential stuffing takes advantage of a common weak point: the tendency of many users to reuse passwords. This makes it easier for an attacker to leverage a list of usernames and passwords stolen from one account and, in a damaging ripple effect, run them against many services.

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