Rising BOLA Exploits Target Unprotected Shadow API Endpoints

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The rise of 'Shadow APIs'—untracked endpoints used by mobile apps and legacy systems—has led to a surge in BOLA (Broken Object Level Authorization) attacks. Recent breaches show that attackers are increasingly using automated 'Iterative Discovery' tools to find these hidden endpoints, which often lack the rate-limiting and authentication controls of the primary API gateway. Once discovered, attackers manipulate object IDs to access data belonging to other users. To counter this, organizations should implement automated API discovery and enforce unified authorization policies across all endpoints, regardless of their visibility.