API Inventory and Discovery — API Reference
Libraries
| Library |
Install |
Purpose |
| requests |
pip install requests |
HTTP probing and spec fetching |
Common API Discovery Paths
| Path |
Description |
/api/v1, /api/v2 |
Versioned REST API roots |
/swagger.json |
Swagger 2.0 specification |
/openapi.json |
OpenAPI 3.x specification |
/graphql |
GraphQL endpoint |
/graphiql, /playground |
GraphQL IDE (introspection enabled) |
/api-docs, /docs |
API documentation page |
/.well-known/openid-configuration |
OIDC discovery |
/health, /metrics |
Health/monitoring endpoints |
OpenAPI Spec Parsing
import requests
spec = requests.get("https://target.com/openapi.json").json()
for path, methods in spec["paths"].items():
for method, details in methods.items():
print(f"{method.upper()} {path} deprecated={details.get('deprecated', False)}")
| Pattern |
Matches |
fetch("/<path>") |
Fetch API calls |
axios.get("/<path>") |
Axios HTTP calls |
"/api/v1/<resource>" |
String literal API paths |
"/v2/<resource>" |
Versioned API references |
API Risk Classification
| Category |
Risk |
Examples |
| Admin/Internal |
HIGH |
/admin/api, /internal/ |
| GraphQL exposed |
HIGH |
/graphql with introspection |
| Documentation public |
MEDIUM |
/swagger.json, /api-docs |
| Deprecated/zombie |
HIGH |
Deprecated but still responding |
| Standard versioned |
LOW |
/api/v2/users |
OWASP API9:2023 — Improper Inventory Management
| Issue |
Description |
| Shadow APIs |
Undocumented endpoints deployed without review |
| Zombie APIs |
Deprecated versions still accessible |
| Missing authentication |
Endpoints skipping auth middleware |
| Version sprawl |
Multiple API versions maintained simultaneously |
External References
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