API Security Testing with Postman — API Reference
Tools
| Tool |
Install |
Purpose |
| Newman |
npm install -g newman |
CLI runner for Postman collections |
| Postman |
Desktop app from postman.com |
Collection creation and manual testing |
Newman CLI Commands
| Command |
Description |
newman run <collection.json> |
Execute collection |
newman run <col> -e <env.json> |
Run with environment variables |
newman run <col> --reporters cli,json |
Output in CLI and JSON format |
newman run <col> --reporter-json-export out.json |
Export JSON results |
newman run <col> --timeout-request 10000 |
10s request timeout |
newman run <col> --delay-request 100 |
100ms delay between requests |
Postman Test Script Functions
| Function |
Description |
pm.response.code |
HTTP response status code |
pm.response.text() |
Response body as string |
pm.response.json() |
Parsed JSON response |
pm.expect(val).to.equal(x) |
Chai assertion |
pm.expect(val).to.be.oneOf([]) |
Value in expected set |
pm.expect(val).to.not.include(s) |
String not present |
pm.environment.set(k, v) |
Set environment variable |
Collection Schema (v2.1.0)
{
"info": {"name": "...", "schema": "https://schema.getpostman.com/json/collection/v2.1.0/collection.json"},
"item": [{"name": "...", "request": {...}, "event": [{"listen": "test", "script": {...}}]}]
}
OWASP API Security Tests
| Test |
Postman Assertion |
| BOLA/IDOR |
Expect 403/404 when accessing other user's resource |
| Auth bypass |
Expect 401 without valid token |
| Mass assignment |
Expect role field ignored in response |
| Injection |
Expect no 500 or stack trace in response |
| Data exposure |
Expect sensitive fields not in response |
External References
24f816b6a3