How to secure my C++ API?

Question

1.00/5 (1 vote)

See more:

Hello, I have created an API in C++ in Ubuntu (using this tutorial https://levelup.gitconnected.com/building-an-api-in-c-with-pistache-413247535fd3) and I would need to secure it. I've read about OAuth, tokens and TLS (transport layer security), however, I kinda have no idea how to start implementing either one of those in order to secure the API which I created. The holy internet didn't help me much on that part either. Any help would be very much appreciated, thank you.

What I have tried:

Nothing concrete found on internet.

Posted 11-Jul-23 21:21pm

MrJay994

Updated 11-Jul-23 22:39pm

Add a Solution

Comments

Richard MacCutchan 12-Jul-23 4:14am

It rather depends on what you mean by "secure", and how the API is accessed. Is this a web service or an installable library?

MrJay994 13-Jul-23 2:17am

It is basically a server being started on an Ubuntu OS using the Pistache Rest Framework for C++ that can be found at the link I provided.

Richard MacCutchan 13-Jul-23 3:56am

You probably need to investigate all the features of the Pistache framework.

1 solution

Add a Solution

Add your solution here

Treat my content as plain text, not as HTML

Preview 0

…

Existing Members

Sign in to your account

...or Join us

Download, Vote, Comment, Publish.

Your Email
Password
Forgot your password?

Your Email
This email is in use. Do you need your password?
Optional Password

I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Please subscribe me to the CodeProject newsletters

When answering a question please:

Read the question carefully.
Understand that English isn't everyone's first language so be lenient of bad spelling and grammar.
If a question is poorly phrased then either ask for clarification, ignore it, or edit the question and fix the problem. Insults are not welcome.
Don't tell someone to read the manual. Chances are they have and don't get it. Provide an answer or move on to the next question.

Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid.

This content, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

Andre Oosthuizen · Accepted Answer · 2023-07-11T22:39:00

As a high-level overview, there are a few steps you can follow -

OAuth -
There are a few framework/libraries that supports C++ on OAuth. POCO, OAuth2CPP, or CPP-REST-SDK are some options. We used POCO before, have a look at their libraries available - POCO C++ Libraries [^]. Google returned tons of search items on POCO - poco c++ oauth2 [^]

To work of a tutorial, one can be found at - Tutorial: Securing an API by using OAuth 2.0 [^]

Tokens -
After you have successfully authenticated your API, generate access tokens for authorized users only - full tutorial available at - Learn about token-based authentication [^].
You can also read up on how to create tokens at - The Full Guide to API Token Generation [^]

TLS -
Lastly, acquire an SSL/TLS certificate for your API's domain name. a Tutorial on configurating your API using SSL Certificates can be found at - Configuring the REST API by using SSL certificates [^].
a Tutorial on TLS/SSL is available at - WHAT ARE TLS/SSL CERTIFICATES [^]

As I mentioned above, this is just a pointer, it should direct you if you go into each item in-depth.