In the evolving digital landscape, APIs serve as critical gateways connecting diverse applications, data sources, and services. As SAP ecosystems increasingly leverage SAP Business Connect to integrate cloud and on-premise systems, securing APIs becomes paramount. Robust API security protects sensitive business data, ensures compliance, and maintains trust.
This article explores key API security mechanisms—OAuth, API Keys, and others—and how they are applied effectively within SAP Business Connect to safeguard your integration scenarios.
SAP Business Connect enables integration flows between SAP solutions like S/4HANA, SuccessFactors, Ariba, and external third-party systems. These APIs often expose critical enterprise data and processes, making them prime targets for cyber threats such as:
Implementing strong security controls helps protect data integrity, confidentiality, and availability while enabling trusted API consumption.
OAuth 2.0 is a widely adopted authorization framework allowing applications to obtain limited access on behalf of users without exposing credentials.
Use Cases in SAP Business Connect: Securely connect to SAP APIs (e.g., SuccessFactors, SAP S/4HANA Cloud APIs) or third-party services that support OAuth.
Flow Types Supported: Authorization Code Grant, Client Credentials Grant (common for server-to-server scenarios).
Benefits:
SAP Business Connect natively supports OAuth 2.0, enabling you to configure OAuth clients and securely manage tokens within your integration flows.
API keys are unique tokens assigned to consumers for identifying and controlling access.
Use Cases: Suitable for lightweight authentication where full OAuth implementation may be unnecessary.
Implementation: SAP Business Connect allows passing API keys in headers or query parameters to authenticate against APIs.
Considerations:
Encrypt all API traffic to protect data in transit from interception or tampering.
Wherever possible, prefer OAuth 2.0 over basic auth or API keys to enable fine-grained access control and better security hygiene.
Store API keys securely using SAP Business Connect’s secure parameters or vaults and never hard-code them in flows.
Control API consumption to prevent abuse or accidental overload.
Track authentication attempts, failures, and suspicious activities using SAP Business Connect monitoring and external SIEM tools.
Set expiration policies for keys, certificates, and tokens to reduce exposure risks.
Define and enforce roles and scopes within OAuth tokens to limit what integrated applications can access.
SAP Business Connect provides:
Securing APIs is non-negotiable in today’s interconnected SAP landscapes. By leveraging OAuth 2.0, API keys, and other security mechanisms in SAP Business Connect, organizations can ensure safe and compliant integration processes. Following best practices around encryption, credential management, and monitoring further strengthens your security posture, enabling trusted and scalable SAP integrations.