With the rise of cloud computing, mobile applications, and third-party integrations, secure and controlled access to SAP backend systems has become critical. SAP Gateway serves as the bridge between SAP backend systems and external consumers by exposing SAP data and business logic as OData services.
API Key Management is an essential part of securing these APIs. It allows service providers to authenticate, authorize, and monitor the usage of APIs, ensuring that only trusted clients can access sensitive SAP data.
This article explores API key management concepts, its relevance in SAP Gateway, and best practices to implement and maintain secure API access.
API key management is the process of creating, distributing, monitoring, and revoking keys that are used to identify and authenticate API consumers. API keys are unique identifiers issued to developers or applications, enabling controlled access to APIs.
SAP Gateway does not natively provide a built-in API key management system like API gateways in cloud platforms. However, you can implement API key management using a combination of SAP and external tools:
If using standalone SAP Gateway without SCP, API key management can be implemented within the OData service:
IF_SADL_GW_RUNTIME~HANDLE_REQUEST), validate the API key passed in HTTP headers or query parameters.Example (pseudo-ABAP):
DATA: lv_api_key TYPE string.
lv_api_key = request_context->get_header_field( 'x-api-key' ).
IF lv_api_key IS INITIAL OR NOT api_key_valid( lv_api_key ).
RAISE EXCEPTION TYPE /iwbep/cx_mgw_tech_exception
EXPORTING textid = /iwbep/cx_mgw_tech_exception=>unauthorized.
ENDIF.
Besides API keys, consider combining with other security methods:
API Key Management is a cornerstone of secure SAP Gateway integration, ensuring that SAP OData services are consumed only by authorized clients while enabling monitoring and control over API usage. Whether through SAP Cloud Platform API Management or custom implementations in SAP Gateway, robust API key management enhances security and governance in SAP landscapes.