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# Understanding API Risk in the Age of AI

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By [Andrea Halsted](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/author/andrea-halsted/?ts=markdown "Posts by Andrea Halsted") and [Amit Biton](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/author/amit-biton/?ts=markdown "Posts by Amit Biton")  
Dec 18, 2025  
4 minutes  
[AI Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/ai-security/?ts=markdown)  
[Cloud Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/cloud-security/?ts=markdown)  
[Cloud Workload Protection](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/cloud-workload-protection/?ts=markdown)  
[API Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/tag/api-security/?ts=markdown)

AI adoption is reshaping how applications interact with data, creating a new and rapidly expanding layer of API risk. Today, [75% of organizations have moved AI systems into production](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/state-of-cloud-native-security), a shift that has altered the volume of backend communication. Every model query, enrichment step or workflow call triggers API activity, and that activity grows exponentially with every new AI feature launched.

As a result, organizations are now running more APIs with more traffic touching sensitive information. AI applications generate large bursts of API calls that look routine on the surface, which gives bad actors more room to slip in attacks like credential stuffing or high frequency probing without standing out. To worsen matters, teams ship AI features and create APIs to support their applications faster than security can keep up. The surge in AI-driven API traffic is already showing up in real-world attacks. Palo Alto Networks State of Cloud Security Report 2025 found [attacks on APIs increased 41%](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/state-of-cloud-native-security) year over year, the sharpest rise of any threat vector.

[Thirty seven percent of organizations](https://owasp.org/API-Security/editions/2023/en/0x11-t10/) with an API strategy cite security as their biggest challenge. Legacy API security tools were not designed for the speed or complexity of AI-driven environments and often lack the visibility to understand how APIs behave inside these applications. Without complete visibility and real-time protection across every API, organizations face increased exposure potentially leading to data loss and unauthorized access through the same APIs that power their AI applications.

## Real-World**Example: The xAI API Key Leak**

When a single API key is the only thing standing between an attacker and your intellectual property, the risk of a breach becomes severe. The [xAI incident](https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/doge-employee-with-sensitive-database-access-leaks-private-xai-api-key) provides a real-world lesson on how a fundamental API flaw directly exposes proprietary AI models.

The breach was a simple failure of access control and occurred when a highly sensitive API key belonging to an xAI staff member was accidentally pushed to a public GitHub repository. The compromised key granted attackers direct, unauthenticated access to at least 48 of the company's private, proprietary large language models (LLMs) and associated cloud resources for nearly two months.

If API inventories are incomplete, exposure isn't tracked and behavior isn't monitored in real time, which means a single leaked credential can quickly escalate into a high-impact breach.

## **Solution Overview: Cortex Cloud API Security**

Cortex^®^ Cloud™ connects development, cloud and security operations in a single platform to provide continuous visibility and risk context for your APIs. Designed to secure critical assets in the age of AI, [Cortex Cloud's API security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cortex/cloud/api-security) delivers protection through three essential pillars:

### ​​**Complete API Discovery**

Teams gain a clear map of every API that touches their applications and data, so blind spots disappear. The platform automatically discovers and validates APIs across gateways, workloads and cloud environments through both agentless and agent-based methods. Analysts can catch shadow, zombie and unmanaged APIs that often go unnoticed with help from traffic mirroring and API gateway logs.

### **API Risk Prioritization**

Teams can focus on the issues that matter most, knowing Cortex Cloud correlates configurations, traffic behavior and data insights to build a stronger risk profile for each API. It identifies internet exposure, detects specification drift, and classifies sensitive data through the Cortex data scanning engine, which organizes information into clear data profiles and data patterns. With this level of context, teams can prioritize APIs that create real business or compliance risk instead of relying on guesswork.

### **Real-Time Protection**

Cortex Cloud enforces real-time protection for attacks across the OWASP Top 10 Security Risks for APIs. The platform blocks injection attempts, prevents data exposure, and stops automated abuse from bad bots with immediate effect. Responders can resolve issues quickly and accurately with full attack context along with guided investigation steps from enhanced API security investigation and sensitive data detection. The system also blocks identity-based attacks and provides SOC analysts with cases, evidence and workflows that streamline response across the entire cloud environment.

## **Learn More**

With continuous visibility, security teams get a clear picture of shadow and unmanaged APIs. Modern detection and prevention shut down the critical threats targeting today's APIs. Unified context then pulls everything together, giving teams what they need to investigate issues quickly and act with confidence. Organizations can prevent API breaches from code to cloud in an era where AI is amplifying API risks.

Ready to see what is hiding in your APIs? Request a [demo](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cortex/cloud/demo) today.

*** ** * ** ***

## Related Blogs

### [AI Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/ai-security/?ts=markdown), [AI-SPM](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/ai-spm/?ts=markdown), [CIEM](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/ciem/?ts=markdown), [Cloud Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/cloud-security/?ts=markdown), [DSPM](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/dspm/?ts=markdown), [Identity Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/identity-security/?ts=markdown)

[#### Is AI a New Challenge for Cloud Security? Yes and No.](https://origin-researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/ai-security-gap-cloud-models-agents/)

### [AI Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/ai-security/?ts=markdown), [Cloud Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/cloud-security/?ts=markdown)

[#### OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications 2026 Is Here -- Why It Matters and How to Prepare](https://origin-researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/owasp-agentic-ai-security/)

### [AI Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/ai-security/?ts=markdown), [AI-SPM](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/ai-spm/?ts=markdown), [Cloud Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/cloud-security/?ts=markdown)

[#### Explore the OWASP Top 10 for LLMs: A New Interactive Guide](https://origin-researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/owasp-top-10-llms-ai-security-guide/)

### [Cloud Runtime Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/cloud-runtime-security/?ts=markdown), [Cloud Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/cloud-security/?ts=markdown), [Cloud Workload Protection](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/cloud-workload-protection/?ts=markdown), [CWPP](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/cwpp/?ts=markdown)

[#### Agentless Vs. Agent-Based Scanning in Kubernetes: A Deep Dive](https://origin-researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/agentless-vs-agent-based-scanning-in-kubernetes-a-deep-dive/)

### [Cloud Detection and Response](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/cloud-detection-and-response/?ts=markdown), [Cloud Runtime Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/cloud-runtime-security/?ts=markdown), [Cloud Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/cloud-security/?ts=markdown), [Cloud Workload Protection](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/cloud-workload-protection/?ts=markdown), [CNAPP](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/cnapp/?ts=markdown)

[#### Taking Cloud Security from Visibility to Prevention with eBPF](https://origin-researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/ebpf-cloud-security-real-time-protection/)

### [AI Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/ai-security/?ts=markdown), [AI Security Posture Management](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/ai-security-posture-management/?ts=markdown), [Cloud Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/cloud-security/?ts=markdown)

[#### Why Self-Managed AI Models Are Blind Spots and What to Do About It](https://origin-researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/self-managed-ai-security-risks/)

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