Dotnet API Security

dotnet-api-security

API-level authentication, authorization, and security patterns for ASP.NET Core. This skill owns API auth implementation: ASP.NET Core Identity configuration, OAuth 2.0/OIDC integration, JWT bearer token handling, passkey (WebAuthn) authentication, CORS policies, Content Security Policy headers, and rate limiting.

Scope

• ASP.NET Core Identity configuration and Identity API endpoints
• OAuth 2.0 / OpenID Connect integration with external providers
• JWT bearer token authentication and policy-based authorization
• Passkey / WebAuthn authentication (.NET 10)
• CORS policies and Content Security Policy headers
• Rate limiting middleware (fixed window, sliding window, token bucket, concurrency)

Out of scope

• OWASP Top 10 mitigations and deprecated security patterns -- see [skill:dotnet-security-owasp]
• Secrets management and secure configuration -- see [skill:dotnet-secrets-management]
• Cryptographic algorithm selection -- see [skill:dotnet-cryptography]
• Blazor auth UI components -- see [skill:dotnet-blazor-auth]

Cross-references: [skill:dotnet-security-owasp] for OWASP security principles, [skill:dotnet-secrets-management] for secrets handling, [skill:dotnet-cryptography] for cryptographic best practices.

ASP.NET Core Identity

ASP.NET Core Identity provides user management, password hashing, role-based authorization, and two-factor authentication out of the box. It is the recommended starting point for applications that manage their own user accounts.

builder.Services.AddIdentityApiEndpoints<ApplicationUser>(options =>
{
    // Password requirements
    options.Password.RequiredLength = 12;
    options.Password.RequireNonAlphanumeric = true;
    options.Password.RequireUppercase = true;
    options.Password.RequireLowercase = true;
    options.Password.RequireDigit = true;

    // Lockout
    options.Lockout.DefaultLockoutTimeSpan = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(15);
    options.Lockout.MaxFailedAccessAttempts = 5;
    options.Lockout.AllowedForNewUsers = true;

    // User
    options.User.RequireUniqueEmail = true;
})
.AddEntityFrameworkStores<AppDbContext>()
.AddDefaultTokenProviders();

var app = builder.Build();

app.MapIdentityApi<ApplicationUser>(); // Maps /register, /login, /refresh, /manage endpoints

Identity API Endpoints (.NET 8+)

MapIdentityApi<TUser>() provides pre-built token-based authentication endpoints for SPAs and mobile clients without Razor UI:

OAuth 2.0 / OpenID Connect

For applications that delegate authentication to an external identity provider (Entra ID, Auth0, Okta, Keycloak), configure OIDC middleware.

builder.Services.AddAuthentication(options =>
{
    options.DefaultScheme = CookieAuthenticationDefaults.AuthenticationScheme;
    options.DefaultChallengeScheme = OpenIdConnectDefaults.AuthenticationScheme;
})
.AddCookie()
.AddOpenIdConnect(options =>
{
    options.Authority = builder.Configuration["Oidc:Authority"];
    options.ClientId = builder.Configuration["Oidc:ClientId"];
    options.ClientSecret = builder.Configuration["Oidc:ClientSecret"];
    options.ResponseType = OpenIdConnectResponseType.Code; // Authorization Code Flow
    options.SaveTokens = true;
    options.GetClaimsFromUserInfoEndpoint = true;

    options.Scope.Add("openid");
    options.Scope.Add("profile");
    options.Scope.Add("email");

    options.MapInboundClaims = false; // Preserve original claim types
    options.TokenValidationParameters.NameClaimType = "name";
    options.TokenValidationParameters.RoleClaimType = "roles";
});

Gotcha: MapInboundClaims = false prevents the Microsoft OIDC handler from remapping standard JWT claims (e.g., sub to http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/05/identity/claims/nameidentifier). Set this to false to preserve the original claim types from the identity provider.

JWT Bearer Token Authentication

For API-only scenarios where the client sends a JWT in the Authorization header:

builder.Services.AddAuthentication(JwtBearerDefaults.AuthenticationScheme)
    .AddJwtBearer(options =>
    {
        options.Authority = builder.Configuration["Jwt:Authority"];
        options.Audience = builder.Configuration["Jwt:Audience"];

        options.TokenValidationParameters = new TokenValidationParameters
        {
            ValidateIssuer = true,
            ValidateAudience = true,
            ValidateLifetime = true,
            ValidateIssuerSigningKey = true,
            ClockSkew = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(1) // Default is 5 min; tighten for security
        };
    });

builder.Services.AddAuthorization();

var app = builder.Build();
app.UseAuthentication();
app.UseAuthorization();

// Protect endpoints
app.MapGet("/api/profile", (ClaimsPrincipal user) =>
    TypedResults.Ok(new { Name = user.Identity?.Name }))
    .RequireAuthorization();

Policy-Based Authorization

builder.Services.AddAuthorizationBuilder()
    .AddPolicy("AdminOnly", policy =>
        policy.RequireRole("Admin"))
    .AddPolicy("PremiumUser", policy =>
        policy.RequireClaim("subscription", "premium"))
    .SetFallbackPolicy(new AuthorizationPolicyBuilder()
        .RequireAuthenticatedUser()
        .Build());

Passkeys / WebAuthn (.NET 10)

.NET 10 introduces built-in passkey (WebAuthn/FIDO2) support for passwordless authentication. Passkeys use public-key cryptography and are phishing-resistant.

// .NET 10: Add passkey support to Identity
builder.Services.AddIdentityApiEndpoints<ApplicationUser>(options =>
{
    options.User.RequireUniqueEmail = true;
})
.AddEntityFrameworkStores<AppDbContext>()
.AddDefaultTokenProviders()
.AddPasskeys(); // Enable WebAuthn passkey authentication

var app = builder.Build();

app.MapIdentityApi<ApplicationUser>();
// Passkey registration and authentication endpoints are added automatically

Passkey Registration Flow

1. Client calls /passkey/register/options to get a PublicKeyCredentialCreationOptions challenge
2. Client creates a credential using the Web Authentication API (navigator.credentials.create)
3. Client sends the attestation response to /passkey/register
4. Server validates and stores the credential

Passkey Authentication Flow

1. Client calls /passkey/login/options to get a PublicKeyCredentialRequestOptions challenge
2. Client signs the challenge using navigator.credentials.get
3. Client sends the assertion response to /passkey/login
4. Server validates the assertion and issues a session/token

Key benefits: No passwords to phish, no credentials stored server-side (only public keys), built-in resistance to replay attacks.

CORS Policies

Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) controls which origins can call your API. Always use explicit, named policies -- never use AllowAnyOrigin() in production.

builder.Services.AddCors(options =>
{
    options.AddPolicy("Production", policy =>
    {
        policy.WithOrigins(
                "https://app.example.com",
                "https://admin.example.com")
            .WithMethods("GET", "POST", "PUT", "DELETE")
            .WithHeaders("Content-Type", "Authorization")
            .SetPreflightMaxAge(TimeSpan.FromMinutes(10)); // Cache preflight
    });

    options.AddPolicy("Development", policy =>
    {
        policy.WithOrigins("https://localhost:5173") // Vite dev server
            .AllowAnyMethod()
            .AllowAnyHeader()
            .AllowCredentials();
    });
});

var app = builder.Build();
app.UseCors(app.Environment.IsDevelopment() ? "Development" : "Production");

Common CORS Pitfalls

• AllowAnyOrigin() + AllowCredentials() is rejected at runtime by ASP.NET Core. But SetIsOriginAllowed(_ => true) + AllowCredentials() silently allows all origins -- never use this pattern.
• Preflight caching: Without SetPreflightMaxAge, browsers send an OPTIONS request before every cross-origin request. Set a reasonable cache duration (10-60 minutes) to reduce latency.
• Wildcard headers with credentials: AllowAnyHeader() combined with AllowCredentials() works in ASP.NET Core but may behave unexpectedly in some browsers. Prefer explicit header lists.
• CORS middleware order: UseCors() must be called after UseRouting() and before UseAuthorization().

Content Security Policy (CSP)

Content Security Policy headers prevent XSS, clickjacking, and other injection attacks by controlling which resources the browser can load.

app.Use(async (context, next) =>
{
    // API-focused CSP -- restrict all content sources
    context.Response.Headers.Append(
        "Content-Security-Policy",
        "default-src 'none'; frame-ancestors 'none'");

    // Additional security headers
    context.Response.Headers.Append("X-Content-Type-Options", "nosniff");
    context.Response.Headers.Append("X-Frame-Options", "DENY");
    context.Response.Headers.Append("Referrer-Policy", "strict-origin-when-cross-origin");
    context.Response.Headers.Append("Permissions-Policy",
        "camera=(), microphone=(), geolocation=()");

    await next();
});

For APIs serving HTML responses (Razor Pages, Blazor Server), use a more permissive CSP with nonces:

app.Use(async (context, next) =>
{
    var nonce = Convert.ToBase64String(RandomNumberGenerator.GetBytes(16));
    context.Items["CspNonce"] = nonce;

    context.Response.Headers.Append(
        "Content-Security-Policy",
        $"default-src 'self'; script-src 'self' 'nonce-{nonce}'; style-src 'self' 'nonce-{nonce}'");

    await next();
});

Rate Limiting

ASP.NET Core includes built-in rate limiting middleware (Microsoft.AspNetCore.RateLimiting, .NET 7+). Four algorithms are available: fixed window, sliding window, token bucket, and concurrency limiter.

Fixed Window

builder.Services.AddRateLimiter(options =>
{
    options.AddFixedWindowLimiter("fixed", limiterOptions =>
    {
        limiterOptions.PermitLimit = 100;
        limiterOptions.Window = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(1);
        limiterOptions.QueueLimit = 0; // Reject immediately when limit reached
    });
    options.RejectionStatusCode = StatusCodes.Status429TooManyRequests;
});

var app = builder.Build();
app.UseRateLimiter();

app.MapGet("/api/products", GetProducts)
    .RequireRateLimiting("fixed");

Sliding Window

builder.Services.AddRateLimiter(options =>
{
    options.AddSlidingWindowLimiter("sliding", limiterOptions =>
    {
        limiterOptions.PermitLimit = 100;
        limiterOptions.Window = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(1);
        limiterOptions.SegmentsPerWindow = 6; // 10-second segments
        limiterOptions.QueueLimit = 0;
    });
});

Token Bucket

builder.Services.AddRateLimiter(options =>
{
    options.AddTokenBucketLimiter("token", limiterOptions =>
    {
        limiterOptions.TokenLimit = 100;
        limiterOptions.ReplenishmentPeriod = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10);
        limiterOptions.TokensPerPeriod = 10;
        limiterOptions.QueueLimit = 0;
    });
});

Concurrency Limiter

builder.Services.AddRateLimiter(options =>
{
    options.AddConcurrencyLimiter("concurrent", limiterOptions =>
    {
        limiterOptions.PermitLimit = 10; // Max 10 concurrent requests
        limiterOptions.QueueLimit = 5;
        limiterOptions.QueueProcessingOrder = QueueProcessingOrder.OldestFirst;
    });
});

Per-User Rate Limiting

builder.Services.AddRateLimiter(options =>
{
    options.AddPolicy("per-user", httpContext =>
    {
        var userId = httpContext.User.FindFirstValue(ClaimTypes.NameIdentifier)
            ?? httpContext.Connection.RemoteIpAddress?.ToString()
            ?? "anonymous";

        return RateLimitPartition.GetFixedWindowLimiter(userId,
            _ => new FixedWindowRateLimiterOptions
            {
                PermitLimit = 60,
                Window = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(1)
            });
    });
});

Gotcha: UseRateLimiter() must be called after UseRouting() and before UseAuthorization() and endpoint mapping to apply correctly.

Agent Gotchas

1. Do not use AllowAnyOrigin() in production CORS policies -- always specify explicit origins. See [skill:dotnet-security-owasp] for CORS security implications.
2. Do not forget MapInboundClaims = false when using external OIDC providers -- without it, claim types are remapped to long XML namespace URIs, breaking role and name lookups.
3. Do not hardcode JWT signing keys in source code or appsettings.json -- use user secrets for development and environment variables or managed identity for production. See [skill:dotnet-secrets-management].
4. Do not set ClockSkew to TimeSpan.Zero -- small clock differences between token issuer and validator will cause spurious 401 errors. Use 1-2 minutes.
5. Do not forget middleware order -- UseAuthentication() must come before UseAuthorization(), and UseCors() must come before UseAuthorization().
6. Do not use AllowAnyMethod() and AllowAnyHeader() together in production -- explicitly list allowed methods and headers to follow the principle of least privilege.
7. Do not skip rate limiting on authentication endpoints -- /login and /register are common brute-force targets. Apply rate limiting to prevent credential stuffing.
8. Do not use exception-driven rejection in auth paths -- use defensive parsing (TryFromBase64String, length validation) on attacker-controlled input instead.

Prerequisites

• .NET 8.0+ (LTS baseline for Identity API endpoints, JWT bearer, CORS, rate limiting)
• .NET 10.0 for passkey/WebAuthn support
• Microsoft.AspNetCore.Authentication.JwtBearer for JWT bearer authentication
• Microsoft.AspNetCore.Authentication.OpenIdConnect for OIDC integration
• Microsoft.AspNetCore.RateLimiting (included in shared framework .NET 7+)

References

• ASP.NET Core Security
• ASP.NET Core Identity
• JWT Bearer Authentication
• OAuth 2.0 / OIDC
• CORS in ASP.NET Core
• Rate Limiting Middleware
• WebAuthn/Passkeys