How to Check If Your API Is Secure in 60 Seconds

You can check the security of any public API in less than a minute. No signup, no credit card, no sales call. Here's how it works and what each result actually means.

Step 1: Open the scanner

Go to governapi.com, paste your API URL into the input field, and click Scan My API. That's it. The scan takes about 10 seconds.

The URL can be:

A public API endpoint (e.g., https://api.yourcompany.com)
A web app's backend (e.g., https://app.yourcompany.com/api)
Any HTTP/HTTPS URL you control

The scanner is read-only — it sends GET requests, checks response headers, looks for misconfigurations, and probes for common exposures. It doesn't write data, doesn't try to log in, and doesn't run any actual exploits.

Step 2: Read your score

You'll see a big colored ring with a letter grade and a number out of 100:

A (90-100) — green. You're doing great. Keep monitoring.
B (80-89) — teal. Solid foundation, a few things to clean up.
C (70-79) — yellow. Missing important controls.
D (60-69) — orange. Multiple security risks. Fix soon.
F (below 60) — red. Critical issues. Fix today.

Below the score, you'll see one of:

"Your API is well protected"
"Good, but room to improve"
"Security risks detected"
"Critical security issues found"

Step 3: Read the checklist

The scanner runs a 6-point security checklist:

✅ HTTPS / TLS

Checks if your API uses HTTPS instead of plain HTTP. If you're on HTTP, stop reading and fix this first. Anyone on the same network can read every request and response, including passwords and tokens.

✅ Security Headers

Checks for the four headers that prevent the most common attacks:

HSTS — forces browsers to use HTTPS
Content-Security-Policy — prevents XSS
X-Frame-Options — prevents clickjacking
X-Content-Type-Options — prevents MIME-sniffing attacks

Missing any of these is a yellow flag. Missing all of them is a red flag.

✅ Rate Limiting

Checks if your API has rate-limit headers (X-RateLimit-Limit, Retry-After, etc). Without rate limiting, attackers can brute-force passwords, scrape data, and DDoS you for the cost of a single $5 VPS.

✅ Server Info Hidden

Checks if your Server and X-Powered-By headers reveal your software version. If they do, attackers know exactly which CVEs to try.

✅ No Sensitive Files Exposed

Probes for common paths that should never be public:

/.env — your environment variables
/.git/config — your git history
/wp-config.php — WordPress credentials
/phpmyadmin — database admin panel
/admin — generic admin interface

False positives are filtered out by comparing responses to a known-bad path baseline.

✅ No Credential Leaks

Scans your response body and headers for accidentally exposed credentials:

AWS Access Keys (AKIA...)
Stripe keys (sk_live_..., pk_live_...)
GitHub tokens (ghp_...)
Slack tokens (xoxb-...)
Generic API_KEY= patterns
Bearer tokens in HTML

You'd be surprised how often these end up in error pages, JavaScript bundles, or HTML comments.

Step 4: See your projected score

Below the checklist, you'll see something like:

Fix 4 issues → improve your score from D (62) → B (84)

Each fix has a "+X pts" badge showing how much your score will improve. The scanner sorts them by impact, so the highest-value fixes are at the top.

This is the most important part of the page. It tells you exactly what to do next.

Step 5: Get the fix guides

Click any vulnerability to see:

What it is — the vulnerability explained in plain English
Why it matters — what an attacker can actually do with it
How to fix it — copy-paste code for Express, Nginx, Apache, and Django
Reference docs — links to MDN and OWASP

For example, if your scan flags "Missing HSTS", you'll get the exact add_header line for Nginx, the exact helmet.hsts() call for Express, and the exact SECURE_HSTS_SECONDS setting for Django.

Step 6: Sign up to track progress

The free scan is one-time and anonymous. If you sign up (also free), you get:

Scheduled scans — daily, weekly, or every 6 hours
Score history — track improvements over time
Email alerts — get notified when a new vulnerability appears
Compliance mapping — see how findings map to OWASP, PCI DSS, SOC 2, GDPR, HIPAA
Multiple endpoints — track all your APIs in one dashboard

The free plan gives you 3 scans per month and 3 monitored endpoints. That's enough for most early-stage startups.

Try it now

Don't wait. The scan takes 10 seconds.

Scan your API for free →

If your score is below 80, you have homework. If it's above 80, congrats — you're in the top 20% of APIs we've scanned.