CONTINUOUS API SECURITY TESTING FOR DEVSECOPSENABLED SOFTWARE DELIVERY PIPELINES

Abstract

Continuous API security testing has become a critical requirement for DevSecOps-enabled software delivery pipelines because modern cloud-native applications depend heavily on APIs for communication among distributed services, mobile platforms, enterprise systems, and thirdparty applications. Conventional security testing approaches performed only before production deployment are insufficient for rapidly evolving software environments where APIs continuously change through frequent releases. This paper proposes a continuous API security testing framework integrating OpenAPI Specification, DevSecOps, machine learning-assisted vulnerability detection, cloud-native deployment, API gateways, automated security validation, and enterprise governance. The proposed methodology performs automated security testing throughout software development, continuous integration, deployment, runtime monitoring, and lifecycle management while enforcing enterprise security policies and regulatory compliance. Experimental evaluation demonstrates improvements in vulnerability detection, deployment reliability, governance efficiency, software quality, and enterprise cybersecurity. The proposed framework provides a scalable and production-ready solution for securing cloudnative API ecosystems within continuous software delivery environments. Keywords— API Security Testing, DevSecOps, OpenAPI Specification, Continuous Integration, Continuous Deployment, Cloud-Native Security, Enterprise Governance, Vulnerability Assessment.