Findings
Average Execution Time Reduced
Updated: June 19, 2025
Description
The average execution time has decreased during the current observation period.
The average execution time of the API has decreased significantly during a given period, falling below the mean average minus one standard deviation from the preceding period. While a reduction in execution time could be indicative of optimizations or improvements, it could also suggest that something is wrong, such as incomplete processing, skipped operations, or misconfigured resources. Investigating the root cause is important to ensure that the reduced execution time does not indicate a loss in functionality or compromised service quality.
Example Attack
A drastic reduction in execution time might not always be due to optimization. Attackers could try to exploit certain vulnerabilities in the API by manipulating the requests to bypass time-intensive processes. For instance:
- Denial-of-Service (DoS) Attacks: An attacker might flood the API with requests designed to trigger minimal execution paths (e.g., exploiting cached data or bypassing complex validation), leading to an overall reduction in execution time. This can be part of an attack to overwhelm the server, causing legitimate requests to be processed too quickly, while potentially causing issues with data integrity or functionality.
- Bypassing Validation: If an attacker manipulates the input to bypass validation steps or force the API to skip processing tasks, the execution time might be artificially reduced. This could cause incomplete or incorrect data to be returned to the user, resulting in a security breach or application malfunction.
- Exploiting Resource Utilization: Attackers might try to exploit flaws in resource allocation, triggering the API to process fewer tasks or causing it to miss critical steps. This might result in faster processing times but could also expose the system to vulnerabilities, such as incorrect data being returned or skipped operations.
Remediation
Investigate what has caused the execution times of this API to decrease significantly in size.