API parameter manipulation is a threat to online banking
Question asked:
“Parameter manipulation of transfer amounts or destination account numbers in intercepted API payloads is a realistic threat to online banking applications that support login, account dashboard, funds transfer, and bill pay.”
Summary
Recent analyses of API security breaches and banking app testing confirm that attackers can intercept API calls and alter parameters such as transfer amounts or destination account numbers, making this a realistic threat to online banking services that include login, dashboards, funds transfer, and bill payment. The prevalence of parameter‑tampering vulnerabilities and broken object‑level authorization in 2026 reports underscores the ongoing risk.
Sources 60 searched
- FFIEC BSA/AML Risks Associated with Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing - Funds Transfers
This section expands the core review of the statutory and regulatory requirements of funds transfers to provide a broader assessment of AML risks associated with this activity. Payment systems in the United States consist of numerous financial intermediaries, financial services firms, and nonbank businesses that create, process, and distribute payments. The domestic and international expansion of the banking industry and nonbank financial services has increased the importance of electronic funds transfers, including funds transfers made through the wholesale payment systems.
- Electronic Funds Transfer Risk Assessment Core
Note: This type of transfer activity will be the most common type of funds transfer in community banks.
- Safety and Soundness Comptroller’s Handbook Management (M) Earnings (E)
bank’s operational risk exposure. Because of the large value and high volume of wholesale · payment transactions, operational disruptions may have widespread impact. ... A wire transfer transaction begins when the originator (bank customer) requests the transfer.
- Cyber Risk Management of API-Enabled Financial Crime in Open Banking Services
While the six categories above provide a comprehensive overview of the open-banking risk landscape, this study focuses empirically on a specific subset of these risks. In particular, the modelling and simulation framework examines financial crime and technical risks arising from API-enabled third-party access, with an emphasis on credential-compromise and credential-stuffing attacks, the resulting fraud and operational incidents at third-party providers, and the associated aggregate financial losses.
- API Security Breach Statistics 2026: Hidden Threats
Security Bypass vulnerabilities hold 3.6%, showing gaps in authentication and authorization controls. Parameter Tampering contributes 3.6%, indicating that manipulation of API request data remains a concern.
- Banking App Security Testing 2026: PSD2, PCI-DSS & OWASP
Key Finding: BOLA (Broken Object Level Authorization) remains the most critical API vulnerability according to OWASP. In banking contexts, a single BOLA vulnerability can allow an attacker to access any customer's account data by manipulating ...
- (PDF) Cybersecurity Threats and Vulnerabilities in Online Banking Systems
This paper provides a comprehensive ... banking faces, including phishing attacks, malware, ransomware, man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks, insider threats, and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks....
- AI Threats Pose New Fraud Risks, But AI Can Also Defend Banks
Detecting these manipulations requires sophisticated document forensics and metadata inspection tools. These are technologies that go beyond surface-level validation to assess inconsistencies in character rendering, kerning (the spacing between letters), and digital signatures embedded in files. Read more: Four Ways Banks Can Turn Fraud Into a Loyalty Play · Perhaps the most insidious threat of all is the rise of synthetic identities.
- The Hidden Vulnerabilities of Real-Time Transactions
Real-world example: The WiFi Pineapple incident, where attackers used hardware to intercept and manipulate traffic on public WiFi networks. Users connecting to coffee shops or airport WiFi unknowingly routed their banking traffic through ...