Overview of AsyncOS API for Cisco Security Management Appliances

The AsyncOS API for Cisco Security Management appliances (or AsyncOS API) is a representational state transfer (REST) based set of operations that provide secure and authenticated access to the Security Management appliance reports, report counters, tracking, quarantine, and configuration. You can retrieve the Security Management appliance reporting, tracking, and quarantine data (for Email Security appliances) using the API. In this release you can query for configuration information. Posting configuration changes is not supported in this release.

This chapter contains the following sections:

Prerequisites for Using AsyncOS API

To use AsyncOS API, you need:

  • A Security Management appliance with AsyncOS 12.0.

  • Knowledge of:

    • HTTP, which is the protocol used for API transactions. Secure communication over TLS.

    • JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), which the API uses to construct resource representations.

    • JSON Web Token (JWT)

  • A client or programming library that initiates requests and receives responses from the AsyncOS API using HTTP or HTTPS, for example, cURL. The client or programming library must support JSON to interpret the response from the API.

  • Authorization to access the AsyncOS API. See Authorization.

  • AsyncOS API enabled using web interface or CLI. See Enabling AsyncOS API.

Enabling AsyncOS API

Before You Begin

Make sure that you are authorized to access the IP Interfaces page on the web interface or the interfaceconfig command on CLI. Only administrators, email administrators, cloud administrators, and operators are authorized.

You can also enable the AsyncOS API using the interfaceconfig command in CLI.

Procedure

Step 1

Log in to the web interface.

Step 2

[New web interface only] Click the gear icon to load the legacy web interface.

Step 3

Choose Management Appliance Network > IP Interfaces.

Step 4

Edit the Management interface.

Note 
You can enable AsyncOS API on any IP interface. However, Cisco recommends that you enable AsyncOS API on the Management interface.
Step 5

Under the AsyncOS API (Monitoring) section, depending on your requirements, select HTTP, HTTPS, or both and the ports to use.

Note 
AsyncOS API communicates using HTTP / 1.1.

If you have selected HTTPS and you want to use your own certificate for secure communication, see Securely Communicating with AsyncOS API.

Note 
Cisco recommends that you always use HTTPS in the production environment. Use HTTP only for troubleshooting and testing the API.
Step 6

Submit and commit your changes.

Securely Communicating with AsyncOS API

You can communicate with AsyncOS API over secure HTTP using your own certificate.


Note
Do not perform this procedure if you are already running the web interface over HTTPS and using your own certificate for secure communication. AsyncOS API uses the same certificate as web interface, for communicating over HTTPS.

Procedure

Step 1

Set up a certificate using the certconfig command in the CLI. For instructions, refer the User Guide or Online Help.

Step 2

Change the HTTPS certificate used by the IP interface to your certificate using the interfaceconfig command in CLI. For instructions, refer the User Guide or Online Help.

Step 3

Submit and commit your changes.

AsyncOS API Authentication and Authorization

This section explains about the authentication methods, the user roles which can access APIs, and how to query for APIs accessible to a user.

Authentication

Submit the Security Management appliance's username and password with all the requests to the API, in the Base64-encoded format or with a JSON Web Token. The user inactivity timeout settings in the appliance apply to the validity of a JWT. If a request does not include valid credentials in the Authorization header, the API sends a 401 error message. You can use any base64 library to convert your credentials into base64-encoded format.


Note
The appliance allows you to invoke AsyncOS APIs by including access tokens that are retrieved from Identity Providers (IDPs) that support OpenID Connect 1.0. For more details on how to use AsyncOS APIs with external IDPs, see the "Common Administrative Tasks" chapter of the User Guide for AsyncOS 13.8.1 for Cisco Content Security Appliances.

Authenticating API Queries with JSON Web Token

You can generate a JSON Web Token (JWT) and use it with your API queries.


Note

The user inactivity timeout settings in the appliance applies to the validity of a JWT. The Web Security appliance checks every API query with a JWT, for its time validity. If a JWT is found to be within 5 minutes of time validity, after which it will time out, a new refresh JWT is sent with the response header. You must use this new refresh JWT with API queries, or generate a new one.

Synopsis 

POST /wsa/api/v2.0/login

Use the syntax below for two factor authentications:

POST /wsa/api/v2.0/login/two_factor

Body Parameters

Use Base64 encoded credentials.

{
    "data": 
    {
        "userName":"YWRtaW4=",
        "passphrase":"aXJvbnBvcnQ="
    }
}

Request Headers

Host, Accept, Authorization

Response Headers

Content-Type, Content-Length, Connection

This example shows a query to log in with Base64 encoded credentials, and generate a JWT.

Sample Request

POST /wsa/api/v2.0/login
HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: application/json
cache-control: no-cache
User-Agent: curl/7.54.0
Accept: */*
Host: wsa.cisco.com:6080
accept-encoding: gzip, deflate
content-length: 95
Connection: keep-alive
{
    "data": 
    {
        "userName":"YWRtaW4=",
        "passphrase":"aXJvbnBvcnQ="
    }
}

Sample Response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: API/2.0
Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2018 07:22:47 GMT
Content-type: application/json
Content-Length: 618
Connection: close
Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
Access-Control-Allow-Headers: content-type, jwttoken, mid, h, email
Access-Control-Allow-Credentials: true
Access-Control-Allow-Methods: GET, POST, DELETE, OPTIONS
Access-Control-Expose-Headers: Content-Disposition, jwtToken

{
    "data": {
        "userName": "admin",
        "is2FactorRedirectRequired": "false",
        "role": "Administrator",
        "email": [],
        "jwtToken": "eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJ1c2VyTmFtZSI6ImFkbWluIiwiaXM
         yRmFjdG9yQ2hlY2tSZXF1aXJlZCI6ZmFsc2UsImNvb2tpZSI6IlRucEZOVTFFWTNwTlZFMDlDanRMYVR
         oeENqdFpiV1J6VFVSQk5VMURNWGRpTWxGMVdUSnNlbGt5T0hWWk1qbDBUMnBaZDA5RVFUMEtcbk8xVkh
         PWHBrUnpGb1lteEtNV0p1VW5CaVYxVjJUbmswTUV4cVFUMEtPMVJVUlhkTlJsazNUVlJKZFUxRE5IZE1
         WRWw1VFdwek1FMXFcblNUVlNhazVDVDBWRk1rOUVaM2xTUlVreVRYcGtSazFwTVVSTlZFMHpUbFZXUjA1
    }
}

Authorization

The AsyncOS API is a role based system, the scope of API queries is defined by the role of the user. Cisco Content Security Management appliance users with the following roles can access the AsyncOS API:

  • Administrator

  • Operator

  • Technician

  • Read-Only Operator

  • Guest

  • Web Administrator

  • Web Policy Administrator

  • URL Filtering Administrator

  • Email Administrator

  • Help Desk User


Note

  • Externally authenticated users can access the API.

  • Custom roles, delegated by the administrator can also access the APIs.

AsyncOS API Requests and Responses


Note

For complete list of APIs, see AsyncOS API - Addendum to the Getting Started Guide for Cisco Content Security Management Appliances.

AsyncOS API Requests

Requests made to the API have the following characteristics:

  • Requests are sent over HTTP or HTTPS

  • Each request must contain a valid URI in the following format:

    http://{appliance}:{port}/sma/api/v2.0/{resource}/{resource_attributes}
    https://{appliance}:{port}/sma/api/v2.0/{resource}/{resource_attributes}

    where:

    • {appliance}:{port}
      is the FQDN or the IP address of the appliance and the TCP port number on which the appliance is listening. 
    • {resource}
      is the resource you are attempting to access, for example, reports, tracking, quarantine, configuration, or other counters. 
    • {resource_attributes}
      are the supported attributes for a resource, for example, duration, and so on.
  • Each request must contain user credentials, or a valid authorization header.
  • Each request must be set to accept: 
    application/json
  • Requests sent over HTTPS (using your own certificate) must contain your CA certificate. For example, in case of cURL, you can specify the CA certificate in the API request as follows: 
    curl --cacert <ca_cert.crt> -u"username:password"
    https://<fqdn>:<port>/sma/api/v2.0/{resource}/{resource_attributes}

Note
API requests are case sensitive and should be entered as shown in this guide.

AsyncOS API Responses

This section explains the key components of the responses, and various HTTP error codes.

Key Components of Responses

Components

Values

Description

Status Code and Reason

See HTTP Response Codes.

HTTP response code and the reason.

Message Header

Content-Type 

application/json

Indicates the format of the message body.

Content-Length

n/a

The length of the response body in octets.

Connection 

close

Options that are desired for the connection.

Message Body

n/a

The message body is in the format defined by the Content-Type header. The following are the components of the message body:

  1. URI. The URI you specified in the request to the API.

    Example

    :"/api/v2.0/config/"

  2. Counter group and/or counter name

    Example

    reporting/mail_security_summary

  3. Query parameters

    Example

    startDate=2017-01-30T00:00:00.000Z&endDate=2018-01-
30T14:00:00.000Z

  4. Error (Only for Error Events). This component includes three subcomponents—message, code, and explanation.

    Example 

    "error": {"message": "Unexpected attribute 
- starts_with.","code": "404", "explanation":
"404 = Nothing matches the given URI."}

    If the message body contains empty braces ({}), it means that the API could not find any records matching the query.

HTTP Response Codes

The following is a list of HTTP response codes returned by AsyncOS API:

  • 200

  • 202

  • 300

  • 301

  • 307

  • 400
  • 401

  • 403

  • 404
  • 406
  • 413
  • 414
  • 500
  • 501

  • 503

  • 505 

For descriptions of these HTTP response codes, refer the following RFCs:

  • RFC1945
  • RFC7231

Comparing API Data with the Web Interface Data

The new web interface uses the AsyncOS APIs to fetch data with the duration attribute specified in the GMT time zone. If you plan to compare the data from your API query with the new web interface data, ensure that your API query has the same time range (in ISO8601 time format) as the new web interface API query.

Related Documentation

In addition to the topics covered in this document, you can find more information about the APIs in the following documents:

Table 1. Related Documentation

Document

Located At:

Addendum to the Getting Started Guide for Cisco Security Management Appliances.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/security/content-security-management-appliance/products-programming-reference-guides-list.html

API Help (Swagger UI)

On the new web interface, hover over the help icon, and click API Help: Swagger.

Note 

The API Help (Swagger UI) also allows you to test the API calls directly from your web browser using the Try it out button.