API Gateway Publicly Accessible

What this rule checks

Detects API Gateway REST APIs configured with a non-PRIVATE endpoint, i.e. reachable from the public internet.

How to fix it

1. 1Use a PRIVATE endpoint type with a VPC endpoint for internal APIs
2. 2For intentionally public APIs, attach an authorizer and a WAF web ACL
3. 3If public access is intended, suppress this rule for the resource

import * as apigateway from 'aws-cdk-lib/aws-apigateway';

const api = new apigateway.RestApi(this, 'Api');
api.root.addMethod('GET', new apigateway.MockIntegration());

import * as apigateway from 'aws-cdk-lib/aws-apigateway';

const api = new apigateway.RestApi(this, 'Api', {
  endpointConfiguration: { types: [apigateway.EndpointType.PRIVATE] },
});
api.root.addMethod('GET', new apigateway.MockIntegration());

CDK Insights pinpoints the exact file and line in your CDK source for every finding, so you can jump straight to the fix.

Affected resource types

Intentional? Suppress this finding

Sometimes a flag is deliberate — a genuinely public endpoint, say. You can dismiss api-gateway-public-endpoint and the reason is kept in the report, not silently hidden.

In .cdk-insights.json:

{
  "ignoreRules": [
    { "id": "api-gateway-public-endpoint", "reason": "Why this is intentional" }
  ]
}

Or inline in your CDK code:

Validations.of(scope).acknowledge({
  id: 'cdk-insights::api-gateway-public-endpoint',
  reason: 'Why this is intentional',
});

Use the rule ID api-gateway-public-endpoint shown above — not the CDK-* ID from SARIF / GitHub code scanning. To dismiss every finding on one construct instead, use ignorePaths. Suppression docs →

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