How to understand the OWASP Top 10 risks

· Category: Cybersecurity

Short answer

The OWASP Top 10 is a standard awareness document outlining the most critical security risks to web applications. It is widely adopted for training, tooling, and compliance.

Key risks

  • A01 Broken Access Control: Users access unauthorized functions or data.
  • A02 Cryptographic Failures: Weak or missing encryption exposes sensitive data.
  • A03 Injection: SQL, NoSQL, OS command, and LDAP injection attacks.
  • A04 Insecure Design: Fundamental design flaws lacking security controls.
  • A05 Security Misconfiguration: Default credentials, unnecessary features, and verbose errors.
  • A06 Vulnerable Components: Outdated libraries and frameworks with known CVEs.
  • A07 Authentication Failures: Weak credentials, session management flaws, and brute-force susceptibility.
  • A08 Data Integrity Failures: Insecure deserialization and supply chain attacks.
  • A09 Logging Failures: Insufficient monitoring allowing breaches to go undetected.
  • A10 SSRF: Server-Side Request Forgery forcing servers to make malicious requests.

Why it matters

The OWASP Top 10 serves as a minimum standard for application security. Addressing these risks first provides the highest return on security investment.