What Is The OWASP Top Ten?
The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) is a worldwide not-for-profit charitable organization focused on improving the security of software. They have a community of over 42,000 volunteers all over the world who offer their assistance in a variety of ways to ensure the safety and security of the Internet. The OWASP mission is to make software security visible so that individuals and organizations worldwide can make informed decisions about true software security risks. About every three years, OWASP publishes a “top ten” list of application security flaws. Some of the OWASP leading security volunteers scour the Internet and use various resources to find the latest and greatest flaws in Internet applications so they can publish this list. This list has become the de-facto standard for the most dangerous application security vulnerabilities found on the Internet. While this list is certainly a valuable and powerful tool for assessing your organization’s application security, I would recommend formulating your own top ten list as well. The top ten OWASP vulnerabilities may not be the same as your own organization’s top ten vulnerabilities. That said, it’s still interesting to know what vulnerabilities are out there ready to be exploited. The OWASP top ten list that was published in 2017 is as follows: Injection. Injection flaws, such as SQL, NoSQL, OS, and LDAP injection, occur when untrusted data is sent to an interpreter as part of a command or query. The attacker’s hostile data can trick the interpreter into executing unintended commands or accessing data without proper authorization. Broken Authentication. Application functions related to authentication and session management are often implemented incorrectly, allowing attackers to compromise passwords, keys, or session tokens, or to exploit other implementation flaws to assume other users’ identities temporarily or permanently. Sensitive Data Exposure. Many web applications and APIs do not properly protect sensitive data, such as financial, healthcare, and PII. Attackers may steal or modify such weakly protected data to conduct credit card fraud, identity theft, or other crimes. Sensitive data may be compromised without extra protection, such as encryption at rest or in transit, and requires special precautions when exchanged with the browser. XML External Entities (XXE). Many older or poorly configured XML processors evaluate external entity references within XML documents. External entities can be used to disclose internal files using the file URI handler, internal file shares, internal port scanning, remote code execution, and denial of service attacks. Broken Access Control. Restrictions on what authenticated users are allowed to do are often not properly enforced. Attackers can exploit these flaws to access unauthorized functionality and/or data, such as access other users’ accounts, view sensitive files, modify other users’ data, change access rights, etc. Security Misconfiguration. Security misconfiguration is the most commonly seen issue. This is commonly a result of insecure default configurations, incomplete or ad hoc configurations, open cloud storage, misconfigured HTTP headers, and verbose error messages containing sensitive information. Not only must all operating systems, frameworks, libraries, and applications be securely configured, but they must be patched/upgraded in a timely fashion. Cross-Site Scripting XSS. XSS flaws occur whenever an application includes untrusted data in a new web page without proper validation or escaping, or updates an existing web page with user-supplied data using a browser API that can create HTML or JavaScript. XSS allows attackers to execute scripts in the victim’s browser which can hijack user sessions, deface web sites, or redirect the user to malicious sites. Insecure Deserialization. Insecure deserialization often leads to remote code execution. Even if deserialization flaws do not result in remote code execution, they can be used to perform attacks, including replay attacks, injection attacks, and privilege escalation attacks. Using Components with Known Vulnerabilities. Components, such as libraries, frameworks, and other software modules, run with the same privileges as the application. If a vulnerable component is exploited, such an attack can facilitate serious data loss or server takeover. Applications and APIs using components with known vulnerabilities may undermine application defenses and enable various attacks and impacts. Insufficient Logging & Monitoring. Insufficient logging and monitoring, coupled with missing or ineffective integration with incident response, allows attackers to further attack systems, maintain persistence, pivot to more systems, and tamper, extract, or destroy data. Most breach studies show time to detect a breach is over 200 days, typically detected by external parties rather than internal processes or monitoring. The BIG-IP Application Security Manager is a Web Application Firewall (WAF) that provides protection from these vulnerabilities, and we will spend some time this week discussing the advantages of deploying a WAF in front of your web applications to defend against these threats. While it’s always best to build a secure application by using secure coding practices, we understand that the reality of life today is that some (if not all) of your web applications are vulnerable to attack.Lightboard Lessons: OWASP Top 10 - Injection Attacks
The OWASP Top 10 is a list of the most common security risks on the Internet today. For the past several years, "Injection Attack" has been the #1 security risk on the Top 10 list. In this video, John discusses injection attacks and outlines some mitigation steps to make sure your web application doesn't fall prey to one of these harmful attacks. Related Resources: OWASP Mitigation Strategies: Injection Attacks Securing against the OWASP Top 10: Injection attacks What is the OWASP Top Ten?Lightboard Lessons: OWASP Top 10 - Insecure Deserialization
The OWASP Top 10 is a list of the most common security risks on the Internet today. Insecure Deserialization comes in at the #8spot in the latest edition of the OWASP Top 10. In this video, John discusses this vulnerability and outlines some mitigation steps to make sure your web application stays secure against this threat. Related Resources: Securing against the OWASP Top 10: Insecure DeserializationLightboard Lessons: OWASP Top 10 - Broken Authentication
The OWASP Top 10 is a list of the most common security risks on the Internet today. Broken Authentication comes in at the #2 spot in the latest edition of the OWASP Top 10. In this video, John discusses broken authenticationand outlines some mitigation steps to make sure your web application doesn't give access tothe wrong users. Related Resources: Securing against the OWASP Top 10: Broken AuthenticationLightboard Lessons: OWASP Top 10 - Cross Site Scripting
The OWASP Top 10 is a list of the most common security risks on the Internet today. Cross Site Scripting (XSS)comes in at the #7spot in the latest edition of the OWASP Top 10. In this video, John discusses how Cross Site Scripting worksand outlines some mitigation steps to make sure your web application stays secure against this threat. Related Resources: Securing against the OWASP Top 10: Cross-Site ScriptingLightboard Lessons: OWASP Top 10 - XML External Entities
The OWASP Top 10 is a list of the most common security risks on the Internet today. XML External Entities comes in at the #4spot in the latest edition of the OWASP Top 10. In this video, John discusses this security riskand outlines some mitigation steps to make sure your web application doesn't process malicious XML data and expose sensitive information. Related Resources: Securing against the OWASP Top 10: XML External Entity attacksLightboard Lessons: OWASP Top 10 - Using Components With Known Vulnerabilities
The OWASP Top 10 is a list of the most common security risks on the Internet today. The #9riskin the latest edition of the OWASP Top 10 is "Using Components With Known Vulnerabilities". It may seem obvious that you wouldn't want to use components in your web application that have known vulnerabilities, but it's easier said than done. In this video, John discusses this problemand outlines some mitigation steps to make sure your web application stays secure. Related Resources: Securing against the OWASP Top 10: Using Components With Known Vulnerabilities Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures(CVE)Database National Vulnerability Database (NVD)Lightboard Lessons: OWASP Top 10 - Sensitive Data Exposure
The OWASP Top 10 is a list of the most common security risks on the Internet today. Sensitive Data Exposurecomes in at the #3spot in the latest edition of the OWASP Top 10. In this video, John discusses this security riskand outlines some mitigation steps to make sure your web application doesn't expose any sensitive data. Related Resources: Securing against the OWASP Top 10: Sensitive Data ExposureLightboard Lessons: OWASP Top 10 - Insufficient Logging and Monitoring
The OWASP Top 10 is a list of the most common security risks on the Internet today. The #10riskin the latest edition of the OWASP Top 10 is "Insufficient Logging and Monitoring". Logging and monitoring are sometimes viewed as not the most interesting topics, but these are both extremely important. Log entries can help you identify if/when you are attacked, and monitoring those log files will allow you to take action against the attackers. In this video, John discusses this security riskand outlines some mitigation steps to make sure your web application stays secure. Related Resources: Securing against the OWASP Top 10: Insufficient Logging and Monitoring OWASP Logging Cheat SheetLightboard Lessons: OWASP Top 10 - Broken Access Control
The OWASP Top 10 is a list of the most common security risks on the Internet today. Broken Access Controlcomes in at the #5spot in the latest edition of the OWASP Top 10. In this video, John discusses this security riskand outlines some mitigation steps to make sure your web application only allows access for the correct users. Related Resources: Securing against the OWASP Top 10: Broken Access Control
