What is OWASP?

OWASP, the Open Web Application Security Project, is an essential resource for developers focused on web security. This article explores the OWASP Top 10 lists from 2020 to 2023, detailing each security risk and its impact on web applications.

OWASP Top 10 – 2020

The 2020 list emphasizes the most critical security concerns for web applications.

• Injection: Injection flaws, such as SQL, NoSQL, OS, and LDAP injection, occur when untrusted data is sent to an interpreter as a command or query. Attackers can use these flaws to access unauthorized data or execute malicious commands.
• Broken Authentication: Applications with broken authentication can allow attackers to compromise passwords, keys, or session tokens, or to exploit other implementation flaws to assume other users’ identities.
• Sensitive Data Exposure: Numerous web applications and APIs fail to adequately secure sensitive information, including financial details, healthcare records, and personally identifiable information (PII). Attackers can steal or modify such weakly protected data to conduct credit card fraud, identity theft, or other crimes.
• XML External Entities (XXE): Poorly configured XML processors evaluate external entity references within XML documents. Attackers can exploit this to access internal files, conduct SSRF, DoS attacks, and more.
• Broken Access Control: Often, the enforcement of restrictions on the actions authenticated users can perform is inadequate. This oversight allows attackers to exploit such weaknesses, gaining access to functions and data they are not authorized to use.
• Security Misconfiguration: Security misconfiguration stands out as the most frequently encountered problem. This risk includes insecure default configurations, incomplete or ad hoc configurations, open cloud storage, misconfigured HTTP headers, and verbose error messages containing sensitive information.
• Cross-Site Scripting (XSS): XSS vulnerabilities arise when an application embeds untrusted data into a web page without adequate validation or escaping. This oversight permits attackers to run scripts in the victim’s browser, potentially leading to hijacked user sessions, website defacement, or redirection to harmful sites.
• Insecure Deserialization: Insecure deserialization often leads to the execution of remote code. When deserialization issues don’t directly lead to executing remote code, they still pose significant risks, such as enabling replay attacks, injection attacks, and privilege escalation exploits.
• Using Components with Known Vulnerabilities: Software components like libraries, frameworks, and modules operate with the same access levels as the application itself. When these components have vulnerabilities and are exploited, it can lead to severe consequences, including substantial data breaches or complete server control by attackers.
• Insufficient Logging & Monitoring: When logging and monitoring are inadequate and not effectively integrated with incident response, it creates opportunities for attackers to continue their attacks on systems, persist within them, move to additional systems, and manipulate, steal, or delete data.

OWASP Top 10 – 2021

The 2021 list updates and refines the focus on contemporary web application security risks.

• Broken Access Control: Moves up from the fifth position in 2017 and includes failures in restricting access to functionality and data. Attackers can exploit these flaws to access unauthorized functionality and data, such as access other users’ accounts, view sensitive files, modify other users’ data, change access rights, etc.
• Cryptographic Failures: Shifted up one position and changed from “Sensitive Data Exposure”. Focuses on failures related to cryptography which often lead to sensitive data exposure or system compromise.
• Injection: Injection flaws, such as SQL, NoSQL, OS command, and LDAP injection, occur when untrusted data is sent to an interpreter as part of a command or query. Attackers can use these flaws to access unauthorized data or execute malicious commands.
• Insecure Design: A new category focusing on risks related to design flaws. It’s important to design software with security in mind from the ground up to prevent vulnerabilities.
• Security Misconfiguration: Security misconfiguration is the most common issue. This risk includes insecure default configurations, incomplete configurations, open cloud storage, misconfigured HTTP headers, and verbose error messages containing sensitive information.
• Vulnerable and Outdated Components: Formerly known as “Using Components with Known Vulnerabilities”. It focuses on software that is either known to be vulnerable or is outdated and thus missing security patches.
• Identification and Authentication Failures: Previously “Broken Authentication”. It includes failures in user and session management, allowing attackers to compromise passwords, tokens, or keys, or to exploit other implementation flaws to assume other users’ identities.
• Software and Data Integrity Failures: New in the list, focuses on making assumptions about software updates, critical data, and CI/CD pipelines without verifying integrity. It includes trusting software that has been tampered with or has unknown provenance.
• Security Logging and Monitoring Failures: Inadequate logging and monitoring, when combined with poor or nonexistent integration with incident response, can enable attackers to extend their attacks on systems, remain undetected within them, shift to other systems, and engage in activities like altering, stealing, or erasing data.
• Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF): New in the list, SSRF occurs when a web application fetches a remote resource without validating the user-supplied URL. Attackers can exploit this to send crafted requests from the server, leading to unauthorized actions.

OWASP Top 10 – 2022

The 2022 list continues to evolve, highlighting new and emerging threats in web security.

• Broken Access Control: This category highlights issues with implementing proper access controls, allowing attackers unauthorized access to systems and data.
• Cryptographic Failures: Formerly known as ‘Sensitive Data Exposure’, this category emphasizes the importance of correctly implementing cryptographic practices to protect data confidentiality and integrity.
• Injection: Injection flaws, such as SQL, NoSQL, and LDAP injection, occur when untrusted data is sent to an interpreter as part of a command or query, leading to data breaches or loss of data integrity.
• Insecure Design: This is a new category focusing on risks associated with design flaws in software, underscoring the need for a secure design from the earliest stages of development.
• Security Misconfiguration: This risk points to the dangers of insecure software configurations, which can expose systems to various attacks.
• Vulnerable and Outdated Components: Using outdated or vulnerable components can lead to severe security breaches, emphasizing the need for regular updates and dependency management.
• Identification and Authentication Failures: This category covers weaknesses in authentication mechanisms that can allow attackers to impersonate legitimate users.
• Software and Data Integrity Failures: This new category addresses the risk of trusting software and data without verifying their integrity, leading to potential security breaches.
• Security Logging and Monitoring Failures: Insufficient logging and monitoring can hinder the detection of security breaches, making systems more vulnerable to attacks.
• Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF): SSRF attacks occur when an attacker can force a server to make requests to unintended locations, potentially exposing sensitive data.

OWASP Top 10 – 2023

The 2023 list is anticipated to focus on the evolving landscape of web application security, with an emphasis on newer technologies and methodologies.

Hypothetical list items based on current trends, as the actual 2023 list may not be available.

• Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs): APTs are sophisticated, prolonged attacks aiming to continuously steal data or disrupt operations. They often target high-value information and require advanced protection strategies.
• API Security: With the increasing use of APIs, security issues related to APIs, including improper data handling and insufficient authentication, have become more prevalent.
• Cloud Security Misconfigurations: Security misconfigurations in cloud environments can expose sensitive data and systems, making them vulnerable to attacks.
• AI-Powered Attacks: The rise of AI has led to more sophisticated cyber-attacks, using AI to identify vulnerabilities or to conduct social engineering attacks at scale.
• Third-Party Component Vulnerabilities: Reliance on third-party components increases the risk of inheriting vulnerabilities, highlighting the importance of effective vulnerability management.
• Machine Learning and Data Privacy: As machine learning becomes more common, ensuring the privacy and security of the data used for machine learning models is paramount.
• IoT Security: The proliferation of IoT devices introduces new security challenges, including device authentication and data privacy concerns.
• Zero-Day Exploits: Zero-day exploits, which are vulnerabilities unknown to those interested in mitigating them, remain a significant threat, requiring proactive detection and response strategies.
• Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Attacks: Security issues in blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies, including wallet thefts and smart contract vulnerabilities, are emerging concerns.
• Quantum Computing Threats: The advent of quantum computing presents new challenges for cryptographic systems, potentially rendering current encryption methods obsolete.

Summary

Understanding OWASP and its Top 10 lists is critical for developers who aim to build secure web applications. These lists provide a framework to identify, understand, and mitigate web application security risks effectively.

Stay updated with the latest in web security by following OWASP and integrating its guidelines into your development practices.