OWASP Top 10 Application Security Risks
A1:2017 Injection
Injection flaws, such as SQL, 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.
A2:2017 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).
A3:2017 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 deserves extra protection such as encryption at rest or in transit, as well as special precautions when exchanged with the browser.
A4:2017 XML External Entity (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 SMB file shares on unpatched Windows servers, internal port scanning, remote code execution, and denial of service attacks, such as the Billion Laughs attack.
A5:2017 Broken Access Control
Restrictions on what authenticated users are allowed to do are 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.
A6:2017 Security Misconfiguration
Security misconfiguration is the most common issue in the data, which is due in part to manual or ad hoc configuration (or not configuring at all), insecure default configurations, open S3 buckets, misconfigured HTTP headers, error messages containing sensitive information, not patching or upgrading systems, frameworks, dependencies, and components in a timely fashion (or at all).
A7:2017 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 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.
A8:2017 Insecure Deserialization
Insecure deserialization flaws occur when an application receives hostile serialized objects.
Insecure deserialization leads to remote code execution. Even if deserialization flaws do not result in remote code execution, serialized objects can be replayed, tampered or deleted to spoof users, conduct injection attacks, and elevate privileges.
A9:2017 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.
A10:2017 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.