open worldwide application security project (OWASP)
What is OWASP?
OWASP stands for the Open Worldwide Application Security Project. It's a nonprofit foundation that works to improve software security by providing free, vendor-neutral tools, documentation, and standards for developers and security professionals.
Founded in 2001, OWASP is best known for its OWASP Top Ten, a regularly updated list of the most critical web application security risks. It serves as a guide for organizations to identify and mitigate the most common vulnerabilities in web applications.
What is the OWASP Top Ten?
The OWASP Top Ten is a globally recognized standard for web application security. It ranks the ten most pressing security risks based on data from industry experts and real-world breach trends. The current list includes:
- Broken Access Control
- Cryptographic Failures
- Injection (e.g. cross-site scripting)
- Insecure Design
- Security Misconfiguration
- Vulnerable and Outdated Components
- Identification and Authentication Failures
- Software and Data Integrity Failures
- Security Logging and Monitoring Failures
- Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF)
Each item includes examples, consequences, and mitigation advice, making it a valuable tool for secure coding practices.
Why is OWASP important?
OWASP provides a trusted framework that:
- Educates developers and security teams
- Helps meet compliance standards like PCI DSS and ISO 27001
- Offers tools for secure coding, testing, and auditing
- Standardizes how vulnerabilities are classified and prioritized
Organizations that follow OWASP guidelines are better equipped to build secure software and reduce the risk of breaches.
Get started with OWASP Top 10 vulnerability scanning
Intruder's OWASP Top 10 Scanner helps teams address risks by:
- Continuously scanning for OWASP vulnerabilities like injection flaws and misconfigurations
- Providing actionable remediation advice for secure development
- Highlighting externally exposed systems and services attackers could target
- Helping meet compliance requirements based on OWASP and other frameworks
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