OWASP TOP 10 2021:

In the ever-evolving landscape of web application security, staying ahead of potential threats is paramount. The OWASP Top 10, a globally recognized standard, identifies the most critical web application security risks. Let’s delves into the 2021 edition of the OWASP Top 10, shedding light on the key vulnerabilities that demand attention and the proactive measures organizations can take to bolster their defenses.

1.Broken Access Control: Inadequate access controls can lead to unauthorized access and data exposure. IDOR, privilege escalation can be exploited through this vulnerabilities.

2.Cryptographic Failures:Data breaches remain a persistent menace. Delve into the risks associated with unprotected sensitive data and explore encryption, secure storage, and transmission practices to safeguard critical information.This types of vulnerability may lead to loss for a company.

3. Injection: Injection flaws, such as SQL, NoSQL, or OS injection, top the list. malicious attackers can exploit these vulnerabilities and get access to the web server and can control the entire server.

4.Insecure Design:Insecure design refers to vulnerabilities which are inherent to the application’s architecture. They are not vulnerabilities regarding bad implementations or configurations, but the idea behind the whole application (or a part of it) is flawed from the start. Insecure password reset is one of it.

5.Security Misconfiguration: Improperly configured security settings can expose sensitive information and open avenues for attacks. 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.

6.Vulnerable and Outdated Components: Applications often rely on third-party components, and using outdated or vulnerable versions can expose vulnerabilities.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.

7.Identification and Authentication Failures: Unsecured authentication mechanisms pose a severe threat. The dangers of weak passwords, session vulnerabilities, and misconfigured authentication setups. This types of vulnerabilities can be exploited to get access to other user account.

8. Software and Data Integrity Failures:Software and data integrity failures occur when unauthorized changes or corruption compromise the accuracy and reliability of software systems or stored data. These issues may result from malware, accidental errors, or malicious tampering, leading to potential data loss, system malfunctions, and security breaches. Implementing robust security measures, regular backups, and integrity checks is essential to mitigate such risks and maintain the trustworthiness of software and data.

9. Security Logging & Monitoring Failures: Inadequate logging and monitoring can hinder timely detection of security incidents. 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.

10.Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF):In SSRF, an attacker manipulates a web server to make a request to an internal resource, like fetching sensitive data from a database. For instance, an attacker might use a manipulated URL to trick the server into accessing “http://internal-server/database." Proper input validation and restricting access to internal resources are crucial for preventing SSRF attacks.

Conclusion:
Navigating the threat landscape requires a holistic approach to security. By understanding and addressing the OWASP Top 10 (2021), organizations can fortify their web applications against a myriad of potential risks. Stay vigilant, adopt secure coding practices, and continuously monitor and update your defenses to stay one step ahead of evolving security threats.