Application Security Testing: OWASP Top 10, SAST, DAST and SCA Training Course

A01:2025 – Broken Access Control

Access control mechanisms enforce policies that prevent users from exceeding their intended permissions. Failures in this area typically result in unauthorized information disclosure, data modification or destruction, or the execution of business functions beyond the user’s authorized scope.

Practical Aspects

• Real-world examples of broken access control vulnerabilities

• Implementation of secure access controls and industry best practices

A02:2025 – Security Misconfiguration

Security misconfiguration occurs when systems, applications, or cloud services are improperly set up from a security standpoint, thereby creating exploitable vulnerabilities.

Practical Aspects

• Cases of real-world misconfigurations

• Strategies to prevent misconfiguration, including the use of configuration management and automation tools

A03:2025 – Software Supply Chain Failures

Software supply chain failures refer to breakdowns or compromises in the processes of building, distributing, or updating software. These issues are frequently caused by vulnerabilities or malicious alterations in third-party code, tools, or other dependencies that the system relies upon.

A04:2025 – Cryptographic Failures

In general, all data in transit should be encrypted at the transport layer (OSI layer 4). Previous challenges, such as CPU performance constraints and private key/certificate management, have been largely mitigated by modern CPUs with instructions designed to accelerate encryption (e.g., AES support) and by services like LetsEncrypt.org, which simplify management. Major cloud vendors also provide tightly integrated certificate management services for their specific platforms.

Beyond securing the transport layer, it is crucial to determine which data requires encryption at rest and which data needs additional encryption in transit at the application layer (OSI layer 7).

For instance, passwords, credit card numbers, health records, personal information, and business secrets require enhanced protection, particularly when subject to privacy laws such as the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or regulations like the PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

Practical Aspects

• In-depth analysis of cryptographic failures, such as the use of weak encryption algorithms or improper key management

• The significance of robust cryptographic mechanisms, secure protocols (SSL/TLS), and examples of modern cryptography in web security

A05:2025 – Injection

An injection vulnerability is a system flaw that allows an attacker to insert malicious code or commands (such as SQL or shell code) into a program's input fields, tricking the system into executing the code or commands as if they were legitimate parts of the system. This can lead to severe consequences.

Practical Aspects

• Detailed breakdown of SQL, NoSQL, OS, and LDAP injection techniques

• Mitigation techniques using prepared statements, parameterized queries, and input escaping

A06:2025 – Insecure Design

Insecure design is a broad category representing various weaknesses, often described as “missing or ineffective control design.”

Insecure design is not the sole source of all other Top Ten risk categories. It is important to distinguish between insecure design and insecure implementation. These are differentiated because they have different root causes, occur at different stages of the development process, and require different remediation approaches.

A secure design can still suffer from implementation defects that lead to exploitable vulnerabilities. Conversely, an insecure design cannot be remediated by a perfect implementation, as the necessary security controls were never established to defend against specific attacks.

A contributing factor to insecure design is the lack of business risk profiling inherent in the software or system being developed, leading to a failure to determine the required level of security design.

Practical Aspects

• Exploration of design flaws that can lead to vulnerabilities, such as improper input validation

• Study of strategies for secure architecture and secure design principles

A07:2025 – Authentication Failures

Authentication failures occur when an attacker is able to trick a system into recognizing an invalid or incorrect user as legitimate.

Practical Aspects

• Common authentication issues and pitfalls

• Secure authentication strategies, such as multi-factor authentication and proper session handling

A08:2025 – Software or Data Integrity Failures

Software and data integrity failures relate to code and infrastructure that fails to prevent invalid or untrusted code or data from being treated as trusted and valid.

An example of this is when an application relies on plugins, libraries, or modules from untrusted sources, repositories, or content delivery networks (CDNs).

An insecure CI/CD pipeline that lacks software integrity checks in consumption and provision can introduce risks of unauthorized access, insecure or malicious code, or system compromise.

Another example is a CI/CD pipeline that pulls code or artifacts from untrusted locations and/or fails to verify them before use (e.g., by checking signatures or similar mechanisms).

Practical Aspects

• Focus on issues such as untrusted software updates and data tampering

• Implementation of safe update mechanisms and data integrity checks

A09:2025 – Security Logging and Alerting Failures

Without adequate logging and monitoring, attacks and breaches may go undetected. Furthermore, without effective alerting, it becomes very difficult to respond quickly and effectively during a security incident.

Insufficient logging, continuous monitoring, detection, and alerting capabilities hinder the ability to initiate active responses to security events.

Practical Aspects

• The importance of logging security-relevant information and monitoring for suspicious activities

• Tools and practices for proper logging and real-time monitoring to detect breaches early

A10:2025 – Mishandling of Exceptional Conditions

Mishandling of exceptional conditions in software occurs when programs fail to prevent, detect, and respond to unusual and unpredictable situations, leading to crashes, unexpected behavior, and potential vulnerabilities.

This can involve one or more of the following failings:

• The application does not prevent an unusual situation from occurring

• The application does not identify the situation as it is happening

• The application responds poorly or not at all to the situation after it occurs

SAST – Static Application Security Testing

1. Definition of static analysis and its optimal timing within the SDLC (shift left approach)

2. Types of vulnerabilities detectable through SAST, comparing vulnerable code vs secure code

3. Overview of SAST tools (e.g., Semgrep, SonarQube, Checkmarx, tailored to the client's tech stack)

4. Practical exercise: running a SAST scan on a repository with deliberately introduced vulnerabilities, interpreting results, and triaging false positives vs real vulnerabilities

DAST – Dynamic Application Security Testing

1. Differences between SAST and DAST, focusing on black box testing of the running application

2. The DAST scan flow, including crawling, fuzzing, and response analysis

3. Overview of DAST tools (e.g., OWASP ZAP, Burp Suite)

4. Practical exercise: running a DAST scan on a vulnerable test application (e.g., OWASP Juice Shop), identifying, and validating findings

SCA – Software Composition Analysis

1. Risks associated with third-party dependencies and libraries, including inherited vulnerabilities

2. SBOM (Software Bill of Materials): definition and significance

3. Overview of SCA tools (e.g., Dependency Check, Snyk, GitHub Dependabot)

4. Practical exercise: running an SCA scan on a real project, identifying vulnerable dependencies, and building a remediation plan (update, patch, mitigate)