OWASP stands for the Open Web Application Security Project, a non-profit organization focused on improving the security of software and web applications. A WAF, or web application firewall, is a security tool designed to protect web applications from a variety of attacks, including those outlined by the OWASP Top Ten Project.
The OWASP Top Ten Project is a list of the top ten most critical web application security risks, which includes vulnerabilities such as injection attacks, broken authentication and session management, and cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks. A WAF can help mitigate these risks by analyzing incoming traffic and filtering out potentially harmful requests.
WAFs work by sitting in front of a web application and intercepting all incoming traffic. The WAF can analyze this traffic and block requests that appear to be malicious, such as those that contain SQL injection attempts or XSS attacks. In addition to this, a WAF can also provide other security features such as rate limiting, which can help prevent denial-of-service attacks.
The OWASP Top Ten Project is a widely recognized and frequently updated list of the top 10 most critical web application security risks. As of the latest update, the OWASP Top Ten list includes:
- Injection: Injection flaws, such as SQL, NoSQL, 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.
- Broken Authentication and Session Management: Application functions related to authentication and session management are often not implemented correctly, allowing attackers to compromise passwords, keys, or session tokens, or to exploit other implementation flaws to assume other users’ identities.
- Cross-Site Scripting (XSS): XSS flaws occur whenever an application takes untrusted data and sends it to a web browser without proper validation or escaping. XSS allows attackers to execute scripts in the victim’s browser that can hijack user sessions, deface web sites, or redirect the user to malicious sites.
- Broken Access Control: Restrictions on what authenticated users are allowed to do are often 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, and change access rights.
- Security Misconfiguration: Security misconfiguration is the most commonly seen issue, and results from a failure to implement all the security controls for the application, the underlying web server, and the platform it is running on. Not keeping systems up to date, failing to remove default accounts, passwords, or sample applications are common examples of this.
- Insecure Cryptographic Storage: Many web applications do not properly protect sensitive data, such as credit cards and passwords, with adequate encryption or hashing. Attackers can easily steal or modify such weakly protected data to conduct identity theft, credit card fraud, or other crimes.
- Insufficient Logging and Monitoring: Insufficient logging and monitoring make it difficult or impossible to detect attacks, which can delay incident response and compromise recovery efforts. Attacks can happen despite good security practices, and therefore it is essential that these incidents are detected and managed to ensure business continuity.
- Insecure Communications: Applications frequently fail to encrypt network traffic when it is necessary to protect sensitive data. Attackers can compromise network devices, steal sensitive data, and modify the communication for malicious purposes.
- Poor Code Quality: Poor code quality leads to vulnerabilities that can be exploited by attackers. Common programming errors include buffer overflows, integer overflows, and unchecked input validation, which can lead to security flaws.
- Using Components with Known Vulnerabilities: Many applications use third-party components or libraries, and sometimes these libraries contain vulnerabilities that can be exploited by attackers. It is important to keep track of these dependencies and ensure they are kept up to date with security patches and updates.
These security risks are not ranked in order of severity or likelihood, as they can vary based on the specific application and its implementation. However, they are all considered critical risks that can have serious consequences for the security and integrity of a web application.
Overall, a WAF can be an important part of a comprehensive web application security strategy, as it can help protect against a wide range of known vulnerabilities and attacks, including those identified by the OWASP Top Ten Project.