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

A01:2025 – Broken Access Control

Access control mechanisms are designed to enforce policies ensuring users operate only within their intended permissions. Failures in this area often result in unauthorized data disclosure, modification, or destruction, or the execution of business functions beyond user limits.

Practical Aspects

• Analysis of practical examples involving broken access controls

• Implementation of secure access controls and adherence to best practices

A02:2025 – Security Misconfiguration

Security misconfiguration occurs when systems, applications, or cloud services are deployed with incorrect security settings, thereby creating exploitable vulnerabilities.

Practical Aspects

• Examination of real-world cases of misconfiguration

• Strategies to prevent misconfiguration, leveraging configuration management and automation tools

A03:2025 – Software Supply Chain Failures

Supply chain failures refer to compromises or breakdowns in the software building, distribution, or update processes. These are frequently caused by vulnerabilities or malicious alterations in third-party code, tools, or dependencies upon which the system relies.

A04:2025 – Cryptographic Failures

In general, all data in transit should be encrypted at the transport layer (OSI layer 4). Modern CPUs, equipped with instructions for accelerating encryption (such as AES support), and simplified key/certificate management services like LetsEncrypt.org, have addressed previous hurdles related to performance and management. Cloud vendors also offer tightly integrated certificate management for their platforms.

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

Sensitive data, including passwords, credit card numbers, health records, personal information, and business secrets, demands enhanced protection, particularly when subject to privacy laws like the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or standards like the PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

Practical Aspects

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

• The importance 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 permits attackers to insert malicious code or commands (such as SQL or shell code) into input fields. This tricks the system into executing the payload as if it were legitimate system code, potentially leading to severe consequences.

Practical Aspects

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

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

A06:2025 – Insecure Design

Insecure design is a broad category encompassing various weaknesses characterized as “missing or ineffective control design.”

While related, insecure design is distinct from insecure implementation. The two are differentiated because they have different root causes, occur at different stages of the development process, and require different remediation approaches.

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

A contributing factor to insecure design is the lack of business risk profiling for the software or system, leading to an incorrect determination of the required security design level.

Practical Aspects

• Exploration of design flaws that 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 successfully tricks a system into recognizing an invalid or incorrect user as legitimate.

Practical Aspects

• Overview of common authentication issues

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

A08:2025 – Software or Data Integrity Failures

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

An example includes applications relying on plugins, libraries, or modules from untrusted sources, repositories, or content delivery networks (CDNs).

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

Another instance is a CI/CD system that pulls code or artifacts from untrusted locations without verifying them (e.g., by checking signatures) before use.

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 robust logging and monitoring, attacks and breaches go undetected. Furthermore, the absence of effective alerting mechanisms makes it difficult to respond quickly and effectively during security incidents.

Failures in this area occur when there is insufficient logging, continuous monitoring, detection, or alerting to initiate active responses.

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 occurs when software fails to prevent, detect, or respond to unusual and unpredictable situations, resulting in crashes, unexpected behavior, or potential vulnerabilities.

This typically involves one or more of the following deficiencies:

• The application does not prevent the unusual situation from occurring

• The application fails to identify the situation as it happens

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

SAST – Static Application Security Testing

1. Definition of static analysis and its optimal timing in the SDLC (shifting left)

2. Types of vulnerabilities detectable via SAST, comparing vulnerable code with secure code

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

4. Practical exercise: Execute a SAST scan on a repository with deliberately introduced vulnerabilities, interpret results, and triage false positives versus 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 workflow, including crawling, fuzzing, and response analysis

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

4. Practical exercise: Run a DAST scan on a vulnerable test application (e.g., OWASP Juice Shop) to identify and validate 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 its significance

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

4. Practical exercise: Run an SCA scan on a real project, identify vulnerable dependencies, and develop a remediation plan (update, patch, or mitigate)