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

A01:2025 – Broken Access Control

Access control mechanisms enforce policies to ensure users operate within their authorized permissions. Failures in this area often result in unauthorized data disclosure, alteration, or destruction, or allow users to perform business functions beyond their intended limits.

Practical Components

• Examination of real-world broken access control scenarios

• Implementation of secure access controls and adherence to best practices

A02:2025 – Security Misconfiguration

Security misconfiguration occurs when systems, applications, or cloud services are not set up with security in mind, thereby creating exploitable vulnerabilities.

Practical Components

• Analysis of common real-world misconfiguration errors

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

A03:2025 – Software Supply Chain Failures

Supply chain failures refer to compromises in the software build, distribution, or update processes. These are frequently caused by vulnerabilities or malicious modifications in third-party code, tools, or other dependencies that the system relies upon.

A04:2025 – Cryptographic Failures

Generally, data in transit should be encrypted at the transport layer (OSI layer 4). Historical challenges such as CPU performance constraints and private key management are now mitigated by modern CPUs featuring hardware acceleration (e.g., AES support) and simplified certificate management through services like LetsEncrypt.org, along with integrated cloud provider offerings.

Beyond transport layer security, it is crucial to identify data requiring encryption at rest and data needing additional encryption at the application layer (OSI layer 7).

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

Practical Components

• In-depth analysis of cryptographic weaknesses, including weak algorithms and improper key management

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

A05:2025 – Injection

Injection vulnerabilities are flaws that permit attackers to inject malicious code or commands (such as SQL or shell scripts) into input fields, causing the system to execute them as if they were legitimate system commands. This can lead to severe consequences.

Practical Components

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

• Mitigation strategies using 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."

Insecure design is distinct from the other Top Ten risk categories. It is important to differentiate between design flaws and implementation defects, as they have different root causes, occur at different stages of the development process, and require different remediation approaches.

Even a secure design can suffer from implementation defects that lead to exploitable vulnerabilities. Conversely, an insecure design cannot be resolved by a perfect implementation, as the necessary security controls were never initially designed to counter specific threats.

A key contributor to insecure design is the absence of business risk profiling, which leads to an inability to determine the appropriate level of security design required.

Practical Components

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

• Study of secure architecture strategies and secure design principles

A07:2025 – Authentication Failures

This vulnerability exists when an attacker can deceive a system into accepting an invalid or incorrect user as legitimate.

Practical Components

• Review of common authentication weaknesses

• Implementation of secure authentication strategies, such as multi-factor authentication and robust session management

A08:2025 – Software or Data Integrity Failures

Failures in software and data integrity involve code and infrastructure that fails to distinguish between trusted and untrusted code or data, potentially treating invalid inputs as valid.

An example is when an application depends on plugins, libraries, or modules from untrusted sources, repositories, or Content Delivery Networks (CDNs).

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

Another example is a CI/CD process that retrieves code or artifacts from unverified sources and fails to validate them (e.g., via signature checking) before usage.

Practical Components

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

• Implementing safe update mechanisms and data integrity verification

A09:2025 – Security Logging and Alerting Failures

In the absence of logging and monitoring, attacks and breaches remain undetected. Without proper alerting, rapid and effective response during security incidents becomes extremely difficult.

Gaps in logging, continuous monitoring, detection, and alerting hinder the initiation of active responses at critical moments.

Practical Components

• The importance of logging security-relevant events and monitoring for suspicious activity

• Utilization of tools and practices for effective logging and real-time monitoring to detect breaches early

A10:2025 – Mishandling of Exceptional Conditions

Mishandling exceptional conditions occurs when software fails to prevent, detect, or respond to unusual or unpredictable situations, potentially leading to crashes, unexpected behavior, or security vulnerabilities.

This typically involves one or more of the following deficiencies:

• The application fails to prevent the unusual situation from occurring

• The application fails to identify the situation as it unfolds

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

SAST – Static Application Security Testing

1. Understanding static analysis and its optimal placement in the SDLC (shift-left approach)

2. Identifying vulnerability types detectable via SAST, comparing vulnerable code with secure code

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

4. Hands-on exercise: executing a SAST scan on a repository with known vulnerabilities, interpreting results, and triaging false positives against genuine vulnerabilities

DAST – Dynamic Application Security Testing

1. Distinguishing between SAST and DAST, focusing on black-box testing of running applications

2. The DAST scanning workflow, including crawling, fuzzing, and response analysis

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

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

SCA – Software Composition Analysis

1. Assessing the risks of third-party dependencies and libraries, including inherited vulnerabilities

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

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

4. Hands-on exercise: conducting an SCA scan on a real project, identifying vulnerable dependencies, and formulating a remediation plan (update, patch, or mitigate)