OWASP Top 10
Definition
Open Worldwide Application Security Project's ranking of the most common web application security risks, refreshed every 3 to 4 years. Current edition: 2021, with A03 Injection, A07 Identification and Authentication Failures, and others.
- Publisher
- Open Worldwide Application Security Project (OWASP)
- Update cycle
- Every 3 to 4 years
- Current edition
- 2021
- Example categories
- A03 Injection, A07 Identification and Authentication Failures
Common questions
Is the OWASP Top 10 a complete list of all web application vulnerabilities?+
No, it ranks the most common and impactful categories based on aggregated industry data, meant to prioritise remediation effort; less frequent but still serious vulnerability classes can fall outside the top 10 in a given edition.
How is the OWASP Top 10 used in a forensic or incident response investigation?+
Investigators use it as a reference checklist when reconstructing how a web application was compromised, mapping observed attacker techniques such as SQL injection or broken authentication back to the relevant category to guide evidence collection and remediation advice.
Related terms
- ARP Poisoning
- Sending forged ARP replies on a LAN to bind an attacker's MAC to a victim's IP in other hosts' ARP caches, redirecting...
- CVE / KEV
- Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (MITRE-assigned identifier per public flaw). Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue (CISA), which lists CVEs proven to be actively exploited...
- DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service)
- Service-denial attack sourced from many hosts at once. Volumetric (saturate bandwidth), protocol (exhaust state on stateful boxes), or application-layer (exhaust application resources).
- MITM (Man-in-the-Middle)
- Any attack in which the adversary sits between two endpoints and reads or modifies traffic. ARP poisoning, rogue access points, BGP hijacks...
- Packet Sniffing
- Capture of network traffic from a wired tap, a switch SPAN port, or a Wi-Fi monitor-mode radio. Passive sniffing reads; active sniffing...