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

A01:2025 – Broken Access Control

Access control enforces policies ensuring users cannot exceed their intended permissions. Failures in this area typically result in unauthorized disclosure, modification, or destruction of data, or the execution of business functions beyond a user's authorized scope.

Practical Aspects

• Practical examples illustrating broken access controls

• Secure access control implementations and best practices

A02:2025 – Security Misconfiguration

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

Practical Aspects

• Real-world examples of common 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 are often caused by vulnerabilities or malicious alterations in third-party code, tools, or other dependencies that the system relies upon.

A04:2025 – Cryptographic Failures

Generally, all data in transit should be encrypted at the transport layer (OSI layer 4). Previous barriers, such as CPU performance and complex private key/certificate management, have been mitigated by modern CPUs with hardware-accelerated encryption instructions (e.g., AES support) and simplified key management through services like LetsEncrypt.org. Major cloud providers further enhance this with tightly integrated certificate management services.

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

Practical Aspects

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

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

A05:2025 – Injection

Injection vulnerabilities are system flaws that allow attackers to insert malicious code or commands (such as SQL or shell code) into input fields, tricking the system into executing them as if they were legitimate instructions. This can lead to severe consequences.

Practical Aspects

• A detailed breakdown of SQL, NoSQL, OS, and LDAP injection

• Mitigation techniques utilizing 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.”

Note that insecure design is distinct from the root causes of other Top Ten risk categories. There is a clear difference between insecure design and insecure implementation; they differ in 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 create exploitable vulnerabilities. Conversely, an insecure design cannot be fixed by perfect implementation because the necessary security controls were never established to defend against specific attacks.

A key factor contributing to insecure design is the absence of business risk profiling for the software or system, leading to a failure in determining the required level of security design.

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

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

Practical Aspects

• 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 relate to code and infrastructure that fails to protect against invalid or untrusted code or data being treated as trusted and valid.

For example, this occurs 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 can introduce risks of unauthorized access, insecure or malicious code, or system compromise.

Another example is a CI/CD process 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

• Safe update mechanisms and data integrity checks

A09:2025 – Security Logging and Alerting Failures

Without adequate logging and monitoring, attacks and breaches remain undetected. Furthermore, without effective alerting, it is difficult to respond quickly and efficiently during a security incident.

Insufficient logging, continuous monitoring, detection, and alerting mechanisms prevent the initiation of active responses at critical times.

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

This may involve one or more of the following failings:

• The application fails to prevent an unusual situation from occurring

• The application fails to identify the situation as it happens

• The application responds poorly or not at all to the situation afterwards

SAST – Static Application Security Testing

1. Understanding static analysis and when to apply it in the SDLC (shift-left approach)

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 client stack)

4. Practical exercise: Run a SAST scan on a repository with intentionally introduced vulnerabilities, interpret results, and triage false positives versus real vulnerabilities

DAST – Dynamic Application Security Testing

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

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), identify, and validate findings

SCA – Software Composition Analysis

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