OWASP Top 10
The OWASP Top 10 is a regularly updated awareness document published by the Open Worldwide Application Security Project that ranks the ten most critical security risks facing web applications.
Definition
The OWASP Top 10 is a regularly updated awareness document published by the Open Worldwide Application Security Project that ranks the ten most critical security risks facing web applications.
Overview
First published in 2003 and updated periodically (most recently in 2021, with newer revisions in progress), the OWASP Top 10 is compiled from real-world vulnerability data contributed by security firms and consultancies, combined with an industry survey. It is widely treated as a baseline standard for application security — many compliance frameworks and security assessments reference it directly. The list groups risks into broad categories rather than narrow techniques so it stays relevant as attack methods evolve. Recent editions have included categories like Broken Access Control, Cryptographic Failures, Injection (which covers SQL Injection and Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)), Insecure Design, Security Misconfiguration, Vulnerable and Outdated Components, Identification and Authentication Failures, Software and Data Integrity Failures, Security Logging and Monitoring Failures, and Server-Side Request Forgery. Because it's concise, evidence-based, and framework-agnostic, the OWASP Top 10 is a common starting point for secure coding training; the Web App Security (OWASP) course builds hands-on exercises directly around it, and the blog post Cybersecurity for Developers: The OWASP Top 10 Explained offers a practical walkthrough for engineers.
Key Concepts
- Published and maintained by the Open Worldwide Application Security Project (OWASP)
- Ranks the ten most critical web application security risks
- Compiled from real-world vulnerability data and industry surveys
- Updated periodically to reflect evolving attack trends
- Groups risks into broad categories rather than narrow techniques
- Referenced by many compliance frameworks and security assessments
- Free and publicly available, unlike many proprietary security standards