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

A01:2025 – Broken Access Control

Access control mechanisms enforce policies that restrict users from acting beyond their intended permissions. Failures in this area often result in unauthorized disclosure, modification, or destruction of data, as well as the execution of business functions outside of allowed limits.

Practical Aspects

• Real-world examples of broken access controls

• Strategies for securing access controls and adhering to 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

• Case studies of real-world misconfigurations

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

A03:2025 – Software Supply Chain Failures

Software supply chain failures refer to disruptions or compromises in the software building, distribution, or update processes. These are frequently triggered by vulnerabilities or malicious alterations in third-party code, tools, or other dependencies relied upon by the system.

A04:2025 – Cryptographic Failures

Generally, all data in transit should be encrypted at the transport layer (OSI layer 4). Former challenges such as CPU performance and private key/certificate management have been largely resolved by modern CPUs featuring hardware acceleration for encryption (e.g., AES support) and the simplification of key and certificate management through services like LetsEncrypt.org, along with tightly integrated certificate management offered by major cloud providers.

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

For instance, passwords, credit card numbers, health records, personal information, and business secrets demand heightened protection, particularly when subject to privacy laws such as 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, including weak encryption algorithms and poor key management

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

A05:2025 – Injection

An injection vulnerability is a flaw that enables attackers to inject malicious code or commands (such as SQL or shell code) into input fields, causing the system to execute them as if they were legitimate parts of the program. This can have severe consequences.

Practical Aspects

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

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

A06:2025 – Insecure Design

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

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

Even a secure design may suffer from implementation defects that lead to exploitable vulnerabilities. Conversely, an insecure design cannot be remediated by perfect implementation because the necessary security controls were never established to defend against specific threats.

A key factor contributing to insecure design is the lack of business risk profiling during the software or system development phase, which hinders the determination of the required level of security design.

Practical Aspects

• Exploring design flaws that can lead to vulnerabilities, such as improper input validation

• Studying strategies for secure architecture and secure design principles

A07:2025 – Authentication Failures

This vulnerability exists when an attacker can trick a 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 occur when code and infrastructure fail to protect against invalid or untrusted code or data being treated as trusted and valid.

An example of this is 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

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

• Implementing safe update mechanisms and data integrity checks

A09:2025 – Security Logging and Alerting Failures

Without adequate logging and monitoring, attacks and breaches go undetected. Furthermore, without proper alerting, it is difficult to respond quickly and effectively during security incidents.

Insufficient logging, continuous monitoring, detection, and alerting capabilities hinder the ability to initiate active responses at any time.

Practical Aspects

• The importance of logging security-relevant information and monitoring for suspicious activities

• 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 and unpredictable situations, leading to crashes, unexpected behavior, and potential vulnerabilities.

This can involve one or more of the following failures:

• The application fails to prevent an unusual situation from occurring

• It fails to identify the situation as it is happening

• It responds poorly or not at all after the situation occurs

SAST – Static Application Security Testing

1. Understanding static analysis and when to integrate it into 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, depending on the client stack)

4. Hands-on exercise: Execute a SAST scan on a repository with intentionally introduced vulnerabilities, interpret the 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 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. Hands-on 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. Understanding the SBOM (Software Bill of Materials) and its importance

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

4. Hands-on exercise: Perform an SCA scan on a real project to identify vulnerable dependencies and formulate a remediation plan (update, patch, or mitigate)