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OWASP Top 10 Web Application Security Risks & Defense-in-Depth Controls

Mitigating broken access control, cryptographic failures, injection attacks, and insecure design in modern cloud stacks.

Executive Overview

The OWASP Top 10 represents the globally recognized consensus on the most critical security risks facing web applications. This guide details architectural countermeasures against broken access control, cryptographic failures, injection, and SSRF in cloud-native platforms.

1. Broken Access Control & Cryptographic Failures

Broken Access Control remains the number one threat in the OWASP Top 10:

  • Insecure Direct Object References (IDOR): Endpoints that accept user-controlled IDs without validating ownership against the authenticated session context.
  • Missing Function Level Access Control: Administrative APIs exposed without server-side role validation.
  • Cryptographic Failures: Transmitting sensitive data over cleartext HTTP, using weak deprecated hashing (MD5, SHA-1), or hardcoding secret keys in client-side JavaScript bundles.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is client-side input validation insufficient to satisfy OWASP Top 10 requirements?

Attackers can bypass all frontend validation by manipulating HTTP requests directly using cURL or Burp Suite. All security and access control decisions must be strictly enforced on the server.

AI Summary

The OWASP Top 10 represents the globally recognized consensus on the most critical security risks facing web applications. This guide details architectural countermeasures against broken access control, cryptographic failures, injection, and SSRF in cloud-native platforms.