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

A01:2025 – Broken Access Control

Access control mechanisms enforce policies ensuring users cannot act beyond their intended permissions. Failures in this area typically result in unauthorized disclosure, modification, or destruction of data, or the execution of business functions outside the user’s authorized scope.

Practical Aspects

• Real-world examples of broken access controls

• Best practices for implementing secure access controls

A02:2025 – Security Misconfiguration

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

Practical Aspects

• Case studies of real-world misconfigurations

• Strategies for preventing 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 process of building, distributing, or updating software. These often stem from vulnerabilities or malicious alterations in third-party code, tools, or other dependencies upon which the system relies.

A04:2025 – Cryptographic Failures

In general, all data in transit should be encrypted at the transport layer (OSI layer 4). Historical challenges such as CPU performance overhead and complex private key/certificate management have been mitigated by modern CPUs supporting instructions that accelerate encryption (e.g., AES support) and simplified certificate management services like LetsEncrypt.org, alongside tightly integrated certificate management offered by major cloud vendors.

Beyond securing the transport layer, it is crucial to identify 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 demand 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 significance of robust cryptographic mechanisms, secure protocols (SSL/TLS), and examples of modern cryptography in web security

A05:2025 – Injection

An injection vulnerability is a system flaw that enables an attacker to insert malicious code or commands (such as SQL or shell code) into input fields, deceiving the system into executing them as if they were legitimate parts of the application. This can lead to severe consequences.

Practical Aspects

• Detailed breakdown of SQL, NoSQL, OS, and LDAP injection attacks

• 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 not the root cause of all other Top Ten risk categories. It is important to distinguish between insecure design and insecure implementation, as they differ in root causes, timing within the development process, and remediation strategies.

A secure design may still suffer from implementation defects that lead to exploitable vulnerabilities. Conversely, an insecure design cannot be remediated by a perfect implementation, as the necessary security controls were never created to defend against specific attacks.

A key factor contributing to insecure design is the lack of business risk profiling inherent in the software or system being developed, leading to a failure to determine 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 successfully tricks a system into recognizing an invalid or incorrect user as legitimate.

Practical Aspects

• Common authentication issues and pitfalls

• 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 prevent invalid or untrusted code or data from being treated as trusted and valid.

One example 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, the introduction of insecure or malicious code, or full system compromise.

Another example is a CI/CD pipeline 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 proper logging and monitoring, attacks and breaches go undetected. Furthermore, without effective alerting, it becomes extremely difficult to respond quickly and effectively during a security incident.

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

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 of exceptional conditions occurs when programs fail to prevent, detect, and respond to unusual and unpredictable situations, resulting in crashes, unexpected behavior, or security vulnerabilities.

This often involves one or more of the following failings:

• The application fails to prevent an unusual situation from occurring

• The application fails to identify the situation while it is happening

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

SAST – Static Application Security Testing

1. Definition of static analysis and its optimal timing within the SDLC (shift left)

2. Types of vulnerabilities detectable via SAST, comparing vulnerable code vs. secure code

3. Overview of SAST tools (e.g., Semgrep, SonarQube, Checkmarx, depending on the client stack)

4. Practical exercise: Running a SAST scan on a repository with deliberately introduced vulnerabilities, interpreting results, and triaging false positives vs. 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. Practical exercise: Running a DAST scan on a vulnerable test application (e.g., OWASP Juice Shop), identifying, and validating findings

SCA – Software Composition Analysis

1. 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: Running an SCA scan on a real project, identifying vulnerable dependencies, and building a remediation plan (update, patch, mitigate)