OWASP Top-10 in plain words: the 10 main risks of web applications
KEMEL.TECH · Updated
OWASP Top-10 is a list of the ten most frequent and dangerous web application risks maintained by the international OWASP community. The 2021 edition: broken access control, cryptographic failures, injection, insecure design, security misconfiguration, vulnerable and outdated components, identification and authentication failures, software and data integrity failures, security logging and monitoring failures, SSRF. Most web pentests follow this list.
The 10 risks of the 2021 edition
- A01 Broken access control: a user sees other people's data (for example, IDOR).
- A02 Cryptographic failures: data is transmitted or stored without reliable protection.
- A03 Injection: SQL injection, XSS and others, where user input is executed as code.
- A04 Insecure design: flaws in the logic of the system itself.
- A05 Security misconfiguration: exposed panels, default passwords, unnecessary services.
- A06 Vulnerable and outdated components: libraries with known holes.
- A07 Identification and authentication failures: weak passwords, errors in JWT and sessions.
- A08 Software and data integrity failures: unverified updates and dependencies.
- A09 Security logging and monitoring failures: an attack goes unnoticed in time.
- A10 SSRF: the server is made to access internal resources.
How this relates to a pentest
In a pentest, specialists manually check the application for these classes of problems and confirm the findings. Each is assigned a CVSS level, which determines the urgency of the fix and the price at KEMEL.TECH.
Frequently asked questions
- Is it enough to close the OWASP Top-10?
- No. It is the baseline minimum. Business logic, APIs, mobile applications and the external perimeter are checked separately.
- How can I check my website?
- You can start with an express website scan on the /scan page, while a full check is done by a pentest.