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Imagine a playbook for web developers and web application security experts that can be referenced during the web application’s creation, development, testing, go-live, and post-implementation support process to ensure its security. The significant rise of web application-based services has also compounded the need to establish robust security standards to boost web application security. While we can’t eliminate the risks, taking necessary mitigation measures will certainly lower the impact and catastrophic effects of security incidents. Enter OWASP Web Security Testing Guide, a comprehensive manual with a vast pool of resources to dive into that helps IT professionals arm up against cyberattacks.

Why OWASP?

Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) is a non-profit organization helping security professionals enhance their web application security by defending against evolving cyber threats. With its community-led open-source software projects, OWASP offers free guidance from leading security professionals globally, making it possible for anyone to boost their web application security.

• OWASP Web Security Testing Guide: OWASP Web Security Testing Guide is a comprehensive guide for testing the security of web applications and web services. It provides the leading cybersecurity testing resource for web application developers, security professionals, and QAs.

Three Reasons to Consider OWASP Web Security Testing Guide for Your Organization

1.  Community Driven

OWASP Web Security Testing Guide is created with the involvement of the global cybersecurity professionals’ community. It provides a dedicated framework and best practices used by penetration testers and organizations globally. Considering the OWASP Web Security Testing Guide for your web security program is like applying the expertise and skills of hundreds of security professionals from across the world. The guide provides the consensus of industry experts on how to remediate a particular security issue by testing it quickly, accurately, and efficiently.

2. OWASP Top 10

Web Application Security Testing is a broad area that involves finding unpatched vulnerabilities in old protocols, usage of improper methods, errors made by web developers, and more. It is hard to test the web services without a proper testing procedure and OWASP Top 10 will be handy in this regard.

The OWASP Top 10 is a standard awareness manual for web application security. It is well recognized by web developers globally as a secure coding process. The OWASP Top 10 provides a broad consensus on the most critical security risks posed to web application services.

OWASP Top 10 web application risks include Injection Flaw, Broken Authentication, Sensitive Data Exposure, XML External Entities (XXE), Broken Access Control, Security Misconfiguration, Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), Insecure Deserialization, Using Components with Known Vulnerabilities, and Insufficient Logging & Monitoring. Incorporating the OWASP Top 10 approach and mitigating these ten security risks will certainly help to increase web application security.

OWASP describes the purpose of these top 10 risks with the following,

“companies should adopt this document and start the process of ensuring that their web applications minimize these risks. Using the OWASP Top 10 is perhaps the most effective first step towards changing the software development culture within your organization into one that produces more secure code.”

3.  Cost-Effective

Whenever there is a discussion about web application security, a part of that discussion will be on the OWASP web security testing guide. While organizations are struggling to increase their cybersecurity budget for enhanced security, free projects from the OWASP community will certainly be the best option to choose.

What do firms consider when creating their pentesting framework?

When you develop a web application, the best approach is a coverage-based assessment leveraging a checklist to ensure consistency and maximize code coverage.  This is one of the best ways to seamlessly integrate security into your software development, thereby eliminating flaws in the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) at the most crucial points throughout the development process.

The best pentesting framework should be a comprehensive one, derived from OWASP Top 10 with detailed tasks carved out in the various phases such as recon and phasing, discovery, vulnerability assessment, exploitation, post-exploitation, and reporting.

Conclusion

Web application security should be considered essential, especially when the service deals with highly sensitive and confidential information and data. When you ensure that a thorough analysis of the web application is conducted for any vulnerabilities, security loopholes, and technical flaws, in turn, you are also significantly reducing risk and the potential for a breach. By leveraging a comprehensive guide like the OWASP Web Security Testing Guide, you ensure that you are taking inputs from a playbook developed by the best web application developers and security professionals around the world.