Everything You Must Know About OWASP Mobile Top 10 Vulnerabilities

 

Today, thousands of applications are being used across the globe for various purposes. From entertainment to bank transactions, there is an app for everything. However, with the rise in the popularity of apps, there has also been an increase in security threats. Applications consist of various high-risk vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit easily. It is the responsibility of the developers to ensure that their applications are safe and secure. The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) is a non-profit organization seeking to improve mobile app security worldwide. 

 

The OWASP developed a list of the top security vulnerabilities that organizations should safeguard their apps against. Every developer should familiarize themselves with the OWASP mobile top 10 vulnerabilities to protect their apps as well as the end users. The list is an open community project that is available freely online. This list is updated regularly. 

 

Go-To Guide to OWASP mobile top 10 vulnerabilities

 

The organization updates the list every 2 to 3 years so as to stay a step ahead of the evolving threat landscape. A data-driven approach has been adopted to create this list. These evolving lists highlight 10 threats that are most likely to impact organizations. The last update took place in the year 2021. The following are some ways in which the 2021 list has changed from the 2017 list: 

Broken Access Control 

This vulnerability was ranked fifth in the 2017 list. However, in the 2021 list, it was ranked at the top of the list. Thus, this is the most serious web application risk. Data suggests more than 300K cases of CWEs in the applications tested. 

Failure in Cryptography 

Previously, this vulnerability was in the third position but now it has moved up a rank. It was also called sensitive data exposure but has now been changed to cryptographic failures so all kinds of security risks that arise from poor cryptography are covered. 

Injection vulnerability

The 2021 list now includes cross-site scripting as a part of this category. Around 274K occurrences were recorded in the 33 CWEs mentioned. 

Insecure Design 

This is the latest addition to the OWASP mobile top 10 list and includes risks related to flaws in the design. Security in design principles and patterns and reference architectures is of utmost importance. 

Security misconfiguration 

Data suggests around 90% of applications suffered from some kind of misconfiguration. Earlier this was in the sixth position but in the 2021 list it has moved up a rank. 

Vulnerable Components 

This was known as ‘Using Components with Vulnerabilities that are Known’ previously. This has moved from the 9th rank to the 6th one. 

Identification Failures 

In the previous list, this was known as broken authentication. It was earlier in the second position and now it has moved to the seventh position. 

Integrity Failures 

This is a new addition to the list and it focuses on assumptions that are related to software updates and critical data. 

Monitoring Failures and Security Logging 

This is another category that has moved up a rank. It was earlier called Insufficient monitoring and logging. 

 Server-side Request Forgery 

This is the newest addition to the list. It has been added to the list as it is important to protect apps against this threat. 

 

Conclusion 

OWASP has created this new list so that the root cause of threats could be addressed. This updated list can be used for training organizations and developers to ensure app security. This list was formed on the basis of data collected and community surveys.