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OWASP

##cybersecurity/web-sec/owasp ##interview/concepts

OWASP

One-liner: A nonprofit foundation providing free resources, tools, and standards to improve software security worldwide.

🎯 What Is It?

The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) is a community-driven organization focused on improving software security. Their most famous resource is the OWASP Top 10 — a list of the most critical web application security risks.

🔟 OWASP Top 10 (2025)

Rank Vulnerability One-Liner (Memorize These!)
A01 Broken Access Control Users act outside their intended permissions
A02 Security Misconfigurations Insecure default configs, open cloud storage
A03 Software Supply Chain Failures Compromised dependencies, malicious packages
A04 Cryptographic Failure Sensitive data exposed via weak/missing encryption
A05 Injection Untrusted data sent to interpreter (SQLi, XSS, etc.)
A06 Insecure Design Missing security controls at design phase
A07 Authentication Failures Broken auth, weak passwords, session issues
A08 Software or Data Integrity Failures Code/data integrity not verified (CI/CD, updates)
A09 Logging & Alerting Failures Insufficient logging for breach detection
A10 Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) Server fetches attacker-controlled URLs

📊 Quick Reference by Attack Type

Category Vulnerabilities
Access Issues A01 Broken Access Control, A07 Auth Failures
Injection A05 Injection (SQLi, XSS, SSTI, Command)
Data Protection A04 Cryptographic Failure
Design/Config A02 Misconfigs, A06 Insecure Design
Supply Chain A03 Supply Chain, A08 Integrity Failures
Ops/Detection A09 Logging Failures
Server-Side A10 SSRF

🎤 Interview Quick Hits

"What is OWASP?"

A nonprofit providing free security resources. Their Top 10 is the industry standard for web app risks.

"Walk me through the Top 10"

Start with: "A01 is Broken Access Control — the #1 risk because it's the most common..."

"Which is most critical?"

A01 Broken Access Control — found in 94% of applications tested. Users accessing data/functions they shouldn't.

🛠️ Other OWASP Resources

Resource Purpose
OWASP Testing Guide Pentest methodology
OWASP ASVS Application Security Verification Standard
OWASP Cheat Sheets Quick reference for secure coding
OWASP ZAP Free web app scanner
OWASP Dependency-Check Find vulnerable libraries
OWASP SAMM Security maturity model

🎤 Interview STAR Example

Situation: Development team had no security standards for code reviews.
Task: Implement a security review process.
Action: Introduced OWASP Top 10 training for developers. Created a checklist based on OWASP Testing Guide. Integrated OWASP ZAP into CI/CD pipeline for automated scanning.
Result: Reduced critical vulnerabilities in production by 70% over 6 months. Team could identify and fix issues before deployment.

📚 References