Prepared for Applied Information Assurance Projects
Date: October 2025
1. Executive Summary
This report provides an applied overview of the OWASP Top 10 (2021 Edition) a globally recognized awareness document for web application security.
It identifies the most critical risks impacting software assurance and maps them to the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) 2.0 to demonstrate how developers and organizations can align vulnerability management with governance and risk-based controls.
Objective: To bridge technical security testing with information assurance practices, emphasizing prevention, detection, and response maturity.
2. Overview of the OWASP Top 10 (2021)
The OWASP Top 10 represents data-driven insights into the most prevalent and severe web vulnerabilities.
It serves as a living benchmark for secure development and auditing activities.
| ID | Risk Category | Description |
|---|---|---|
| A01 | Broken Access Control | Authorization enforcement failures enabling unauthorized actions or data access. |
| A02 | Cryptographic Failures | Misuse or absence of encryption, leading to exposure of sensitive data. |
| A03 | Injection | Unsanitized input passed to interpreters (e.g., SQL, OS commands). |
| A04 | Insecure Design | Fundamental flaws in architecture or threat modeling. |
| A05 | Security Misconfiguration | Default accounts, open S3 buckets, or verbose error messages. |
| A06 | Vulnerable & Outdated Components | Use of obsolete or unpatched software dependencies. |
| A07 | Identification & Authentication Failures | Weak credentials or poor session management. |
| A08 | Software & Data Integrity Failures | Unverified code updates or compromised CI/CD pipelines. |
| A09 | Security Logging & Monitoring Failures | Insufficient detection and response visibility. |
| A10 | Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) | Improperly validated external resource requests. |
3. Mapping OWASP Risks to NIST CSF Functions
This alignment highlights how OWASP technical vulnerabilities correlate with the Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover functions of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework.
| NIST CSF Function | Example OWASP Categories | Focus Area |
|---|---|---|
| Identify (ID) | A06 | Inventory and management of assets and components. |
| Protect (PR) | A02, A04, A07 | Secure system design, cryptography, and access control. |
| Detect (DE) | A09 | Log monitoring and anomaly detection. |
| Respond (RS) | A03, A08 | Incident response and mitigation of exploited components. |
| Recover (RC) | A01, A05 | Configuration restoration and process resilience. |
Insight: Integrating OWASP principles into a CSF-based security program supports both compliance alignment and real-world operational defense.
4. Risk Reduction Strategies
| Risk Type | Mitigation Strategy |
|---|---|
| Injection (A03) | Validate all inputs using whitelisting and parameterized queries. |
| Security Misconfiguration (A05) | Implement configuration baselines and hardening checklists. |
| Outdated Components (A06) | Track dependencies and enforce patch management through CI/CD pipelines. |
| Authentication Failures (A07) | Adopt MFA and session timeout enforcement. |
| Logging Failures (A09) | Centralize logs and enable real-time alerting. |
5. Key Takeaways
- The OWASP Top 10 should be used as a baseline for security testing and code review.
- Each risk maps directly to CSF categories, allowing for enterprise-level risk reporting.
- Continuous training and vulnerability assessment tools (e.g., OWASP ZAP, Burp Suite) strengthen control assurance.
- Emphasis on secure design and monitoring closes the gap between technical defense and organizational assurance.
6. References
- OWASP Foundation. OWASP Top 10 – 2021.
https://owasp.org/Top10/ - National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) 2.0 Draft.
https://www.nist.gov/cyberframework - OWASP Application Security Verification Standard (ASVS) v4.0.
- ISO/IEC 27001:2022 – Information Security Management Systems.
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