This overview explains the OWASP Top 10 (2021 baseline) vulnerabilities for web apps and APIs, why they matter, how attackers exploit them, and practical mitigations and study steps. It ties these web vulnerabilities to prior persistence and antiforensics topics and provides a hands-on study plan to practice finding and fixing issues ethically.
OWASP Top 10 Overview — Web App Hacking & API Security You’ve already learned how to hide in the weeds (antiforensics, LotL, OPSEC) and how to get comfy in a system. Now let’s flip the coin: learn the big, common ways web apps and APIs invite attackers in — so you can find them ethically, patc...
Hook — Why OWASP Top 10 matters right now Imagine a door that 90% of burglars try first. The OWASP Top 10 is that map of the most common web vulnerabilities — except it’s not just for burglars. It’s your checklist for secure design, a red-team cheat sheet (ethically used), and the blue-team’s pul...
Quick table: OWASP Top 10 (2021 baseline) ID Short name Why it hurts APIs and web apps A01 Broken Access Control Attackers act as other users or admins A02 Cryptographic Failures Sensitive data exposed or modifiable A03 Injection Your app becomes the attacker’s shell A...
The Top 10, one-liners + practical view (with API flavor) A01 — Broken Access Control What: Users access resources they shouldn’t. API flavor: missing object-level checks. Why it matters: Admin endpoints, data leaks, privilege escalation. Detect & Mitigate: Implement server-side access ...
A06 — Vulnerable and Outdated Components What: Old libraries with known CVEs. Why it matters: Easy vector — patched exploit = instant compromise. Detect & Mitigate: SBOM, dependency scanning, timely patching. Fun fact: Attackers love known vulnerabilities because they’re reliable and lo...
Practical study plan (do this, in order) Read OWASP entry + examples for each category (don’t copy-paste exploits). Build a small API (3 endpoints) and intentionally misconfigure ONE thing per category — then fix it. Use threat modeling to spot A04 issues before coding. Set up logging and t...
Closing — Key takeaways The OWASP Top 10 is a prioritized checklist: focus defenses where attackers most frequently score wins. Tie this to your prior work on persistence and antiforensics: many web flaws give attackers easier, quieter persistence than kernel backdoors ever could. If you can sp...
11 study modes available based on your content