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OWASP Top Ten Cheat Sheet
Introduction
The following is a developer-centric defensive cheat sheet for the 2013 release of the OWASP Top Ten Project. It also presents a quick reference based on OWASP Testing Project to help how to identify the risks.
OWASP Top Ten Cheat Sheet
Presentation | Controller | Model | Testing (OWASP Testing Guide V4) | |
A1 Injection |
Render:
On Submit:
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Canonicalize using correct character set
Positive input validation using correct character set (NR) Negative input validation. (LR) Sanitize input. Tip: updating a negative list (such as looking for "script", "sCrIpT", "ßCrîpt", etc) will require expensive and constant deployments and will always fail as attackers work out your list of "bad" words. Positive validation is simpler, faster and usually more secure and needs updating far less than any other validation mechanism. |
*Parameterized queries
Tip: All SQL Injection is due to dynamic SQL queries. Strongly consider prohibiting dynamic SQL queries within your organization |
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A2 Weak authentication and session management | Render:
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Design:
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Validate role is sufficient to create, read, update, or delete data
Tip: Consider the use of a "governor" to regulate the maximum number of requests per second / minute / hour that this user may perform. For example, a typical banking user should not perform more than ten transactions a minute, and one hundred per second is dangerous and should be blocked. |
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A3 XSS |
Render:
On Submit:
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Canonicalize using correct character set
Positive input validation using correct character set (NR) Negative input validation (LR) Sanitize input Tip: Only process data that is 100% trustworthy. Everything else is hostile and should be rejected. |
Tip: Do not store data HTML encoded in the database. This prevents new uses for the data, such as web services, RSS feeds, FTP batches, data warehousing, cloud computing, and so on.
Tip: Use OWASP Scrubbr to clean tainted or hostile data from legacy data |
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A4 Insecure Direct Object References | If data is from internal trusted sources, no data is sent.
Or Render:
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Obtain data from internal, trusted sources.
Or Obtain direct value from random access reference access map. |
Validate role is sufficient to create, read, update, or delete data. | |
A5 Security Misconfiguration | Ensure web servers and application servers are hardened.
PHP: Ensure allow_url_fopen and allow_url_include are both disabled in php.ini. Consider the use of Suhosin extension |
Ensure web servers and application servers are hardened
XML: Ensure common web attacks (remote XSLT transforms, hostile XPath queries, recursive DTDs, and so on) are protected by your XML stack. Do not hand craft XML documents or queries – use the XML layer. |
Ensure database servers are hardened |
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A6 Sensitive Data Exposure | Design:
Tip: Use TLS 1.2 always – even internally. Most snooping is done within corporate networks – and it is as easy and unethical as fishing with dynamite. Render:
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Design:
Tip: Only certain personally identifiable information and sensitive values MUST be encrypted. Encrypt data that would be embarrassing or costly if it was leaked or stolen. Tip: It is best to encrypt data on the application server, rather than the database server. |
Design:
Tip: Do not use RDBMS database, row or table level encryption. The data can be retrieved in the clear by anyone with direct access to the server, or over the network using the application credentials. It might even traverse the network in the clear despite being "encrypted" on disk. |
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A7 Missing Function Level Access Control | Design:
Pre-render:
Render:
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Tip: It's impossible to control access to secured resources that the web application server does not directly serve. Therefore, PDF reports or similar should be served by the web application server using binary octet streaming. Tip: Assume attackers will learn where "hidden" directories and "random" filenames are, so do not store these files in the web root, even if they are not directly linked. |
Validate role is sufficient to create, read, update, or delete data |
Testing Directory traversal/file include (OTG-AUTHZ-001) Testing for bypassing authorization schema (OTG-AUTHZ-002) Testing for bypassing authentication schema (OTG-AUTHN-004) |
A8 Cross Site Request Forgery | Pre-render:
Render:
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Tip: CSRF is always possible if there is XSS, so make sure XSS is eliminated within your application. |
Validate role is sufficient to create, read, update, or delete data | |
A9 Using Components with Known Vulnerabilities |
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A10 Unvalidated Redirects and Forwards |
or Render:
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or
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Authors and Primary Editors
Andrew van der Stock vanderaj[at]owasp.org
Ismael Rocha Gonçalves ismaelrg[at]gmail.com
Jorge Correa [email protected]