Beyond the Firewall: OWASP and WAF in Modern Web Security
What is OWASP?
OWASP stands for the Open Web Application Security Project. It’s a non-profit organization that focuses on improving software security, especially web applications. They provide a bunch of free resources for developers and security professionals. One of their well-known projects is the OWASP Top 10, a list of the most critical web application security risks.
The OWASP operates on a core principle that makes all of its material freely available and accessible on its website. This open community approach ensures that anyone and any organization can improve their web application security. The materials it supplies include documentation, events, forums, projects, tools, and videos, such as the OWASP Top 10, the OWASP CLASP web protocol, and OWASP ZAP, an open-source web application scanner.
OWASP TOP 10
The OWASP Top 10 is a regularly updated list created by the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) that outlines the ten most critical web application security risks. It’s a valuable resource for developers and security professionals alike, as it provides a clear and concise overview of the most common threats that web applications face.
The OWASP Top 10 is not a ranking, but rather a classification of the different types of security risks. Each entry in the list includes a description of the risk, as well as mitigation strategies that can be used to reduce the risk.
Top 10 Web Application Security Risks 2021
· A01:2021-Broken Access Control moves up from the fifth position to the category with the most serious web application security risk; the contributed data indicates that on average, 3.81% of applications tested had one or more Common Weakness Enumerations (CWEs) with more than 318k occurrences of CWEs in this risk category. The 34 CWEs mapped to Broken Access Control had more occurrences in applications than any other category.
· A02:2021-Cryptographic Failures shifts up one position to #2, previously known as A3:2017-Sensitive Data Exposure, which was broad symptom rather than a root cause. The renewed name focuses on failures related to cryptography as it has been implicitly before. This category often leads to sensitive data exposure or system compromise.
· A03:2021-Injection slides down to the third position. 94% of the applications were tested for some form of injection with a max incidence rate of 19%, an average incidence rate of 3.37%, and the 33 CWEs mapped into this category have the second most occurrences in applications with 274k occurrences. Cross-site Scripting is now part of this category in this edition.
· A04:2021-Insecure Design is a new category for 2021, with a focus on risks related to design flaws. If we genuinely want to “move left” as an industry, we need more threat modeling, secure design patterns and principles, and reference architectures. An insecure design cannot be fixed by a perfect implementation as by definition, needed security controls were never created to defend against specific attacks.
· A05:2021-Security Misconfiguration moves up from #6 in the previous edition; 90% of applications were tested for some form of misconfiguration, with an average incidence rate of 4.5%, and over 208k occurrences of CWEs mapped to this risk category. With more shifts into highly configurable software, it’s not surprising to see this category move up. The former category for A4:2017-XML External Entities (XXE) is now part of this risk category.
· A06:2021-Vulnerable and Outdated Components was previously titled Using Components with Known Vulnerabilities and is #2 in the Top 10 community survey, but also had enough data to make the Top 10 via data analysis. This category moves up from #9 in 2017 and is a known issue that we struggle to test and assess risk. It is the only category not to have any Common Vulnerability and Exposures (CVEs) mapped to the included CWEs, so a default exploit and impact weights of 5.0 are factored into their scores.
· A07:2021-Identification and Authentication Failures was previously Broken Authentication and is sliding down from the second position, and now includes CWEs that are more related to identification failures. This category is still an integral part of the Top 10, but the increased availability of standardized frameworks seems to be helping.
· A08:2021-Software and Data Integrity Failures is a new category for 2021, focusing on making assumptions related to software updates, critical data, and CI/CD pipelines without verifying integrity. One of the highest weighted impacts from Common Vulnerability and Exposures/Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVE/CVSS) data mapped to the 10 CWEs in this category. A8:2017-Insecure Deserialization is now a part of this larger category.
· A09:2021-Security Logging and Monitoring Failures was previously A10:2017-Insufficient Logging & Monitoring and is added from the Top 10 community survey (#3), moving up from #10 previously. This category is expanded to include more types of failures, is challenging to test for, and isn’t well represented in the CVE/CVSS data. However, failures in this category can directly impact visibility, incident alerting, and forensics.
· A10:2021-Server-Side Request Forgery is added from the Top 10 community survey (#1). The data shows a relatively low incidence rate with above average testing coverage, along with above-average ratings for Exploit and Impact potential. This category represents the scenario where the security community members are telling us this is important, even though it’s not illustrated in the data at this time.
What is WAF?
A Web Application Firewall (WAF) is a security solution designed to protect web applications from various types of cyber attacks by monitoring, filtering, and potentially blocking HTTP traffic between a web application and the Internet. It operates at the application layer (Layer 7) of the OSI model, meaning it can inspect the contents of HTTP requests and responses, making it highly effective at detecting and mitigating threats targeting web applications.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN OWASP AND WAF
When considering the features of Web Application Firewall (WAF) and the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) together, it’s essential to recognize how they complement each other in enhancing the security of web applications.
1. Threat Detection and Prevention:
· WAF provides real-time monitoring and analysis of HTTP traffic to detect and prevent various types of attacks, such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and other OWASP Top Ten vulnerabilities.
· OWASP resources offer guidance on identifying and mitigating these vulnerabilities, providing developers with knowledge on how to address security issues effectively.
2. Rule-Based Protection:
· WAF operates based on predefined rulesets that define what types of traffic are allowed, blocked, or flagged. These rules can be customized to suit the specific security requirements of the web application.
· OWASP offers detailed documentation and best practices for creating secure coding guidelines and configuring WAF rules to effectively mitigate common vulnerabilities identified in OWASP Top Ten.
3. Regular Updates and Maintenance:
· WAF vendors frequently update their rulesets to address emerging threats and vulnerabilities, ensuring that web applications are protected against the latest attack vectors.
· OWASP continuously updates its resources, including the OWASP Top Ten list, project repositories, and cheat sheets, to reflect the evolving landscape of web application security and provide up-to-date guidance to developers and security professionals.
4. Educational Resources:
· OWASP offers a wealth of educational resources, including training materials, documentation, and community forums, to help developers and security practitioners improve their understanding of web application security.
· WAF vendors often provide educational content and support resources to assist users in properly configuring and optimizing their WAF deployments for maximum effectiveness.
5. Comprehensive Security Testing:
· OWASP provides tools and frameworks for conducting security testing, such as penetration testing, code reviews, and vulnerability scanning, to identify and remediate security weaknesses in web applications.
· WAF can complement these testing efforts by providing an additional layer of defense in production environments, helping to mitigate vulnerabilities while developers work on implementing more permanent fixes.
6. Community Collaboration:
· Both WAF and OWASP foster community collaboration and knowledge sharing among developers, security professionals, researchers, and vendors, facilitating the exchange of insights, best practices, and threat intelligence to collectively improve web application security worldwide.
To sum up, OWASP and WAF are very important and crucial for the web application security concept. By leveraging the features of both WAF and OWASP together, organizations can establish a robust security posture for their web applications, incorporating proactive threat detection, effective mitigation strategies, ongoing education, and collaboration with the broader security community.