Security at Risk- OWASP Top 10

When we talk about electronics- Computers, Smartphones, or any other device, they always remain at risk. Whatever Security Measures one takes, one can never be sure if his data is protected. Anyone who stores their data in these devices—from an average schoolboy to a wealthy celebrity, from a person working long hours to run a small business by themselves to a massive, well-established corporation—believes that the small security measures they have taken are sufficient to protect their data. This, however, falls short. One should be aware of the safety features and precautions for gadgets. A single stroke of vulnerability may lead to a whirlwind of losses.?

Even the renowned organization NASA is constantly working to keep its data secure by creating a strong defensive environment against threats and mitigating any risk factors. Technology is rapidly evolving, and so are hackers. You never know when your phone is hacked, and all your data will be compromised. So, the present time demands us to stay current on changing technology and the risks it brings.

Today, we'll go over the top ten security threats and risks, as determined by OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project), a non-profit organization dedicated to software security.

• Broken Access Control: Only authorized users and administrators have access to controls and permissions in a secure and authenticated system. They can use security and protection controls. They can grant, access, and modify permissions. Broken Access Control occurs when an unauthorized person gains unauthorized access to the administrative controls system and restricted content. Such failure can result in data loss, unauthorized information disclosure, and other problems. Data manipulation, forging by changing the URL, illegally obtaining and using someone's account, and gaining access to API without access permissions are all examples of Broken Access Control.
• Cryptographic Failures: For keeping data safe and secure, algorithms are used to encrypt them, or convert them into secret codes, so that if someone obtains that information, they will not be able to obtain the actual information. Cryptographic failure occurs when such security measures get corrupted and cause critical data leaks. It is a security vulnerability in which an attacker finds and manipulates a loophole to gain access to confidential information. Such a vulnerability can have a negative impact because it can result in data loss, personal data loss, and much more. For example, they could obtain your credit card information and subject you to data privacy violations. Furthermore, once the hackers have identified the loophole, they can trap your device and continue to exploit the vulnerability to cause havoc. Be cautious when implementing cryptographic security measures, and keep your algorithms up to date.
• Injection: This involves manipulating the vulnerability and injecting malicious code that allows attackers to carry out their malicious intent. They can spoof identity, run malicious scripts that disrupt the device's regular operation, cause low performance, data tampering, etc. There are various types of injections, such as code injection, SQL injection, NoSQL, and OS commands, each of which exploits a different vulnerability. They also cause issues with repudiation and pave the way for other types of attacks.
• Insecure Design: Architecture is the foundation of any structure. If the foundation is weak, the building can collapse at any time. As a result, when designing the system's architecture, one must exercise caution. Ignoring even minor details can result in loopholes that can be exploited. Your system is at risk if a mistake is made. Assume your website lacks SSL security; anyone can attack it. Cookie hijacking, identity theft, data loss, monetary loss, and public embarrassment if the attacker does something ridiculous with your account, are all examples of attacks an insecure design can lead to.
• Security Misconfiguration: When designing a system, security measures are considered. Any misconfiguration or ignorance can jeopardize the confidentiality and security of your data. Security misconfigurations can occur during system design, technical issues, not updating your system and security controls, and changing security controls or policies without knowing the outcomes. It can let an attacker gain access to your system and perform whatever misdeed they desire. Therefore, keep your system updated, maintain control over activities, and gain access to your security controls.
• Vulnerable and Outdated Components: Vulnerable systems and out-of-date software endanger your system. If an update is required, you must update and upgrade your software versions, APIs, frameworks, libraries, operating system versions, and any application version. Outdated components can result in data breaches and application hijacking. This also jeopardizes your system's security and makes it vulnerable to other attacks.
• Identification and Authentication Failures: Your identity defines who you are. When the system fails to keep it safe and denies permission and administrative controls to you as admin/user is known as an Identification and Authentication failure. The attacker can then perform a brute force attack as they have a list of common usernames and passwords. It can give access to your data, and confidential information like bank credentials and passwords to the attacker who can misuse it. Authentication failures also mark any account login as invalid, and you may encounter problems logging in, resetting passwords, and so on.
• Software and Data Integrity Failures: The rate of accuracy of data throughout the software development life cycle is referred to as data integrity. This is primarily related to the codes' failure to adhere to integrity protection principles. When you download an application, library, or framework from an untrusted source, you expose yourself to potential threats because you never know if someone has injected a malicious script into it that can harm your system.
• Security Logging and Monitoring Failures: Security Logging and Monitoring Failures occur when a system fails to log in and provides an incorrect or no error message, or when it fails to monitor ongoing activities or track viruses, malware, data breaches, and so on. As a result, any malicious activity running in the background goes unnoticed by the system. Furthermore, if any valuable activity occurs, it remains untracked as no logs can be found. The user would be unaware of what is happening in his system, which can be disastrous. The system is still vulnerable, and anyone can take advantage of it.
• Server-Side Request Forgery: Our information is stored on a server in databases. All of this occurs in the backend, which is not visible to users. Server-side forgery occurs when a server-side application is forced to send requests to unknown locations to gain access with malicious intent. The attacker can read, write, and modify data on the server, connect to internal and external HTTP databases, and steal confidential information, resulting in data breaches.

Conclusion:

These are the top ten vulnerabilities, but they are not the only ones. There are a lot more. Attackers and hackers are getting more powerful, and so are the attacks. They keep up with technological advancements and keep themselves informed. We must follow suit. We must stay ahead of them and double our efforts because attackers only need to obtain the vulnerability, but we must understand vulnerability and practice security measures to protect our devices from them. Let's be smarter and stay abreast.