[Manny Varela]

Discuss at least one of the top 10 OWASP security principles and why it is a critical control.

[Marcena Davis]

Injection Flaws

What is it?
Imagine you’re giving commands to a robot by writing them down. Now, if someone sneaks in and adds extra commands to your list without you noticing, the robot will execute them. Similarly, in the digital world, injection flaws happen when attackers can sneak malicious data into a system, which gets processed as commands.

Why is it critical?

Wide Applicability: Many applications interact with databases or other systems by sending commands. If not done securely, it can be a loophole.

Severe Impact: Successful injection can give attackers access to unauthorized data, corrupt data, or even take control of the system.

Common Occurrence: Due to the widespread use of input in web applications and often lack of proper validation, this flaw is prevalent.

How to prevent it?

Validation: Always validate and sanitize any data being entered by users.

Prepared Statements: Instead of dynamically constructing commands, use prepared statements which ensure that the input data is always treated as data and never as a command.

It’s like making sure that when you’re having a conversation, the other person can’t suddenly take control and make you say or do things you didn’t intend. It’s important to keep those boundaries clear and secure.

Reference:
OWASP. “OWASP Top 10:2021.” OWASP, 2021, owasp.org/Top10/.

[jpurdy@ohiochristian.edu]

Here’s a good article on the OWASP security principles.

https://www.veracode.com/security/owasp-top-10

One of these principles is a broken authentication system such as if an authentication system has a back door or other hole in it. If that happens, people will discover it and enter without actually being an approved user. A great way to mitigate against this is multi-factor authentication.

[Marcena Davis]

Yes. It’s clear that old threats, like Injection, are still big concerns. What stands out is that using safe third-party tools is vital, as weak ones can be a security risk. Basically, the OWASP Top 10 reminds developers to always keep security front and center when creating apps.

[Author]

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