Certified: The CISSP Prepcast

Welcome to The Bare Metal Cyber CISSP Prepcast. This series helps you prepare for the ISC squared CISSP exam with focused explanations and practical context.
In today’s episode, we’re going to explore the OWASP Top 10 Threats and Controls. OWASP stands for the Open Web Application Security Project, a globally recognized organization that provides open-source tools and best practices for securing web applications. At the heart of OWASP’s contributions is the OWASP Top 10—a ranked list of the most critical security risks facing web applications today. This list is updated periodically based on real-world vulnerability data, security research, and industry feedback.
Understanding the OWASP Top 10 is essential for application security professionals. It provides a common language for identifying, mitigating, and prioritizing web vulnerabilities. By aligning your software development lifecycle and security practices with OWASP guidance, you reduce risk, improve resilience, and demonstrate a proactive security posture to stakeholders and auditors.
Let’s begin by understanding the purpose and value of the OWASP Top 10. The list serves as a guide for developers, architects, security teams, and auditors to better understand which web application vulnerabilities are most dangerous, most exploited, and most common. These threats range from classic issues like injection attacks and broken access control to more modern concerns like using components with known vulnerabilities or failing to implement sufficient logging and monitoring.
The OWASP Top 10 doesn’t just list vulnerabilities—it also offers insight into root causes, potential impacts, and mitigation techniques. This allows organizations to prioritize remediation efforts and align their security programs with industry expectations. Integrating OWASP knowledge into your development, testing, and review processes strengthens overall software integrity and improves compliance with regulatory standards.
Let’s now walk through the current OWASP Top 10 threats, starting with Injection. This includes vulnerabilities like SQL injection, operating system command injection, and Lightweight Directory Access Protocol injection. These occur when untrusted data is sent to an interpreter, tricking it into executing unintended commands. Injection vulnerabilities can result in data loss, corruption, or full system compromise.
Second is Broken Authentication. These weaknesses allow attackers to compromise passwords, keys, or session tokens. If authentication and session management functions are implemented incorrectly, attackers can assume the identities of legitimate users.
Third is Sensitive Data Exposure. This includes any instance where personal, financial, or confidential data is exposed due to inadequate encryption, poor storage practices, or insecure communication channels.
Fourth is XML External Entities, or X X E. This threat involves exploiting weakly configured XML parsers to access internal files, conduct port scanning, or launch denial-of-service attacks.
Fifth is Broken Access Control. This occurs when restrictions on what authenticated users are allowed to do are not properly enforced. Attackers may exploit these flaws to gain unauthorized access to resources.
Sixth is Security Misconfiguration. This broad category includes using default settings, overly verbose error messages, unnecessary services, and missing patches. Misconfiguration can expose sensitive data and weaken overall security.
Seventh is Cross-Site Scripting, or X S S. This involves injecting malicious scripts into webpages that are viewed by other users. X S S allows attackers to hijack sessions, redirect users, or deface websites.
Eighth is Insecure Deserialization. This vulnerability allows attackers to execute arbitrary code on the server by sending crafted serialized objects that are improperly deserialized.
Ninth is Using Components with Known Vulnerabilities. This risk stems from integrating libraries, frameworks, or modules that contain known flaws into your application. If those flaws are not patched, attackers can exploit them.
Tenth is Insufficient Logging and Monitoring. Without adequate logging, you may not detect suspicious activity. Without monitoring, you won’t know when an attack occurs—or how far it has progressed.
Understanding this list gives your organization the insight needed to prioritize testing, allocate development resources, and focus on the highest-risk areas.
Now let’s explore the OWASP-recommended controls that help mitigate these threats. First, implement robust input validation and output encoding practices. This prevents injection attacks and cross-site scripting by treating untrusted data carefully and ensuring it’s not executed by browsers or systems.
Second, enforce strong authentication controls. Require multi-factor authentication, use secure password storage with strong hashing algorithms, and properly manage sessions. Always protect session identifiers from exposure or reuse.
Third, encrypt sensitive data both in transit and at rest. Use strong, approved algorithms and maintain centralized key management policies. Never rely on default encryption or insecure storage mechanisms.
Fourth, configure systems securely. Disable unnecessary services, enforce least privilege, remove default accounts, and apply secure configuration templates. Regularly review and update configurations to reflect changing threats.
Fifth, use secure access control frameworks. Always enforce authorization server-side and validate user permissions for every function. Avoid relying on client-side controls to protect sensitive actions or data.
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Let’s now discuss how to implement effective application security testing to support OWASP mitigation. Start with regular penetration testing. External testers can simulate real-world attacks against your applications to uncover vulnerabilities that automated tools might miss.
Combine this with static application security testing—S A S T—which scans source code for insecure functions, logic errors, or hardcoded credentials. Also use dynamic testing—D A S T—which analyzes running applications in real time.
Integrate these tools into your development lifecycle. Build security checkpoints into your Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment pipelines so that vulnerabilities are caught early—before reaching production.
Establish mandatory code reviews and threat modeling sessions, especially for high-risk features. Require testing of third-party components and prompt patching or removal of any vulnerable libraries.
Train your developers. Many developers are unaware of OWASP threats or how to prevent them. Provide hands-on training, access to secure coding guidelines, and ongoing reinforcement to keep skills sharp.
Let’s now examine security controls that support OWASP-based application security. Start by using integrated security platforms. These provide centralized visibility into code quality, known vulnerabilities, and remediation status. Automate alerts, reporting, and dashboard visualization.
Apply robust access control for your development infrastructure. Protect your repositories, build servers, and testing tools with role-based access, multi-factor authentication, and encrypted storage.
Conduct regular vulnerability scans and compliance audits. These should be aligned with OWASP guidance and regulatory requirements. Include both internal and external scans to ensure complete coverage.
Maintain documentation. For every application, keep detailed records of testing results, resolved issues, third-party components, and incident response procedures. This supports audits, forensic investigations, and knowledge sharing.
Use secure collaboration platforms. Enable developers, testers, and security professionals to communicate in a secure environment with protected files, version tracking, and encrypted communication channels.
Let’s close with continuous improvement in OWASP security practices. The threat landscape is constantly evolving, and so are the techniques attackers use to exploit software vulnerabilities. Your application security practices must keep pace.
Regularly review your development policies, testing workflows, and release processes. Update them based on threat intelligence, industry trends, and lessons learned from incidents.
Use performance metrics to guide improvements. Track vulnerability density, mean time to remediate, and testing coverage. Use this data to justify resources, guide training, and prioritize areas for investment.
Foster cross-functional collaboration. Developers, security teams, operations staff, compliance officers, and business stakeholders all have a role in reducing application security risk.
Provide ongoing training. Refresh secure coding knowledge, update OWASP awareness, and run regular drills. Engage employees with interactive exercises and real-world case studies.
Thank you for tuning into the CISSP Prepcast by Bare Metal Cyber. Visit baremetalcyber.com for additional episodes, comprehensive CISSP study resources, and personalized certification support. Strengthen your understanding of OWASP Top 10 Threats and Controls, and we'll consistently support your journey toward CISSP certification success.