Vulnerabilities of Web Applications: Good Practices and New Trends
Mateusz Nawrocki, Joanna Kołodziej · Applied Cybersecurity & Internet Governance · 2024
Web application security remains a critical challenge in mitigating vulnerabilities that expose sensitive data and systems to cyberattacks. This paper addresses recent trends in the vulnerability of web applications to cyber-attacks. It explores the implementation and evaluation of security mechanisms in web services guided by the OWASP Top 10 framework. The OWASP Analyzer – a test application prepared to simulate the Broken Access Control, SQL Injection, and Cross-Site Scripting attacks – was executed in three realistic scenarios: web applications without any protection mechanism, essential safeguards, and advanced measures. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of layered security strategies and highlight the best practices, such as role-based access control, secure cryptographic methods, and comprehensive logging. This research underscores the necessity of integrating robust security measures throughout the development lifecycle to safeguard against evolving threats.