Top 10-2017 Foreword

OWASP plans to release the final public release of the OWASP Top 10 - 2017 in July or August 2017 after a public comment period ending June 30, 2017.

This release of the OWASP Top 10 marks this project’s fourteenth year of raising awareness of the importance of application security risks. This release follows the 2013 update, whose main change was the addition of 2013-A9 Use of Known Vulnerable Components. We are pleased to see that since the 2013 Top 10 release, a whole ecosystem of both free and commercial tools have emerged to help combat this problem as the use of open source components has continued to rapidly expand across practically every programming language. The data also suggests the use of known vulnerable components is still prevalent, but not as widespread as before. We believe the awareness of this issue the Top 10 - 2013 generated has contributed to both of these changes.

We also noticed that since CSRF was introduced to the Top 10 in 2007, it has dropped from a widespread vulnerability to an uncommon one. Many frameworks include automatic CSRF defenses which has significantly contributed to its decline in prevalence, along with much higher awareness with developers that they must protect against such attacks.

Constructive comments on this OWASP Top 10 - 2017 Release Candidate should be forwarded via email to [mailto:OWASP-TopTen@lists.owasp.org OWASP-TopTen@lists.owasp.org]. Private comments may be sent to [mailto:dave.wichers@owasp.org dave.wichers@owasp.org]. Anonymous comments are welcome. All non-private comments will be catalogued and published at the same time as the final public release. Comments recommending changes to the items listed in the Top 10 should include a complete suggested list of 10 items, along with a rationale for any changes. All comments should indicate the specific relevant page and section.

Following the final publication of the OWASP Top 10 - 2017, the collaborative work of the OWASP community will continue with updates to supporting documents including the OWASP wiki, OWASP Developer’s Guide, OWASP Testing Guide, OWASP Code Review Guide, and the OWASP Prevention Cheat Sheets, along with translations of the Top 10 to many different languages.

Your feedback is critical to the continued success of the OWASP Top 10 and all other OWASP Projects. Thank you all for your dedication to improving the security of the world’s software for everyone.

Jeff Williams, OWASP Top 10 Project Creator and Coauthor Dave Wichers, OWASP Top 10 Coauthor and Project Lead

Insecure software is undermining our financial, healthcare, defense, energy, and other critical infrastructure. As our software becomes increasingly critical, complex, and connected, the difficulty of achieving application security increases exponentially. The rapid pace of modern software development processes makes risks even more critical to discover quickly and accurately. We can no longer afford to tolerate relatively simple security problems like those presented in this OWASP Top 10.

The goal of the Top 10 project is to raise awareness about application security by identifying some of the most critical risks facing organizations. The Top 10 project is referenced by many standards, books, tools, and organizations, including MITRE, PCI DSS, DISA, FTC, and many more. The OWASP Top 10 was first released in 2003, with minor updates in 2004 and 2007. The 2010 version was revamped to prioritize by risk, not just prevalence, and this pattern was continued in 2013 and this latest 2017 release.

We encourage you to use the Top 10 to get your organization started with application security. Developers can learn from the mistakes of other organizations. Executives should start thinking about how to manage the risk that software applications and APIs create in their enterprise.

In the long term, we encourage you to create an application security program that is compatible with your culture and technology. These programs come in all shapes and sizes, and you should avoid attempting to do everything prescribed in some process model. Instead, leverage your organization’s existing strengths to do and measure what works for you.

We hope that the OWASP Top 10 is useful to your application security efforts. Please don’t hesitate to contact OWASP with your questions, comments, and ideas, either publicly to [mailto:owasp-topten@lists.owasp.org owasp-topten@lists.owasp.org] or privately to [mailto:dave.wichers@owasp.org dave.wichers@owasp.org].

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