Understanding the Current OWASP Top 10: What It Means for Application Security

Last reviewed: January 2026

The OWASP Top 10 is produced by the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP), a global, non-profit security organisation.

OWASP works to improve the security of modern software through open, community-driven guidance. Its frameworks and standards help organisations understand and manage application security risk. These resources are widely trusted by developers, security teams, auditors, and regulators worldwide.

The latest edition of the OWASP Top 10 (2025 edition) sets a new standard for how organisations must think about software security.

The current edition marks a clear evolution in thinking. Rather than focusing solely on individual coding flaws, it reflects how modern attacks exploit weaknesses in design decisions, development processes, supply chains, and operational controls.

For security leaders, engineers, and business stakeholders alike, the message is unambiguous: application security is no longer confined to code. Resilience now depends on visibility, control, and accountability across the entire software lifecycle.

What’s changed – and why it matters

The current OWASP Top 10 builds on earlier editions but shifts the focus towards systemic causes of failure rather than isolated technical defects. Two categories in particular highlight this change in emphasis:

• Software Supply Chain Failures replaces Vulnerable and Outdated Components. It broadens focus to include compromised dependencies, poisoned build pipelines and weak provenance controls. The message is simple – your software is only as trustworthy as everything that feeds it.
• Mishandling of Exceptional Conditions is a new entry highlighting errors in logic and control flow. It covers unhandled exceptions, unsafe error states and fail-open behaviours that expose systems when they’re under stress.

OWASP also reframes and consolidates existing areas:

• Logging and Alerting Failures has been refined to stress the gap between record-keeping and meaningful detection. Logs alone are not enough – you must act on them.
• Security Misconfiguration climbs sharply, reflecting the prevalence of mis-set permissions, default credentials and ungoverned cloud services.
• Broken Access Control remains the most common and impactful risk, topping the list once again.

Together, these shifts align closely with real-world threat data: the rise of supply-chain compromise, automation missteps and detection fatigue.

The current OWASP Top 10 risk categories

1️⃣ Broken Access Control
2️⃣ Cryptographic Failures
3️⃣ Injection
4️⃣ Insecure Design
5️⃣ Security Misconfiguration
6️⃣ Vulnerable and Outdated Components (merged under Supply Chain Failures)
7️⃣ Identification and Authentication Failures
8️⃣ Software and Data Integrity Failures
9️⃣ Security Logging and Alerting Failures
🔟 Mishandling of Exceptional Conditions

These categories represent not only individual risks but patterns of organisational behaviour – where design shortcuts, weak governance or poor integration allow vulnerabilities to persist.

Turning the Top 10 into practical action

As organisations move beyond initial awareness of the latest OWASP categories, the emphasis is now on consistent implementation and demonstrable assurance.

This is where structured Application Testing Services play a critical role, helping organisations validate real-world risk across code, infrastructure, and delivery pipelines.

1. Strengthen software supply-chain governance

The biggest shift is the explicit recognition that supply-chain compromise is no longer rare. Start by mapping every dependency – from third-party libraries to build servers. Validate provenance, verify signatures and isolate build environments. Require suppliers to maintain Software Bills of Materials (SBOMs) and commit to patch timelines.

2. Embed secure design thinking early

“Insecure Design” and “Exceptional Conditions” both highlight the need to build resilience into software from the outset. Conduct threat-modelling exercises before code is written. Define trust boundaries, error handling and recovery logic as part of design documentation – not as an afterthought.

3. Update your testing strategy

Revisit your testing stack. Ensure Static Application Security Testing (SAST), Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) and Software Composition Analysis (SCA) tools are aligned with the new OWASP taxonomy. Automate checks within CI/CD pipelines to catch supply-chain and misconfiguration issues early.

4. Build observability that works

Effective detection is about context, not just data. Review log sources, event retention, alert-routing and escalation procedures. Test them through live simulations – confirm that the right people get notified at the right time.

5. Validate identity and access controls

Access control remains the leading failure for a reason. Review privilege assignments, API authentication and session management. Use least-privilege principles and short-lived tokens. Treat identity as a dynamic control surface, not a static list of permissions.

Why this update is a strategic opportunity

Many organisations still view OWASP as a developer checklist. In practice, it functions as a governance framework – providing a shared language between engineering teams, security functions, and leadership.

It bridges compliance and resilience. By aligning your internal standards with the new categories, you gain measurable assurance that your defences address today’s threats rather than yesterday’s headlines.

Moreover, regulators are increasingly referencing OWASP principles in data-protection and resilience assessments. Anticipating those requirements now will save time, cost and reputation later.

“The current OWASP Top 10 reflects a shift in how security risk is emerging in modern software. Rather than focusing only on individual coding errors, it highlights the importance of how applications are designed, built, and operated over time. By drawing attention to supply-chain weaknesses and exceptional scenarios, OWASP is recognising that many attacks now exploit gaps in development processes, reliance on third-party components, and situations that are rarely tested.”

– Jamie Jenner, CTO, Assure Technical

How to stay ahead

• Benchmark your existing controls against the current OWASP categories.
• Prioritise remediation based on exploitability and business impact.
• Invest in continuous verification – not one-off audits.
• Educate developers and product teams through contextual training based on the new Top 10 examples.
• Engage leadership in cyber-resilience reporting so security becomes a business performance metric, not a compliance footnote.

The Assure Technical perspective

The OWASP Top 10 captures a truth we see every day: the biggest vulnerabilities aren’t always code flaws – they’re control gaps, design oversights and visibility blind spots.

Attackers thrive on complexity. The organisations that succeed are those who simplify, standardise and embed resilience into every stage of development and delivery.

By translating OWASP guidance into clear, measurable action, you can prove that your software isn’t just functional – it’s defensible.

Let’s make your software resilient by design

At Assure Technical, we don’t believe in one-size-fits-all assessments. Our expert sales consultants start by understanding your business, your systems, and your risk appetite. From there, they guide you through a structured readiness review built around three clear steps:

1️⃣ Discovery – we explore your current software environment, development practices, and any frameworks you already follow.
2️⃣ Mapping – we align your controls to the OWASP Top 10, highlighting gaps in design, testing, or supplier oversight.
3️⃣ Roadmap – we translate those findings into a focused improvement plan, outlining where our Application Testing Services can deliver immediate value – from penetration testing and code review to continuous security validation in your CI/CD pipeline.

You’ll leave the session with clear direction, expert guidance, and a plan that makes your resilience goals achievable.

Ready to see where you stand against the current OWASP Top 10?
Book your readiness review with our expert sales consultants and start building software that’s secure by design – and trusted by your clients.