Modern Web Security: Mitigating OWASP Top 10 Vulnerabilities

Modern web applications process billions of dollars in commerce and store confidential personal records. However, insecure coding practices continue to leave production APIs exposed. The OWASP Top 10 identifies the most critical security risks facing web applications today.

1. Broken Access Control (OWASP #1)

Broken access control occurs when users can execute actions or view data outside their intended authorization scope.

• Vulnerability Example: An unprivileged user edits their browser URL from /api/orders/102 to /api/orders/103 and successfully retrieves another customer's invoice.

• Remediation: Enforce centralized, server-side object-level access control on every database query. Never trust client-side route guards alone.

`typescript
// Secure authorization query pattern
const order = await prisma.order.findFirst({
where: {
id: orderId,
userId: session.user.id, // Strictly scoped to authenticated actor
},
});
`

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2. Cryptographic Failures (OWASP #2)

Transmitting plaintext credentials or storing passwords using deprecated hashing algorithms (MD5, SHA-1).

• Remediation: Enforce TLS 1.3 across all endpoints. Always hash user passwords using adaptive key-stretching functions like Argon2id or bcrypt with appropriate work factors ($cost ge 12$).

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3. Injection Flaws (SQLi, Command Injection)

Injection occurs when untrusted input is concatenated directly into interpreter commands, allowing malicious actors to alter query logic.

• Remediation: Always use parameterized queries or trusted Object-Relational Mappers (ORMs like Prisma). Never interpolate user variables directly into raw SQL strings.

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4. Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)

XSS enables adversaries to inject client-side scripts into web pages viewed by other users, allowing theft of authentication tokens or silent session hijacking.

• Defensive Headers:

Core Philosophy: Security is not an afterthought or a final audit checklist item; it is an architectural discipline woven into every pull request.