Secure Coding Principles - OWASP Top 10

Introduction

Secure coding principles are essential to protect applications from vulnerabilities that can be exploited by attackers. The OWASP Top 10 is a list of the most critical security risks to web applications, serving as a guideline for secure coding practices.

Key Concepts

1. Input Validation
2. Output Encoding
3. Authentication and Password Management
4. Access Control
5. Secure Session Management
6. Cryptography
7. Error Handling and Logging
8. Data Protection
9. Security Misconfiguration
10. Regular Security Testing

Best Practices

• Use prepared statements for database queries.
• Implement strict input validation.
• Use HTTPS to encrypt data in transit.
• Implement proper error handling to avoid leaking information.
• Keep software dependencies up to date to mitigate vulnerabilities.

Code Examples

Input Validation Example

function validateInput(input) {
    const regex = /^[a-zA-Z0-9]*$/; // Only allow alphanumeric characters
    return regex.test(input);
}
        

Output Encoding Example

function encodeOutput(output) {
    return output.replace(/&/g, "&")
                 .replace(//g, ">")
                 .replace(/"/g, """)
                 .replace(/'/g, "'");
}
        

FAQ