From the course: Learning the OWASP Top 10 (2025 Version)

OWASP Top 10 "in the wild": Recent news headlines

From the course: Learning the OWASP Top 10 (2025 Version)

Start my 1-month free trial Buy for my team

OWASP Top 10 "in the wild": Recent news headlines

“

When we talk about the OWASP top 10, it's easy for it to feel theoretical. A list on a slide, something you memorized for an exam. But in real life, these categories show up everywhere. My goal is to train your brain to look at a breach headline and instantly map it back to the underlying OWASP failure. Because once you can do that, you start to see patterns. Once you see patterns, you can actually do something about them. Let's walk through a couple of recent publicly disclosed incidents and connect them to the OWASP top 10 as it exists today. Number 1, Qantas cyber incident, third-party platform compromise. Qantas confirmed a cyber incident impacting millions of customers after attackers gained access through a third-party customer servicing platform used by a contact center. Qantas stated that the incident was linked to this external platform rather than direct access to its airline operational systems. OAuth mapping A03, software supply chain failures. The incident occurred through a trusted third-party platform operating within Qantas' service ecosystem. A common supply chain failure pattern. A07, identification and authentication failures, possible. Qantas did not disclose specific attack techniques. However, incidents involving third-party service platforms often hinge on how identities, credentials, or trust relationships are enforced across organizational boundaries. This is a reminder that authentication is no longer confined to your own login page. Every vendor connection, service account, and API integration is part of your authentication surface. Number two, Logitech zero-day incident, third-party vulnerability to data exfiltration. Logitech disclosed that attackers exploited a zero-day vulnerability in a third-party software platform to gain unauthorized access and copy certain company data. Logitech stated that the incident was limited to internal IT systems and did not impact products or manufacturing operations. OWASP mapping, A03, software supply chain failures. A zero-day vulnerability in a third-party platform was used as the entry point into Logitech's environment, making this another clear supply chain risk scenario. A08, software and data integrity failures. Contextual. When vulnerabilities in trusted platforms allow unauthorized execution or access inside an organization's environment, software and data integrity risks emerge, even if the immediate impact appears limited to data access. This incident highlights how data integrity failures often originate quietly inside the software supply chain, long before they show up as visible security events. So, how do you practice this skill? When you read breach headlines going forward, try three steps. First, name the primary OWASP category. What underlying failure made the incident possible in the first place? Next, layer on secondary categories. Real-world breaches are rarely caused by a single weakness. Supply chain failures often compound access control, authentication, or configuration gaps. And finally, look for repetition. Broken access control, security misconfiguration, and software supply chain failures are among the most frequently recurring root causes in major breach disclosures. This is how we build pattern recognition. by learning to map real incidents back to underlying failure patterns, even when the headlines look different. This is how the OWASP Top 10 becomes not just a list, but a lens, a way of seeing the real world with more clarity and more confidence.

Contents