Facebook Google Plus Twitter LinkedIn YouTube RSS Menu Search Resource - BlogResource - WebinarResource - ReportResource - Eventicons_066 icons_067icons_068icons_069icons_070

WAS Executive Summary

by Cody Dumont
August 22, 2023

WAS Executive Summary

From e-commerce to online banking, the world is interconnected with web applications. The internet provides a contactless method to conduct office meetings, engage with healthcare professionals, shop, attend classes, and more.  Protecting data has never been more important. Failure to secure web applications can lead to serious financial and reputational consequences. According to statistics published in Tenable's Threat Landscape Report, web application vulnerabilities continue to repeatedly pose a significant threat to organizations.

Web application security refers to the practices employed to detect and mitigate threats and vulnerabilities that may compromise the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of web applications. As the internet has evolved to become an integral part of how organizations conduct business, web applications have become increasing popular and essential to meet the requirements. This growing popularity of web applications and online transactions provides lucrative targets for cybercriminals. Data presented within this report highlights the top most vulnerable web applications and assets at risk for exploitation.

This report leverages data from Tenable Web App Scanning, a comprehensive and automated vulnerability scanning tool for modern web applications. Organizations can perform Dynamic Application Security Tests (DAST) on any application, anywhere, at any point in the application lifecycle. Of specific importance is the Tenable Web App Scanning ability to scan for vulnerabilities from the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) Top 10 risks, and provide comprehensive and accurate vulnerability data. 

The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) is a non-profit foundation that provides community-driven consensus insight into web application security concerns. The OWASP Top 10 list highlights several different aspects of web-based security, such as Cross-Site Scripting attacks, security misconfigurations, and sensitive data exposure. The focus of the OWASP Top 10 is to reduce risk across the most vulnerable aspects of web applications across the internet. Following these guidelines enables organizations to reduce risk of organizational and customer data theft. 

In addition, Common Vulnerability and Exposures (CVE), and other configuration tests provide insight into thousands of related vulnerabilities and misconfigurations. Vulnerability data presented in this report leverages all the gathered web application vulnerability information to provide organizations with a method to break the vulnerability cycle. The data provided in the report enables organizations to better communicate risk, prioritize patching efforts, and reduce the attack surface. 

This report is available in the Tenable.sc Feed, a comprehensive collection of dashboards, reports, Assurance Report Cards, and assets. The report can be easily located in the Tenable.sc Feed under the category Executive. The report requirements are:

  • Tenable.sc 6.2.0
  • Tenable Web App Scanning

Security leaders need to SEE everything, PREDICT what matters most and ACT to address cyber risk and effectively align cybersecurity initiatives with business objectives. Tenable Security Center discovers and analyzes assets continuously to provide an accurate and unified view of an organization's security posture.

Chapters

New Web Application Vulnerabilities: This chapter provides a view of web application vulnerabilities which are newly discovered. The elements summarize the first stage of vulnerabilities in the risk life cycle.  The Web Application Vulnerabilities by State matrix tracks web application vulnerabilities through each state provides management information on the progress of risk mitigation efforts. The following two tables provide the Top 100 Web URLs and newly discovered vulnerabilities. The Top 100 Most Vulnerable Web Applications (Last 14 Days) focuses on the Assets according to the URL scanned using the Tenable Web Application Scanner. While the Top 100 WAS Vulnerabilities and Affected Assets (Last 14 Days) table provides more detail showing the vulnerability and the associated assets.

New OWASP 2021 Vulnerabilities: This chapter provides a view of OWASP 2021 vulnerabilities which are newly discovered. The OWASP 2021 Categories (Last 14 days) matrix displays web application vulnerabilities identified using the 2021 OWASP categories. The following two tables provide the Top 100 Web URLs and newly discovered vulnerabilities. The OWASP 2021 Top 100 Most Vulnerable Web Applications (Last 14 Days) focuses on the Assets according to the URL scanned using the Tenable Web Application Scanner. While the OWASP 2021 Top 100 WAS Vulnerabilities and Affected Assets (Last 14 Days) table provides more detail showing the vulnerability and the associated assets.