Comprehensive Guide to OWASP Top 10: Web Applications, APIs and Automated Threats
In this blog
OWASP Web Application Security Top 10 (2021)
The OWASP Top 10 represents the most critical web application security risks that organizations face today.
1. Broken Access Control
The Risk: Insufficient enforcement of access controls allows attackers to access unauthorized functionality or data through Insecure Direct Object References (IDORs) or missing function-level access controls.
How F5 Protects:
- F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF: Validates user permissions throughout the application lifecycle
- F5 Distributed Cloud WAAP: Enforces access control policies at the edge
- Lab Exercise: Configure role-based access control policies and test IDOR prevention
2. Cryptographic Failures
The Risk: Inadequate protection of sensitive data during transit and at rest can lead to data breaches, unauthorized access, and non-compliance with regulations like GDPR and PCI DSS.
Key Concerns:
- Insecure cryptographic storage
- Storing data in plain text
- Weak key management
- Information leakage from poor key generation
How F5 Protects:
- F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF: SSL/TLS offloading and visibility with policy enforcement
- F5 Distributed Cloud: Automated certificate management and TLS 1.3 support
- F5 NGINX App Protect: Modern TLS configuration with security best practices
- Lab Exercise: Configure SSL/TLS policies and validate encryption standards using F5 Labs' CryptoNice tool
3. Injection Attacks
The Risk: Injection flaws occur when untrusted data is inserted into command or query languages without proper validation, including SQL injection, NoSQL injection, OS command injection, LDAP injection, and Cross-Site Scripting (XSS).
Impact:
- Theft of sensitive information
- Login credential compromise
- Session cookie theft
- Unauthorized data manipulation
How F5 Protects:
- F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF: Signature-based detection for known injection patterns
- F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF: Behavioral analysis for zero-day injection attacks
- F5 NGINX App Protect: Modern signature engine with F5 Labs threat intelligence
- F5 Distributed Cloud: Cloud-delivered WAF with global threat correlation
- Lab Exercise: Test SQL injection and XSS attacks, configure attack signatures, review blocking effectiveness
4. Insecure Design
The Risk: Architectural flaws and missing security controls during the design phase create inherent vulnerabilities in applications.
Best Practices:
- Implement threat modeling during development
- Use secure design patterns
- Leverage reference architecture
- Incorporate security requirements from inception
How F5 Protects:
- F5 DevOps Integration: Security policy as code for CI/CD pipelines
- F5 Distributed Cloud: API-driven security configuration
- Lab Exercise: Review secure architecture patterns and implement threat modeling
5. Security Misconfiguration
The Risk: Lack of security hardening across web application frameworks, platforms, servers, and security controls can expose systems to unauthorized access and data breaches.
Common Issues:
- Improperly configured cloud service permissions
- Unnecessary features enabled (unused ports, services, accounts)
- Default configurations left unchanged
- Verbose error messages exposing sensitive information
How F5 Protects:
- F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF: OWASP Compliance Dashboard showing policy coverage
- F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF: One-click enhancement to achieve 100% compliance
- F5 Distributed Cloud: Security posture assessment and recommendations
- Lab Exercise: Use OWASP Compliance Dashboard to identify gaps, apply recommended policies, and achieve full coverage
6. Vulnerable and Outdated Components
The Risk: Using unpatched or outdated libraries, frameworks, and plugins exposes applications to known security flaws and exploitation.
Critical Factors:
- Unsupported or outdated software (OS, web/app server, DBMS)
- Lack of timely patching processes
- Complex supply chains introducing vulnerable dependencies
- CI/CD automation risks
How F5 Protects:
- F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF: Virtual patching capabilities as interim protection
- F5 Threat Campaigns: Automatic updates for newly discovered vulnerabilities
- F5 NGINX App Protect: Rapid signature deployment without downtime
- Lab Exercise: Configure virtual patches, test protection against known CVEs
7. Identification and Authentication Failures
The Risk: Weaknesses in authentication, identity, and session management enable attackers to compromise accounts, passwords, and session tokens.
Attack Vectors:
- Credential stuffing (automated testing of stolen credentials)
- Password reuse across multiple services
- Default, weak, or well-known passwords
- Improper session invalidation during logout
- Insecure session token handling
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud Bot Defense: Detects and blocks credential stuffing without CAPTCHA friction
- F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF: Session protection and validation mechanisms
- Lab Exercise: Simulate credential stuffing attack, observe bot detection, configure defense policies
8. Software and Data Integrity Failures
The Risk: Applications that don't protect against integrity violations of code and data are vulnerable to attacks through untrusted sources, repositories, and CDNs.
Risks Include:
- Malicious updates distributed to all installations
- Insecure deserialization leading to remote code execution
- Unvalidated CI/CD pipeline changes
- Compromised plugins and libraries
How F5 Protects:
- F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF: Content inspection and validation
- F5 Distributed Cloud: Code signing verification and integrity checks
- Lab Exercise: Configure content integrity policies and test deserialization attack protection
9. Security Logging and Monitoring Failures
The Risk: Inadequate logging and monitoring hinders timely detection and response to security incidents.
Requirements:
- Log all auditable events (logins, failed logins, high-value transactions)
- Real-time attack detection capabilities
- Centralized log management
- Effective alerting mechanisms
How F5 Protects:
- F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF: Comprehensive security event logging with SIEM integration
- F5 Distributed Cloud: Centralized dashboard with 360-degree visibility
- F5 NGINX App Protect: JSON-formatted logs for analytics platforms
- Lab Exercise: Configure logging, integrate with SIEM, create custom alerting rules
10. Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF)
The Risk: Applications that don't validate or sanitize user-supplied URLs can be forced to access malicious destinations, even when protected by firewalls.
Attack Scenarios:
- Exploitation of trust relationships with backend systems
- Access to cloud metadata services
- Unauthorized API requests
- Sensitive information extraction
How F5 Protects:
- F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF: URI parameter validation in security policies
- F5 Distributed Cloud: Host access controls implementing least-privilege principles
- Lab Exercise: Test SSRF attack vectors, configure URL validation policies
OWASP API Security Top 10 (2023)
APIs have become fundamental to modern application architectures, but they also introduce significant security risks. The OWASP API Security Top 10 focuses on the unique vulnerabilities and threats specific to API implementations.
Why API Security Matters
APIs expose critical business logic and sensitive information including:
- User data and authentication credentials
- Financial transactions
- Core application functionality (login, account creation, cart operations, money transfers)
APIs expand the attack surface through interdependencies across multi-cloud architectures and are susceptible to vulnerability exploits, automated threats, denial of service, misconfiguration, and authentication/authorization bypass attacks.
API1:2023 - Broken Object Level Authorization (BOLA)
Vulnerability: Applications fail to properly enforce access controls at the object or data level, allowing attackers to manipulate authorization checks and access unauthorized objects.
Prevention Best Practice: Every API endpoint receiving an object ID must implement object-level authorization checks to validate that the logged-in user has permissions for the requested action.
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud API Security: Object-level authorization validation
- F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF: Parameter enforcement and access control policies
- Lab Exercise: Test BOLA attacks, configure object-level authorization policies
API2:2023 - Broken Authentication
Vulnerability: Weak authentication mechanisms allow attackers to compromise authentication tokens or exploit implementation flaws to assume other users' identities.
Common Issues:
- Inadequate token validation
- Weak password policies
- Missing rate limiting on authentication endpoints
- Insecure password recovery mechanisms
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud Bot Defense: Prevents automated authentication attacks
- F5 Distributed Cloud API Security: JWT validation and token integrity verification
- F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF: Authentication flow protection
- Lab Exercise: Configure JWT validation, implement rate limiting, test token security
API3:2023 - Broken Object Property Level Authorization
Vulnerability: Insufficient authorization checks on object properties lead to information disclosure or unauthorized data modification.
Types:
- Mass Assignment: APIs accepting client input for object properties without proper filtering
- Excessive Data Exposure: APIs returning more data than necessary
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud API Security: Schema validation preventing mass assignment
- F5 Distributed Cloud API Security: Response filtering to prevent excessive data exposure
- Lab Exercise: Configure API schema enforcement, test property-level controls
API4:2023 - Unrestricted Resource Consumption
Vulnerability: Lack of limits on resource consumption enables denial of service through excessive API calls, large request payloads, expensive computational operations, or high memory allocation.
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud WAAP: Rate limiting and quota enforcement per user/API key
- F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF: Request size limits and computational throttling
- F5 Distributed Cloud: DDoS protection for volumetric attacks
- Lab Exercise: Configure rate limiting policies, test DoS prevention
API5:2023 - Broken Function Level Authorization
Vulnerability: APIs with complex access control policies fail to enforce proper authorization between different hierarchical levels, functions, or administrative operations.
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud API Security: Function-level access control enforcement
- F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF: Role-based access control policies
- Lab Exercise: Configure hierarchical authorization, test privilege escalation prevention
API6:2023 - Unrestricted Access to Sensitive Business Flows
Vulnerability: Lack of protection for sensitive business workflows allows automated abuse of application functionality for malicious purposes.
Examples:
- Bulk ticket purchasing
- Automated posting of fake reviews
- Mass data scraping
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud Bot Defense: Behavioral analysis detecting automated abuse
- F5 Distributed Cloud API Security: Business logic protection for sensitive workflows
- Lab Exercise: Configure business flow protection, simulate scalping attacks, review bot defense effectiveness
API7:2023 - Server Side Request Forgery (SSRF)
Vulnerability: APIs that fetch remote resources without validating user-supplied URIs can be exploited to access internal services, cloud metadata, or perform port scanning.
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud API Security: URI validation and allowlist enforcement
- F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF: URL filtering and internal network protection
- Lab Exercise: Test SSRF vulnerabilities, configure URI validation policies
API8:2023 - Security Misconfiguration
Vulnerability: Improperly configured APIs expose sensitive information, enable unauthorized access, or facilitate exploitation.
Common Misconfigurations:
- Verbose error messages
- Unnecessary HTTP methods enabled
- Missing security headers
- Outdated or unpatched systems
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud API Security: Security posture assessment and recommendations
- F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF: OWASP API Security compliance checking
- F5 NGINX App Protect: Secure-by-default configurations
- Lab Exercise: Use security assessment tools, remediate misconfigurations
API9:2023 - Improper Inventory Management
Vulnerability: Lack of visibility into API endpoints, versions, and documentation leads to zombie APIs (outdated but still accessible), unpatched versions running in production, and shadow APIs (undocumented endpoints).
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud API Security: Automatic API discovery across environments
- F5 Distributed Cloud API Security: API catalog with version tracking
- F5 Distributed Cloud API Security: Shadow API detection and alerting
- Lab Exercise: Run API discovery, review inventory, identify shadow APIs
API10:2023 - Unsafe Consumption of APIs
Vulnerability: Trusting data received from third-party APIs without proper validation can lead to security vulnerabilities when integrated APIs are compromised.
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud API Security: Third-party API validation and sanitization
- F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF: Content inspection for API responses
- Lab Exercise: Configure third-party API validation policies
OWASP Automated Threats to Web Applications (OAT)
The OWASP Automated Threats Project provides a comprehensive taxonomy of 21 distinct automated attack vectors (OAT-001 through OAT-021) targeting web applications, mobile apps, and APIs.
Understanding Automated Threats
What Are They? Automated threats are malicious attacks performed by bots, scripts, or hacker toolkits rather than humans manually interacting with applications. These threats exploit inherent application functionality to conduct fraud and abuse.
Why They Matter:
- Existing security technologies struggle to detect advanced automated abuse
- Fraud teams cannot keep up with evolving attack mechanisms
- Legacy defenses (like CAPTCHAs) create poor user experiences
- Attackers increasingly leverage automation for scale and efficiency
The 21 OWASP Automated Threats
OAT-001: Carding
Threat: Multiple payment authorization attempts to verify stolen payment card data validity.
Impact: Enables criminals to identify valid cards for fraud, leading to unauthorized purchases and financial losses.
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud Bot Defense: Behavioral analysis detecting automated card validation patterns
- F5 Distributed Cloud Bot Defense: Device fingerprinting identifying malicious tools
- Lab Exercise: Simulate carding attack, observe detection, configure automated blocking
OAT-002: Token Cracking
Threat: Mass enumeration of coupon numbers, voucher codes, and discount tokens.
Impact: Fraudulent redemption of discounts, credits, and special offers.
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud Bot Defense: Detects enumeration patterns
- F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF: Rate limiting on token validation endpoints
- Lab Exercise: Configure enumeration prevention policies
OAT-003: Ad Fraud (Click Fraud)
Threat: Falsifying interactions with online advertisements through automated clicks or impressions.
Impact: Revenue manipulation, wasted advertising budgets, skewed performance metrics.
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud Bot Defense: Click fraud detection using behavioral analysis distinguishes between genuine user clicks and automated bot traffic, protecting advertising revenue and analytics accuracy.
OAT-004: Fingerprinting
Threat: Collecting and analyzing unique characteristics of browsers or devices to track users or profile applications for attack.
Impact: Privacy violations, reconnaissance for targeted attacks.
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud Bot Defense: Advanced telemetry collection and analysis detects fingerprinting attempts while respecting user privacy and identifying reconnaissance activities that precede attacks.
OAT-005: Scalping
Threat: Automated acquisition of limited-availability goods or services (concert tickets, limited-edition products) for resale at inflated prices.
Impact: Artificial scarcity, revenue loss, customer frustration, brand damage.
Real-World Example: Bot networks purchase entire inventories within seconds of release, denying legitimate customers access.
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud Bot Defense: Real-time bot detection and blocking prevents automated purchasing tools from acquiring limited inventory, ensuring fair access for legitimate customers without adding friction like queue systems or CAPTCHAs.
OAT-006: Expediting
Threat: Rapidly completing application processes using automation to bypass restrictions and gain unfair advantages.
Impact: Manipulation of timed events, circumvention of business rules.
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud Bot Defense: Behavioral analysis detects unnaturally fast form completion and process automation, enforcing intended business logic and timing requirements.
OAT-007: Credential Cracking
Threat: Brute force attacks against login mechanisms, systematically trying common username/password combinations.
Impact: Account compromise, identity theft, unauthorized access.
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud Bot Defense: Identifies brute force patterns and blocks automated login attempts using rate limiting, anomaly detection, and behavioral analysis without impacting legitimate users.
- F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF: Rate limiting policies and login page protection detect and mitigate brute force attacks.
OAT-008: Credential Stuffing
Threat: Testing stolen username/password pairs (obtained from breaches or dark web) against authentication systems.
Key Facts:
- One of the most common web application threats
- Effective because of widespread password reuse
- Leads to account takeover (ATO) and fraud
Attack Process:
1. Acquire credentials from breaches or phishing
2. Use automated tools to test credentials across multiple sites
3. Successful logins provide access to user accounts
4. Drain account value or commit fraud
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud Bot Defense: Multi-layered protection using advanced telemetry analysis, behavioral modeling, and machine learning to identify credential stuffing attempts—even when attackers rotate IP addresses, use residential proxies, or employ sophisticated evasion techniques.
- F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF: Integration with Bot Defense for on-premises deployments requiring credential stuffing protection.
OAT-009: CAPTCHA Defeat
Threat: Using automated techniques to bypass CAPTCHA challenges through image recognition, machine learning, or human solver services.
Reality: Modern bots solve CAPTCHAs faster than humans while legitimate users face significant friction, leading to transaction abandonment.
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud Bot Defense: Eliminates CAPTCHA dependency entirely by using sophisticated behavioral analysis, device telemetry, and machine learning that provides superior protection without impacting user experience or conversion rates.
OAT-010: Card Cracking
Threat: Brute-force attacks to guess payment card security features (expiration dates, CVV codes) when partial card data is known.
Impact: Financial fraud, unauthorized purchases, gift card exploitation.
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud Bot Defense: Detects automated card testing patterns across payment endpoints, blocking enumeration attempts while allowing legitimate transactions to complete seamlessly.
OAT-011: Scraping
Threat: Automated extraction of data from websites or applications.
When Malicious:
- Competitive price intelligence theft
- Content plagiarism
- Data aggregation for sale
- Performance degradation for legitimate users
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud Bot Defense: Distinguishes between authorized data access (search engines, monitoring services) and malicious scraping operations, protecting intellectual property while maintaining SEO visibility.
- F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF: Rate limiting and request throttling prevent excessive data extraction.
OAT-012: Cashing Out
Threat: Converting illiquid assets or virtual currency (gift cards, loyalty points, virtual currency) into real-world funds or goods.
Impact: Financial losses, depleted customer accounts, fraud proliferation.
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud Bot Defense: Detects automated redemption patterns and prevents bulk cashing-out operations across gift card, loyalty, and virtual currency systems.
OAT-013: Sniping
Threat: Using automation for precisely-timed actions in auctions, sales, or reservations, leaving insufficient time for other users to respond.
Examples:
- Auction sniping (last-second bids)
- Timing-based exploits of system latencies
- Limited-quantity sales manipulation
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud Bot Defense: Identifies automated timing-based attacks and enforces fairness in competitive environments like auctions and flash sales.
OAT-014: Vulnerability Scanning
Threat: Automated scanning to identify and exploit vulnerabilities in web applications.
Characteristics:
- Systematic enumeration of paths, files, and parameters
- Immediate scanning after vulnerability disclosure
- Malicious intent to compromise security (vs. legitimate security testing)
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud Bot Defense: Distinguishes between authorized security scans and malicious reconnaissance, blocking threat actors while allowing approved vulnerability assessments.
- F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF: Signature-based detection of common scanning tools and techniques.
OAT-015: Denial of Service (DoS/DDoS)
Threat: Overwhelming target systems with traffic or resource requests to render services unavailable.
Types:
- Application-layer DoS: Crafted requests causing high CPU/memory usage
- Distributed DoS: Coordinated attacks from multiple sources (botnets)
- Resource exhaustion: Overwhelming databases, APIs, or third-party services
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud: Cloud-delivered DDoS scrubbing for volumetric attacks (L3/L4) with global capacity to absorb massive traffic floods.
- F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF: Application-layer (L7) DDoS mitigation using behavioral analysis, rate limiting, and connection management to distinguish legitimate traffic spikes from attacks.
- F5 BIG-IP AFM (Advanced Firewall Manager): Network-layer DDoS protection with protocol validation and SYN flood protection.
- Multi-layered approach: Combined defense-in-depth strategy across network, transport, and application layers.
OAT-016: Skewing
Threat: Manipulating application metrics (counts, likes, votes, poll results) through repetitive automated actions.
Impact: Distorted analytics, fraudulent influencer metrics, manipulated public opinion.
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud Bot Defense: Detects artificial engagement patterns and prevents automated manipulation of voting, rating, and social metrics.
OAT-017: Spamming
Threat: Distributing malicious or unwanted content through automated posting to forums, comments, messages, or databases.
Impact: Malware distribution, misinformation, platform degradation, storage costs.
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud Bot Defense: Identifies automated content posting patterns and blocks spam distribution while allowing legitimate user-generated content.
OAT-018: Foot printing
Threat: Reconnaissance phase using automation to gather information about application composition, configuration, and security mechanisms.
Purpose: Planning subsequent targeted attacks based on discovered weaknesses.
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud Bot Defense: Detects reconnaissance activities and blocks information gathering attempts that precede targeted attacks.
- F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF: Security policy enforcement hides application details and prevents information disclosure through error messages and responses.
OAT-019: Account Creation
Threat: Mass creation of fake user accounts using automation.
Malicious Uses:
- Spam distribution platforms
- Review/rating manipulation
- First-party fraud (new account opening fraud)
- Impersonation and misinformation campaigns
Scale: Automated tools can create thousands of accounts in minutes.
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud Bot Defense: Detects automated account registration patterns using behavioral analysis and device intelligence, blocking fake account creation while maintaining frictionless signup for legitimate users.
OAT-020: Account Aggregation
Threat: Harvesting user account credentials from multiple sites for identity theft, financial fraud, or unauthorized access.
Impact: Cross-platform fraud, credential marketplace supply, identity compromise.
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud Bot Defense: Identifies suspicious authentication patterns across distributed environments and prevents automated credential harvesting operations.
OAT-021: Denial of Inventory
Threat: Using bots to add merchandise to shopping carts or make reservations without completing purchases.
Impact:
- Artificial stock-out conditions
- Prevented legitimate sales
- Revenue loss
- Customer frustration
Variations: Hotel room holds, restaurant reservations, airline seat blocking.
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud Bot Defense: Detects inventory hoarding patterns and prevents bots from blocking legitimate purchases through abandoned carts and reservations.
Bot Management vs. Bot Mitigation
Bot Management: Strategies to handle all bot traffic, distinguishing between:
- Good Bots: Search engine crawlers, monitoring services, authorized API clients
- Bad Bots: Malicious automation for fraud and abuse
Bot Mitigation: Focused specifically on reducing or eliminating the impact of malicious bots through defensive measures that prevent harmful actions leading to ATO and fraud.
F5 Bot Defense Comprehensive Capabilities
F5 Distributed Cloud Bot Defense provides industry-leading protection against all 21 OWASP Automated Threats:
Real-Time Protection:
- Behavioral analysis and fingerprinting
- Device telemetry validation
- Continuous risk scoring
- Automated threat response
Machine Learning Intelligence:
- Pattern recognition across attack campaigns
- Adaptive defense against evolving tactics
- Retrospective analysis to identify sophisticated threats
- Global threat intelligence from F5 Labs
Zero Friction Experience:
- No CAPTCHA challenges
- Invisible to legitimate users
- Maintains conversion rates
- Supports seamless customer journeys
Effectiveness Regardless of Attack Evolution:
- Protection when attacks pivot from web to API
- Defense against telemetry spoofing
- Resistance to human CAPTCHA solver services
- Adaptive to attacker retooling
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OWASP API Security Top 10 (2023)
APIs have become fundamental to modern application architectures, but they also introduce significant security risks. The OWASP API Security Top 10 focuses on the unique vulnerabilities and threats specific to API implementations.
Why API Security Matters
APIs expose critical business logic and sensitive information including:
- User data and authentication credentials
- Financial transactions
- Core application functionality (login, account creation, cart operations, money transfers)
APIs expand the attack surface through interdependencies across multi-cloud architectures and are susceptible to vulnerability exploits, automated threats, denial of service, misconfiguration, and authentication/authorization bypass attacks.
The OWASP API Security Top 10 – 2023
API1:2023 - Broken Object Level Authorization (BOLA)
Vulnerability: Applications fail to properly enforce access controls at the object or data level, allowing attackers to manipulate authorization checks and access unauthorized objects.
Prevention Strategy: Every API endpoint receiving an object ID must implement object-level authorization checks to validate that the logged-in user has permissions for the requested action.
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud API Security: API discovery identifies all endpoints requiring authorization enforcement, while schema validation ensures proper authorization parameters are present in requests.
- F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF: Parameter validation and access control policies enforce authorization requirements at the application layer.
API2:2023 - Broken Authentication
Vulnerability: Weak authentication mechanisms allow attackers to compromise authentication tokens or exploit implementation flaws to assume other users' identities.
Common Issues:
- Inadequate token validation
- Weak password policies
- Missing rate limiting on authentication endpoints
- Insecure password recovery mechanisms
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud Bot Defense: Prevents automated authentication attacks (credential stuffing, brute force) without adding user friction.
- F5 Distributed Cloud API Security: Validates JWT tokens, enforces authentication requirements, and detects anomalous authentication patterns.
- F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF: Session management protection and authentication endpoint security policies.
API3:2023 - Broken Object Property Level Authorization
Vulnerability: Insufficient authorization checks on object properties lead to information disclosure or unauthorized data modification.
Types:
- Mass Assignment: APIs accepting client input for object properties without proper filtering
- Excessive Data Exposure: APIs returning more data than necessary
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud API Security: Schema validation enforces allowed properties in API requests and responses, preventing mass assignment and excessive data exposure.
- F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF: Parameter validation policies restrict unauthorized property access.
API4:2023 - Unrestricted Resource Consumption
Vulnerability: Lack of limits on resource consumption enables denial of service through:
- Excessive API calls
- Large request payloads
- Expensive computational operations
- High memory allocation
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud API Security: Rate limiting, quota enforcement, and request size restrictions prevent resource exhaustion attacks.
- F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF: Connection limits, request throttling, and resource management policies.
- F5 NGINX App Protect: Lightweight rate limiting for containerized and microservices environments.
API5:2023 - Broken Function Level Authorization
Vulnerability: APIs with complex access control policies fail to enforce proper authorization between different hierarchical levels, functions, or administrative operations.
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud API Security: Role-based access control (RBAC) enforcement and API specification validation ensure proper authorization at all functional levels.
- F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF: Function-level access policies and privilege validation.
API6:2023 - Unrestricted Access to Sensitive Business Flows
Vulnerability: Lack of protection for sensitive business workflows allows automated abuse of application functionality for malicious purposes.
Examples:
- Bulk ticket purchase
- Automated posting of fake reviews
- Mass data scraping
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud Bot Defense: Protects sensitive business flows from automated abuse by detecting and blocking bot-driven attacks against transaction workflows, inventory systems, and user-generated content platforms.
- F5 Distributed Cloud API Security: Business logic enforcement through schema validation and anomaly detection.
API7:2023 - Server Side Request Forgery (SSRF)
Vulnerability: APIs that fetch remote resources without validating user-supplied URIs can be exploited to access internal services, cloud metadata, or perform port scanning.
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud API Security: URI validation and allowlist enforcement prevent unauthorized resource access.
- F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF: URL parameter validation, explicit resource definitions, and least-privilege access controls prevent SSRF exploitation.
API8:2023 - Security Misconfiguration
Vulnerability: Improperly configured APIs expose sensitive information, enable unauthorized access, or facilitate exploitation.
Common Misconfigurations:
- Verbose error messages
- Unnecessary HTTP methods enabled
- Missing security headers
- Outdated or unpatched systems
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud API Security: Configuration validation, security header enforcement, and compliance checking against best practices.
- F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF: OWASP Compliance Dashboard identifies misconfiguration gaps and provides remediation guidance.
- F5 NGINX App Protect: Secure-by-default configurations for modern application architectures.
API9:2023 - Improper Inventory Management
Vulnerability: Lack of visibility into API endpoints, versions, and documentation leads to:
- Zombie APIs (outdated but still accessible)
- Unpatched versions running in production
- Shadow APIs (undocumented endpoints)
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud API Security: Automatic API discovery identifies all endpoints across environments, including shadow and zombie APIs. Centralized API catalog provides complete visibility into API inventory, versions, and specifications.
- F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF: API endpoint monitoring and version tracking.
API10:2023 - Unsafe Consumption of APIs
Vulnerability: Trusting data received from third-party APIs without proper validation can lead to security vulnerabilities when integrated APIs are compromised.
How F5 Protects:
- F5 Distributed Cloud API Security: Third-party API validation, input sanitization, and anomaly detection for consumed API data.
- F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF: External data validation policies and content filtering.
F5 API Security Solution Summary
F5 provides comprehensive API protection across all deployment models:
| Solution | Primary Use Cases | Key Capabilities |
| F5 Distributed Cloud API Security | SaaS-delivered, multi-cloud, distributed APIs | API discovery, schema validation, threat intelligence, ML-based security, zero trust enforcement |
| F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF | On-premises, data center, private cloud APIs | OWASP compliance, deep protocol inspection, custom policies, integration with Bot Defense |
| F5 NGINX App Protect | Containerized, microservices, Kubernetes APIs | Lightweight protection, DevOps integration, API gateway security, CI/CD pipeline embedding |
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Common Security Risks Across Web Apps and APIs
Several critical security risks affect both traditional web applications and modern APIs:
1. Weak Authentication/Authorization Controls
- Inadequate identity verification
- Missing multi-factor authentication
- Insufficient access control enforcement
2. Misconfiguration
- Default settings left unchanged
- Overly permissive cloud configurations
- Unnecessary features enabled
3. Business Logic Abuse
- Credential stuffing campaigns
- Account takeover operations
- Automated fraud at scale
4. Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF)
- Exploitation of trust relationships
- Cloud metadata service access
- Internal network reconnaissance
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F5 Integrated Security Architecture
Web Application and API Protection (WAAP) Platform F5's comprehensive WAAP solution defends the entire modern app attack surface with:
Core Capabilities:
- Web Application Firewall (WAF): Signature and behavioral protections with F5 Labs threat intelligence
- API Security: Discovery, schema validation, and protection for REST and GraphQL APIs
- L3-L7 DDoS Mitigation: Defense against volumetric and application-layer attacks
- Bot Defense: Protection against automated threats and fraud without user friction
Deployment Options:
| Solution | Deployment Model | Best For | Key Features |
| F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF | On-premises (hardware/virtual) | Data centers, private cloud, regulated environments | OWASP compliance dashboard, deep customization, high-performance SSL/TLS, integration with existing infrastructure |
| F5 NGINX App Protect | Software-based, containerized | Modern apps, microservices, Kubernetes, DevOps workflows | Lightweight footprint, API gateway integration, CI/CD embedding, cloud-native architecture |
| F5 Distributed Cloud | SaaS-delivered, global edge | Multi-cloud, distributed apps, rapid deployment, scalability | API discovery, bot defense, DDoS scrubbing, unified management across environments |
Hybrid Security Architecture:
- Consistent protection from core to cloud to edge
- Unified policy management across environments
- Centralized visibility and control
- Integration with CI/CD pipelines and development workflows
Key Differentiators
F5 Labs Threat Intelligence:
- Decades of application security expertise
- Active threat research from global honeypot network
- Regular threat briefings and analysis
- Vendor-agnostic security recommendations
F5 Threat Campaigns:
- Intelligence service detecting real-world attack campaigns
- Virtually zero false positives
- Automatic updates with latest campaign signatures
- No tuning required
OWASP Compliance Dashboard (BIG-IP Advanced WAF):
- Interactive view of policy coverage against OWASP Top 10
- Percentage assessment of protection levels
- One-click policy enhancements
- Automated compliance reporting
Machine Learning Security:
- Adaptive protection against zero-day threats
- Behavioral anomaly detection
- Automated attack pattern recognition
- Continuous learning from global threat data
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Best Practices for Implementation
1. Comprehensive Asset Inventory
- Discover all web applications and APIs
- Identify shadow IT and undocumented endpoints
- Map dependencies and trust relationships
- Catalog API versions and deprecation status
2. Adopt Zero Trust Principles
- Never trust, always verify
- Implement least-privilege access
- Micro-segmentation of resources
- Continuous authentication and authorization
3. Integrate Security into DevSecOps
- Shift-left security testing
- API security in CI/CD pipelines
- Automated policy validation
- Security as code practices
4. Implement Layered Defense
- WAF for vulnerability protection
- API gateway for specification enforcement
- Bot defense for automated threats
- DDoS mitigation for availability
- Rate limiting and quotas
5. Enable Comprehensive Monitoring
- Real-time security event correlation
- Centralized logging and SIEM integration
- Automated alerting and incident response
- Regular security posture assessments
6. Maintain Threat Intelligence
- Subscribe to F5 Threat Campaigns
- Stay informed on emerging vulnerabilities
- Participate in security communities
- Conduct regular threat modeling
7. Prioritize User Experience
- Minimize false positives
- Avoid customer friction (eliminate CAPTCHAs)
- Maintain application performance
- Balance security with business needs
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Hands-On Learning and Labs
F5 Certified Professionals Program:
- Administration track
- Sales track
- Product Specialization track
- Solutions track (Cloud & Security)
Recommended Certification Path for OWASP Implementation:
F5-CA (Certified Administrator): Foundation for BIG-IP platform
303 - BIG-IP ASM Specialist: Advanced WAF configuration and OWASP Top 10 protection (includes OWASP Compliance Dashboard)
403 - F5 Distributed Cloud, Deploy and Manage: SaaS-delivered WAAP implementation
Hands-On Labs:
- Self-paced lab environments for practicing OWASP vulnerability protection
- Real-world attack scenario simulations
- Configuration exercises for WAF policies, API security, and bot defense
- Access through F5 Education Services Portal
F5 Authorized Training Centers (ATC):
- Worldwide locations for instructor-led training
- Virtual and in-person options
- Customizable courses for enterprise teams
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Related Resources
F5 Official Resources
Core OWASP Articles:
- What is OWASP? Intro to OWASP Top 10 Vulnerabilities and Risks
- OWASP API Security Top 10 Overview and Best Practices
- OWASP Automated Threats to Web Applications
F5 Labs Threat Intelligence:
- F5 Labs Research Hub - Access latest threat reports and analysis
- Application Protection Research Series - Annual threat landscape analysis
- Sensor Intelligence Series - Monthly CVE targeting trends
- F5 Labs on GitHub - Open-source security tools including CryptoNice for SSL/TLS assessment
- APIs and the OWASP Top 10 Guide (2023)
Conclusion
The modern application security landscape requires a comprehensive, integrated approach to protect against web application vulnerabilities, API-specific risks, and sophisticated automated threats.
The convergence of web applications, APIs, and automated threats demands solutions that are built with security intrinsic to their design (Secure-by-Design) and provide protection out of the box (Secure-by-Default). F5's decades of application delivery expertise, combined with continuous threat research and machine learning innovation, provide organizations with the resilience and agility necessary to compete in the API-driven digital economy.