OWASP Projects and Use Cases

Nowadays, businesses make a lot of effort to protect their applications, websites, and APIs from cyberattacks. It is a must to ensure the smooth functioning of their business operations. This is the reason why web application security has become so crucial today.

Know that OWASP is a well-known organization that plays a pivotal role in web application security. This organization offers many OWASP projects for learners and security experts to improve their cybersecurity skills. This blog covers the key OWASP projects, the requisites to learn the projects, and many more.

Let’s uncover!

Table of Contents

• What is OWASP
• Why OWASP Projects
• Prerequisites for OWASP Projects
• Skills you will develop
• OWASP Projects
• Real-time OWASP project ideas
• Summary
• FAQs

What is OWASP?

OWASP is the short form of Open Web Application Security Project. It is a powerful platform where cybersecurity experts can collaborate and enrich their knowledge. Cybersecurity enthusiasts can upskill their knowledge using this platform.

OWASP provides a massive volume of helpful resources on web application security for security professionals. You can access hundreds of OWASP projects and participate in conferences and chapters through OWASP. You can connect with thousands of security experts through this platform.

Well! If you are wondering what OWASP projects are and how they can help improve web application security skills, then the following section will help you out.

If you want to enrich your career and become a professional in Cyber Security and SIEM, then enroll in "OWASP Training". This course will help you to achieve excellence in this domain.

Why OWASP Projects?

OWASP projects are essentially open-source projects. They are a collection of web application security projects created by various teams. Each OWASP project has a clear-cut goal, roadmap, features, and more. The projects also provide repository information, the intended audience, and the procedure to set up the projects on different platforms.

According to Glassdoor, Cybersecurity specialists can earn an average salary of 11 LPA in India. In the USA, they can earn an average salary of 149k USD annually. These figures show that a career in the security domain is future-proof. The essential thing is that they must have strong hands-on skills in cybersecurity.

Working on multiple OWASP projects will help you improve your hard skills in threat mitigation strategies, application security, and best practices. It will help accelerate your career.

Well! It's no surprise if this question pops up in you. Should I have any prior knowledge to work on OWSAP projects?

Yes, you should have. The following section will list the requirements.

Prerequisites for OWASP Projects

Below is the list of essential skills that you must acquire before learning OWASP projects.

• Exposure to software development life cycle
• Basic coding skills in Python, PHP, JavaScript, and HTML languages.
• Familiar with software security concepts, protocols, threat mitigation, etc.
• Working knowledge of multiple operating systems like Windows, Linux, and MacOS.
• Familiar with computer networking, VPNs, firewalls, etc.

Super! Once you have acquired the above-listed skills, learning OWASP projects will be easy.

Now, what skills will I acquire by practicing OWASP projects? No problem! Coming up is the section that will outline the skills that you will gain.

Skills you will develop

Here is the list of skills you will gain from learning OWASP projects.

• Exposure to cybersecurity standards such as NIST, DISHA, DSCI, GDPR, and NCSSS.
• Proficient with security best practices, policies, and protocols.
• Familiar with intrusion detection and prevention systems, SIEM products, etc.
• Sound knowledge of Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud Platforms.
• Profound understanding of cloud storage, tools, and environments.
• Proficient with risk analysis and security incident handling and response.
• Strong exposure to up-to-date cybersecurity threats.

Great! It’s the right time to dive into the OWASP projects. The following section discusses the various OWASP projects.

OWASP Projects

MindMajix expert team has curated the key OWASP projects into three categories based on difficulty level – OWASP projects for beginners, intermediate, and experienced. The projects will walk you through both basic and advanced web application security concepts and best practices in the way ahead.

Let’s go to the projects!

OWASP Projects for Beginners

Below are the beginner-friendly OWASP projects that will help you get started with the basics of web application security.

Let’s learn one by one!

• OWASP Juice Shop

OWASP juice shop is one of the flagship OWASP projects written in JavaScript. OWASP juices shop is a modern insecure web application where you can learn to identify vulnerabilities. As it has crucial vulnerabilities, it is the best place to test the effectiveness of security tools. By working on this project, you will get to know how to examine the performance of pen-testing proxies and security scanners. You can also check whether these tools work with REST APIs and JavaScript applications.

• OWASP Dependency-Check

OWASP Dependency check is essentially a Software Composition Analysis (SCA) tool. It helps to identify the vulnerabilities within an application's dependencies. This project includes an Ant task, a command line interface, and a Jenkins plugin.

You will learn to work with the Gradle build tool by practicing this project. You will learn to make integrations using the CircleCI Orbs reusable codes and the SonarQube plugin. Besides, getting familiar with the lein-dependency check and Maven plugin through this project is possible by doing this project.

• OWASP CycloneDX

This project is a full-stack BOM standard. Here, BOM stands for Bill of Materials. This project also provides standards for JSON, XML, and protocol buffers. This project exposes you to Springboard for Software Bill of Materials, Hardware Bill of Materials, and vulnerability disclosure reports.

By working on the OWASP CyclineDX project, you will learn to ensure security standards using community-supported tools. You will become a master in Java, JavaScript, Python, and Go programming. Besides, you will get proficient with Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange (VEX).

• OWASP Threat Dragon

In its basic form, OWASP Threat Dragon is a modeling tool. You can create numerous threat model diagrams using this tool. The diagrams help visualize threat components, surfaces, and mitigation strategies neatly.

OWASP Threat Dragon is an open-source, simple, and flexible tool. By practicing this project, you will learn about defense in depth, security design patterns, and more. You will be exposed to several security tools like the LINDDUN framework and the PLOT4ai library. You will get a broad knowledge of CIA, STRIDE, and DIE models.

Kudos! You have gone through the basic-level OWASP projects in this section. Coming up is the section with OWASP projects that dig deeper into web application security concepts.

OWASP Projects for Intermediate

Let’s explore some robust OWASP projects that will provide you with in-depth knowledge of web application security.

• OWASP AMASS

OWASP AMASS is one of OWASP's flagship projects. It is a framework that helps to prepare the network mapping of attack surfaces. This framework has vital components such as an asset database, a collection engine, and the open asset model. This project teaches you to work with the Docker container platform, Apache Server, and GitHub Repository. This project exposes you to open-source intelligence gathering and reconnaissance techniques.

• OWASP Webgoat

OWASP Webgoat is an insecure application that you can use to test vulnerabilities. Mainly, you can detect the threats that exist in Java applications. The prime goal of this project is to provide a robust teaching environment for learners to explore web application security.

By practicing this project, you will be exposed to vulnerabilities like SQL injection. You will get to know the prevention techniques to control web application threats. This project will teach you broken authentication, broken access control, sensitive data exposure, and many more.

• OWASP CRS

OWASP CRS or OWASP ModSecurity Core Rule Set is a wide set of threat detection rules. You can apply these rules to detect threats on firewalls and web applications. You can protect web applications from attacks like cross-site scripting, SQL injection, local file inclusion, etc. By learning this project, you will get expertise in Python, Perl, Ruby, Shell, and JavaScript. You will learn to install, configure, and work with CRS by doing this project.

• OWASP Java HTML Sanitizer

This project provides a Java-based HTML sanitizer written in Java. It is an easy-to-configure tool. This project allows third-party HTML. Not only that, it produces HTML to embed in web applications. Moreover, this project supports programmatic positive policy configuration instead of XML configuration.

By working on this project, you will gain proficiency in Java, shell, JavaScript, and HTML languages. Also, you will learn about two important classes such as htmlpolicybuilder and sanitizers. The sanitizer class has the pre-packaged policies, whereas the htmlpolicybuilder has the custom policies. Good! The OWASP projects discussed above might have given a deep understanding of mapping attacks, threat detection rules, testing for vulnerabilities, and much more.

OWASP Projects for Experienced

The following are the advanced OWASP projects that will drive you to master web application security.

Let’s go through it!

• OWASP Nettacker

OWASP Nettacker is a project that automates information collection, vulnerability scanning, and penetration testing. This project performs scanning applications and websites by applying several methods. You can generate scan reports in HTML, JSON, TEXT, and CSV formats.

This project is entirely written in Python language. By practicing this project, you will become proficient with Docker Hub and GitHub. This project can identify open ports, bugs, subdomains, misconfigurations, etc., in web applications and websites.

• OWASP Security Shepherd

OWASP Security Shepherd is essentially a security training platform for learners to analyze mobile and web applications. This project helps to sharpen the penetration testing skills of security professionals. It has three play modes: open floor mode, CTF mode, and tournament mode.

Learning this project will familiarize you with Java, Shell, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript languages. You can learn to configure OWASP security shepherd. You will learn to work with virtual machines, dockerfile, and GitHub repository.

• OWASP DefectDojo

OWASP DefectDojo is a vulnerability management tool written entirely in Python. It is an open-source tool that helps to streamline the testing process through report generation, templates, and metrics. The prime goal of this project is to minimize the time spent by security professionals to identify vulnerabilities.

Working on this project will familiarize you with Python, JavaScript, HTML, smarty, and CSS languages. It is possible to get exposure to vulnerability management, ASPM, and DevSecOps in one place. You will learn to perform end-to-end security testing, remediation, deduplication, etc.

• OWASP AntiSamy

OWASP Antisamy is a robust library. It helps to cleanse HTML that comes from unreliable sources quickly. In this project, you will import the dependency at the first step. Then, you will choose and configure the base policy file. In the final steps, you will call the Antisamy API and analyze cleanresults.

Practicing this project will give you expertise in Java, HTML, JavaScript, and CSS languages. This project exposes you to the XSS filter, shell command line tool, and various security tools.

Cheers! You have completed learning the most crucial OWASP projects. Now, you may shoot up an intriguing question.

Is it enough to become a competent web application security expert?

Not at all! The more you learn OWASP projects, the more your skills get polished. In the next section, you will go through some real-time OWASP projects for your practice.

Real-Time OWASP Project Ideas

Below is the list of real-time OWASP project ideas that will help to sharpen your web application security skills.

• OWASP VWAD
• OWASP secureCodeBox
• OWASP Railsgoat
• OWASP Cheat Sheet Series
• OWASP Honeybot
• OWASP Threat Model Cookbook
• OWASP SecurityRAT
• OWASP SecureBank
• OWASP Bug Logging Tool
• OWASP WrongSecrets
• OWASP SAMM

Summary

• OWASP is an organization that works for web application security
• It is the place where both learners and security experts contribute and learn security concepts seamlessly
• OWASP is the document that has the top ten up-to-date security vulnerabilities.
• OWASP projects help learners improve their cybersecurity knowledge
• Learners can boost their practical skills in OWASP by working on various OWASP projects.

FAQs

1. What does OWASP stand for?

OWASP is the short form of Open Web Application Security Project. It is a non-profit organization that helps to protect web applications from cyber threats.

2. Is OWASP easy to learn?

Of course! You can easily learn OWASP. You must understand security concepts, strategies, and best practices.

3. What is OWASP's top 10?

It is the document that consists of the most critical security vulnerabilities to web applications. Companies must know the top 10 vulnerabilities to mitigate risks in their websites and applications.

4. Who developed OWASP?

Mark Curphey and Dennis Groves started OWASP in 2001.

5. Why OWASP is important?

OWASP provides plenty of information about application security to security experts. Learners can work on OWASP projects to hone their hard skills in cyber security. OWASP helps companies to prevent threats to their applications, websites, and APIs.

Conclusion

It's time to wrap! We hope the OWASP projects discussed in the blog might have enhanced your knowledge of web application security. The more you groom skills on OWASP, the more chances you get hired by top companies with attractive packages.MindMajix is the pioneer eLearning provider that offers advanced training in OWASP. You can enroll in the course and get certification. It will strengthen your portfolio and help you land your dream job quickly.

Above all, if you have anything to suggest, please feel free to use the comment box below.