OWASP Top 10 Code Vulnerabilities and How SAST Can Stop Them

Every piece of code harbors potential secrets — vulnerabilities that lie dormant until the perfect storm of circumstances brings them to life. These flaws aren’t always dramatic or noticeable; they often hide in the mundane — a missing input validation, an outdated dependency, or a seemingly harmless configuration setting. Yet these minor oversights can cascade into catastrophic security failures.

Most developers are familiar with the OWASP Top 10, a well-worn roadmap of security pitfalls that have guided countless security reviews. But only memorizing this list is like knowing the rules of chess without understanding the strategy. It’s necessary but far from sufficient. The real challenge emerges in the trenches of everyday development, where pressure to deliver features quickly collides with the need for thorough security testing.

Software development moves at a blistering pace. Teams push hundreds or thousands of lines of code daily, pulling in dozens of third-party libraries and connecting to numerous external services. Each commit, new dependency, and API integration represent another potential weak point in the application's armor. Discovering these vulnerabilities after deployment isn't just embarrassing—it’s expensive, time-consuming, and potentially devastating to user trust.

That’s why the old “security as an afterthought” mentality has become obsolete. Forward-thinking teams are shifting left, integrating security tools like Static Application Security Testing (SAST) directly into their development pipeline. These tools serve as an early warning system, flagging potential vulnerabilities while the code is still fresh in developers’ minds and cheap to fix. 

Understanding the threat: the OWASP Top 10 and common code vulnerabilities

For many developers, the OWASP Top 10 is a fast reference for the most common and critical vulnerabilities that attackers use to target their systems. These vulnerabilities look holistically at software engineering, covering everything from insecure designs to injection flaws.

It's important to remember that the OWASP Top 10 is not an exhaustive list of all threats; it is just a starting point for the most common ones. Other risks, such as insecure deserialization, are not on this list but still need to be caught and mitigated. Developers can create a secure foundation by using the OWASP framework as a starting point. Still, it is far more effective when complemented by tools and practices that address the full spectrum of security challenges.

The role of SAST in tackling code vulnerabilities

One way organizations manage OWASP’s top 10 vulnerabilities and go further is through SAST tools. These tools identify security flaws and vulnerabilities at their inception by analyzing source code while developers are still writing the code. Unlike reactive methods that catch issues after deployment, SAST integrates directly into the development process, enabling teams to address risks early and efficiently.

The benefits of SAST are both immediate and far-reaching. It provides real-time feedback as developers write, flagging vulnerabilities like SQL injection points, hardcoded secrets, or insufficient input validation before they can evolve into more significant issues. But it doesn’t stop at detection—SAST tools like Snyk Code go a step further, offering clear, actionable remediation guidance. Instead of overwhelming developers with abstract security concepts, SAST delivers precise recommendations tailored to the vulnerabilities detected, empowering developers to fix issues quickly and effectively.

More effective use of SAST integrates it directly into the CI/CD pipelines, making it a seamless part of the development process. Code commits and builds trigger automated scans, allowing SAST to find vulnerabilities early in the development process and address them before production when it is least costly. 

Top vulnerabilities SAST can detect and prevent

SAST is a versatile tool that identifies many vulnerabilities that threaten application security. Analyzing code at its earliest stages catches critical issues before they escalate, ensuring applications are robust and secure. Let’s explore some of the most common vulnerabilities SAST can detect and prevent, turning potential security gaps into opportunities for proactive remediation.

A01: Broken Access Control

Broken access control is one of the most prevalent and dangerous vulnerabilities. It arises when unauthorized users exploit weak or improperly implemented access mechanisms. This can occur through URL manipulation, where attackers modify endpoints to access restricted areas or bypass access controls due to misconfigured permissions. The risks are significant, as such exploits can expose sensitive data, compromise user accounts, or disrupt critical operations.

A02: Cryptographic Failures

Sensitive data exposures often originate from weak encryption protocols, improper key management, or the complete absence of encryption for critical information. Programmers may think they are safe because they implemented encryption but did it improperly, such as using outdated algorithms or hardcoding encryption keys in the source code—this creates significant vulnerabilities. These flaws leave sensitive data like user credentials, payment details, or proprietary information exposed to interception and exploitation by attackers.

A03: Injection (SQL, Command, etc.)

Attackers may also attack programs by targeting inputs, which allow them to manipulate queries or commands executed by the system through different injection attacks. These vulnerabilities can lead to unauthorized data access, system compromise, or complete application failure. SAST tools can discover these vulnerabilities by scanning code for insecure input handling practices, like concatenating unvalidated user input into SQL queries or shell commands. 

A04: Insecure Design

Insecure design refers to vulnerabilities rooted in fundamental flaws within an application’s architecture or its failure to adhere to secure design principles. These weaknesses often arise from neglecting proactive security measures during the planning and development stages. Examples include missing input validation layers, insufficient segmentation of sensitive data, or overlooking critical authentication safeguards. 

Unlike implementation issues, insecure design reflects a systemic problem—an application built without considering how attackers might exploit its structure. 

A05: Security Misconfiguration

Security misconfiguration arises when systems, frameworks, or libraries are improperly configured, leaving applications vulnerable to exploitation. Common examples include using default configurations, enabling unnecessary features, mismanaging permissions, or exposing sensitive endpoints like debugging interfaces. These errors often stem from a lack of standardized setup procedures or oversight during deployment. As modern software grows increasingly configurable, the risk of misconfiguration has surged, making it one of the most prevalent vulnerabilities today. 

A06: Vulnerable and Outdated Components

Libraries and components are application building blocks that help speed development by reducing the need to recreate standard functions. Unfortunately, they also have the additional risk of harboring unpatched flaws that attackers exploit. These flaws propagate into the applications that use them, making their deficiencies part of your own. 

Library and component issues are tricky to find as their flaws may not be in their own code but in outdated or vulnerable libraries they use. Scanning this vast recursive web of libraries line by line can become complicated and is often simply done by cross-referencing known vulnerable library versions. 

A07: Identification and Authentication Failures

Weak authentication mechanisms and poor session management create significant application vulnerabilities, opening doors for unauthorized access and session hijacking. Common issues include using easily guessable or default credentials, inadequate password storage practices, and insufficient session expiration policies. Additionally, flaws in multi-factor authentication implementation or failure to validate user identities properly can undermine the entire authentication process. These weaknesses compromise user accounts and can grant attackers access to sensitive systems and data, amplifying the potential damage. 

A08: Software and Data Integrity Failures

Software and data integrity failures occur when critical processes, such as updates, data handling, or CI/CD pipeline activities, lack proper validation and verification. This vulnerability can lead to attackers injecting malicious code, tampering with data, or exploiting unverified software updates to compromise systems. Common examples include insecure deserialization, where untrusted data is processed without validation, and the absence of integrity checks in critical workflows. These weaknesses can allow attackers to manipulate software behavior, compromise sensitive data, or introduce backdoors. 

A09: Security Logging and Monitoring Failures

Security logging and monitoring failures occur when applications lack adequate mechanisms to capture and analyse critical events, leaving organizations blind to potential breaches or suspicious activity. Security teams struggle to detect, investigate, or respond to incidents without comprehensive logs, significantly increasing the risk of prolonged and undetected attacks. These failures often stem from incomplete or inconsistent logging practices, such as missing logs for authentication attempts, data access, or configuration changes. Effective logging and monitoring are not just about visibility—they’re foundational to timely incident response and long-term security resilience.

A10: Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF)

Attackers may also target internal services and sensitive endpoints through unauthorized requests in SSRF attacks. They do this by exploiting URL handling or situations where user inputs are insufficiently validated to trick the server into fetching malicious data, which exposes internal networks and triggers unintended actions. 

These attacks are particularly dangerous because they bypass traditional security measures like firewalls, exposing otherwise protected resources to attackers. This is even more of an issue as organizations increasingly rely on APIs and microservices, which should, by design, protect internal systems.

Writing secure code to prevent common issues

The code is at the core of application security. Writing secure code eliminates many of these vulnerabilities. Input validation, for example, can eliminate most injection attacks, such as SQL injection or XSS, by ensuring data is sanitized and falls within planned parameters. 

Developers can build on this by using a foundation of secure libraries. GitHub and other resources provide a wide range of libraries, but not all are made equally. By selecting libraries that are well used by others and actively maintained, developers can reduce the risk of vulnerabilities coming from their libraries. And if they do, they are more likely to have a patch released to deal with it rather than fixing it themselves. 

Adhering to secure coding guidelines, such as OWASP’s Secure Coding Practices, provides developers with a roadmap for building security applications. These frameworks cover many best practices, from implementing proper error handling to managing sensitive data securely and helping teams design strong software against threats.

Security is a team effort, and early collaboration between developers and security teams can make all the difference. Bringing these groups together during the development lifecycle fosters a proactive culture where potential vulnerabilities are identified and addressed early. 

Integrating SAST into the SDLC

Embedding SAST into the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) transforms security from an afterthought into an integral part of development. One of the most significant advantages of integrating SAST early in the lifecycle is the ability to detect vulnerabilities sooner, significantly reducing the costs and complexity of fixes. Identifying and addressing issues during the coding phase prevents them from snowballing into larger, more expensive problems post-production.

Automation plays a pivotal role in making this process efficient. By incorporating SAST into CI/CD pipelines, organizations can empower continuous testing that runs with every build or commit. This ensures that vulnerabilities are caught in real-time as code evolves, keeping security aligned with the fast, and increasingly AI-assisted, pace of modern development. Automated scans and automatic vulnerability fixes eliminate the bottlenecks of manual testing and remediation while providing consistent, reliable, and scaled results.

Developer-friendly, security AI agents like Snyk Code further streamline this integration. By offering seamless integration with popular IDEs and security scans in pull requests, AI-powered Snyk Code automates security and provides real-time feedback for both human and AI-created code as developers write their code. This immediate visibility allows developers to identify and fix vulnerabilities on the spot, fostering a proactive, in-flow approach to secure coding. With SAST seamlessly woven into the SDLC, teams can build secure applications from day one without sacrificing speed or efficiency.

The Snyk Code advantage

Vulnerabilities like those of the OWASP Top 10 don’t just threaten your applications—they disrupt your business. That’s why Snyk Code goes beyond traditional security tools to deliver AI-powered, developer-first application security that meets the pace of modern software development.

With an industry-leading low false-positive rate thanks to our hybrid-AI-powered data-flow analysis, Snyk Code is the security AI agent that ensures your team spends time fixing real issues, not chasing false alarms. Its actionable insights guide developers through remediation, empowering them to resolve vulnerabilities effortlessly and with precision and speed, whether automatically through Snyk Code’s DeepCode AI Fix auto-fixing feature, or with contextual advice and examples —without derailing their workflows.

But, the real power of Snyk Code lies in its ability to integrate seamlessly across the entire software development life-cycle. Delivering fast, accurate, prioritized, and customized, real-time feedback, across the breadth of where developers work, turns security from a roadblock into an enabler—helping teams write secure code from the first line, so that they can ship software features at AI speed without risking customer safety.

As new threats emerge along with technological changes, Snyk Code evolves alongside them. With continuous updates and the ability to detect cutting-edge vulnerabilities, Snyk Code keeps your applications secure in an environment where standing still is not an option.

The result? More secure applications, faster releases, and a development team that works smarter, not harder. 

Want to learn more about how Snyk can help you implement OWASP’s guidelines? This cheat sheet simplifies the process, offering actionable insights addressing the OWASP Top 10. Download your free copy today.