OWASP is the name you see whenever developers talk about web security. It stands for Open Worldwide Application Security Project, a nonprofit foundation that publishes free guides, checklists and tools to help people build software that is harder to attack. Its most famous document, the OWASP Top 10, lists the security problems that show up most often in real websites and apps.

You do not need to write code to care about OWASP. If you run a store, hire a freelancer to build a site or choose a platform to sell on, OWASP gives you a shared vocabulary and a checklist. It helps you ask the right questions about how your customers' data and your revenue are protected.

What is OWASP?

OWASP started in 2001 as an open community of security professionals. Today it is a foundation with local chapters around the world. Everything it produces is free and open: documents, testing tools and training material. It does not sell products and does not certify companies.

Its best-known projects include:

  • The OWASP Top 10. An awareness document that ranks the ten most critical categories of web application risk. It is updated every few years based on data from real security tests.
  • ASVS (Application Security Verification Standard). A much more detailed list of security requirements, organized in levels, used to test or specify an application.
  • Cheat sheets. Short practical guides on specific topics, like password storage or session management.
  • Tools like ZAP. A free scanner that tests a website for common weaknesses.

OWASP is not a law, a regulation or a certification. Nobody is "OWASP certified". When an agency says its work "follows OWASP", it means it uses these guidelines as a reference. That is a good sign, but it is a claim you can ask them to explain. OWASP is also not the same as PCI DSS, the card industry standard that applies when you handle card payments. The two overlap, since PCI DSS asks for protection against common vulnerabilities, and OWASP is often used to show that.

Why it matters

Most attacks on small stores are not targeted. Automated bots scan millions of sites every day, looking for known weaknesses: an outdated plugin, an admin page with a default password, a form that lets someone inject database commands. The OWASP Top 10 describes exactly these weaknesses. A site that ignores them gets found sooner or later.

The consequences for a seller are concrete. Take a store doing 800 orders a month with an average order value of $55, so about $44,000 in monthly revenue. An attacker exploits an old plugin and injects a script that copies card details from the checkout page. The store goes offline for five days while a developer cleans it up. That is about $7,300 in lost sales, plus perhaps $3,000 for emergency development work. Then come the notifications to affected customers, possible questions from the payment provider and the reviews that mention "my card was used after buying here". The final cost is often several times the direct loss.

For founders and brands hiring developers, OWASP matters in another way. It gives you a standard to write into a contract. "The site must address the OWASP Top 10" is a clear, checkable requirement. "The site must be secure" is not.

How it works

The OWASP Top 10 is the entry point for most people. The 2021 edition is still the one most often quoted in contracts and courses, and these are its categories in plain words, with a store example for each:

  • Broken access control. A user can see or change things they should not. Example: changing a number in the URL shows another customer's order.
  • Cryptographic failures. Sensitive data is not properly encrypted, in transit or in storage. Example: a site without HTTPS, or passwords stored in readable form.
  • Injection. Data typed by a user is executed as a command. Example: a search box that lets an attacker read the customer database (SQL injection) or run scripts in other visitors' browsers (cross-site scripting).
  • Insecure design. The flaw is in the logic, not the code. Example: a discount code that can be applied an unlimited number of times.
  • Security misconfiguration. Default settings, open admin panels or detailed error messages exposed to the public.
  • Vulnerable and outdated components. Plugins, themes or libraries with known flaws that were never updated.
  • Identification and authentication failures. Weak password rules, no limit on login attempts, sessions that never expire. Multi-factor authentication addresses part of this.
  • Software and data integrity failures. Updates or scripts loaded from untrusted sources without checks.
  • Security logging and monitoring failures. An attack happens and nobody notices for weeks.
  • Server-side request forgery. The server can be tricked into making requests to internal systems it should not reach.

The 2025 update keeps most of these ideas. It folds server-side request forgery into access control and adds software supply chain failures and poor handling of errors and unexpected conditions. The names shift between editions, but the underlying risks stay familiar.

A security review usually goes through these categories one by one. A tester tries each type of attack on the application, records what works and ranks the findings by severity. The developer fixes them, and the tester checks again.

Benchmarks and examples

A few realistic reference points:

  • Outdated components are the classic small-store problem. On self-hosted open-source stores, an unpatched plugin is among the most frequent ways in.
  • A basic automated scan is free. Tools like ZAP can flag obvious issues in an hour. They do not replace a human test.
  • A professional penetration test for a small web application often costs from a few thousand to around 15,000 dollars, depending on scope and depth.
  • A freelance build for 6,000 dollars rarely includes a security audit. Ask whether it does, and what the developer checks against.

Typical situations: a creator selling on a hosted platform relies on the provider for almost all of the Top 10. A brand with a custom-built store shares responsibility with its developer and its host. A company with its own web application owns every item on the list.

Common mistakes

  • Treating the Top 10 as a complete checklist. It is an awareness document about the most common risks, not every risk. For a full specification, use ASVS.
  • Believing a small store is not a target. Bots do not check your revenue before scanning.
  • Installing plugins and never updating them. Every add-on is code you are responsible for.
  • Accepting "we follow OWASP" without details. Ask which document, which level and how it was tested.
  • Securing the code and forgetting accounts. A shared admin password sent by email undoes a lot of good engineering.

Best practices

  • Put OWASP in your contracts. When you hire a developer or agency, require that the Top 10 be addressed and that a scan report be delivered at handover.
  • Keep everything updated. Themes, plugins, libraries and server software. Schedule it monthly if nobody does it automatically.
  • Limit who has admin access. Give each person their own account with only the permissions they need, and remove access when someone leaves.
  • Use strong, unique passwords and a password manager. Enable a second factor wherever a tool offers it.
  • Run a free scan after each major change. A new checkout step or a new integration is the moment to check.
  • Choose hosted tools where security is someone's full-time job. For most small sellers, this removes most of the Top 10 from your to-do list.

In Roctify

Roctify is a hosted platform, so the code, servers and updates behind your store are maintained by the Roctify team rather than by you or a freelancer. Every page is served over HTTPS with a free SSL certificate, and there are no third-party plugins for you to install and forget to patch. Card details are entered in the Stripe or PayPal payment flow at checkout, so your store does not store card numbers.

Your part is the account level: a strong, unique password, careful handling of who has access and, on the Pro plan, giving each team member their own login instead of sharing one. Keep an eye on your discount codes and settings the way you would any business tool.

FAQ

Is OWASP a certification I can get for my store?

No. OWASP does not certify websites or companies. It publishes free standards and guides. A developer or auditor can test your site against the Top 10 or ASVS and give you a report, but there is no official OWASP badge.

How often is the OWASP Top 10 updated?

Roughly every three to four years, based on data collected from security testing firms and a community survey. Recent editions came out in 2017, 2021 and 2025. The categories change slowly, so the core advice stays valid between editions.

Do I need to know OWASP if I use a hosted platform?

Not in detail. The platform handles most of the technical items. It is still useful to know the main categories, so you can judge a provider's security answers and avoid the risks that stay on your side, like weak passwords or shared accounts.