Every security professional talks about it: the OWASP top 10. It sounds like something for specialists, but it is simply a list of the ten most common mistakes in websites and apps. And you will recognise a surprising number of them.
A list of real mistakes, not theory
OWASP is a global community of security professionals that tracks which mistakes occur most often in websites and apps. Every few years they publish the top 10: the ten mistakes attackers abuse the most.
It is not an academic list. It is based on thousands of real apps and real attacks.
Three examples you will recognise immediately
- Broken access control — someone changes a number in the address bar and suddenly sees other people's orders. Number 1 on the list, and the mistake we encounter most often in AI-built apps.
- Cryptographic failures — sensitive data stored or sent without proper protection, such as passwords sitting readable in the database.
- Login that is easy to bypass — weak passwords without extra protection, or sessions that never expire.
Why the list has become more important right now
Experienced programmers used to write most code. They made mistakes too, but they knew the classic pitfalls. Now the AI writes the code — and the AI makes exactly the mistakes from the OWASP list, because those mistakes appear everywhere in the examples it learned from.
Anyone building with AI inherits the classic mistakes of twenty years of web development. That makes the OWASP top 10 a handy checklist: these are the things to verify before going live.
Review recurring mistakes in AI code to recognise them in your own project.
Do you need to know the whole list by heart?
No. The lesson is simpler: the most common mistakes are also the easiest to find automatically. A scan that walks through the OWASP categories catches the largest part of the risk.
That is why the VibeShield scan is built around those categories: we check your app for exactly the mistakes attackers try first.
Compare automated scanning with a pentest for additional checks.
Frequently asked questions
Is the OWASP top 10 a certification or quality mark?
No. It is a public list of the most common security mistakes, meant as guidance. There is no exam or label attached to it.
Does the list apply to my small app?
Especially to small apps. Attackers automatically scan the entire internet for these mistakes — they don't check how big you are.
How do I know if my app contains these mistakes?
Have it scanned. VibeShield checks your app against the OWASP categories and explains each finding: what is going on and how to fix it.