OWASP Top 10: How TurboPentest Covers Each Vulnerability

The OWASP Top 10 is the industry standard for understanding the most critical web application security risks. Published by the Open Worldwide Application Security Project, the 2021 edition represents the consensus of security professionals worldwide on what matters most.

TurboPentest's 15-tool pipeline and Shannon AI correlation engine were designed with the OWASP Top 10 as a core coverage target. Here is how each category is addressed.

A01:2021 - Broken Access Control

The risk: Users can act outside their intended permissions - accessing other users' data, modifying access rights, or escalating privileges.

TurboPentest coverage:

ZAP performs automated authentication testing and access control checks, attempting to access resources without proper authorization
Nuclei runs templates specifically designed to detect common access control misconfigurations
FFUF discovers hidden endpoints and administrative interfaces that may lack proper access controls
Semgrep (white box) identifies authorization check gaps in source code, such as missing middleware or role validation

Shannon AI validation: Correlates discovered endpoints from FFUF with ZAP's access control findings to identify paths that are accessible but should not be. Flags cases where authentication is present but authorization is missing.

A02:2021 - Cryptographic Failures

The risk: Weak or missing encryption for sensitive data in transit or at rest, including use of deprecated algorithms, improper certificate handling, or plaintext data transmission.

TurboPentest coverage:

TestSSL performs comprehensive analysis of TLS/SSL configurations, including cipher suites, protocol versions, certificate chains, and known vulnerabilities like BEAST, POODLE, and Heartbleed
Nmap detects services running without encryption and identifies weak cipher offerings
Nuclei checks for specific cryptographic misconfigurations in web applications
Gitleaks (white box) detects hardcoded secrets, API keys, and cryptographic keys committed to source code
Semgrep (white box) identifies use of weak cryptographic algorithms or insecure random number generation in code

Shannon AI validation: Combines TestSSL's detailed cipher analysis with Nmap's service detection to build a complete picture of an organization's encryption posture. Prioritizes findings based on whether weak encryption protects sensitive data paths.

A03:2021 - Injection

The risk: SQL injection, NoSQL injection, OS command injection, LDAP injection, and other attacks where untrusted data is sent to an interpreter as part of a command or query.

TurboPentest coverage:

ZAP actively tests for SQL injection, XSS, command injection, and other injection types through its active and passive analysis
Nuclei runs injection-specific templates against known vulnerable patterns
Nikto checks for CGI and script injection points
Semgrep (white box) detects injection vulnerabilities at the source code level, including unsanitized user input flowing to database queries or system commands

Shannon AI validation: Cross-references ZAP's dynamic injection findings with Semgrep's static analysis to confirm exploitability. A SQL injection detected by ZAP that aligns with an unsanitized query found by Semgrep gets elevated to critical severity.

A04:2021 - Insecure Design

The risk: Architectural and design flaws that cannot be fixed by implementation alone - missing security controls, insecure business logic, or absence of threat modeling.

TurboPentest coverage:

ZAP identifies missing security controls like CSRF tokens, rate limiting, and account lockout
Nuclei detects common design pattern issues such as predictable resource IDs and missing input validation
Nikto flags server configurations that indicate insecure architectural choices

Shannon AI validation: This is where Shannon AI adds the most value. By analyzing the full set of findings across all tools, Shannon AI identifies systemic design issues - for example, if multiple endpoints lack rate limiting, it consolidates this into a single "Missing Rate Limiting" design finding rather than reporting each instance separately.

A05:2021 - Security Misconfiguration

The risk: Missing security hardening, unnecessary features enabled, default accounts, overly permissive error handling, or misconfigured security headers.

TurboPentest coverage:

Nikto specializes in detecting server misconfigurations, default installations, and unnecessary services
Nuclei checks for thousands of known misconfiguration patterns across web servers, frameworks, and applications
Nmap identifies unnecessary open ports and services
Wafw00f detects WAF presence and configuration details
ZAP checks for missing or misconfigured HTTP security headers
Trivy (white box) identifies misconfigured container images and infrastructure-as-code issues
OpenVAS performs comprehensive vulnerability assessment including configuration checks

Shannon AI validation: Consolidates misconfiguration findings from multiple tools into a prioritized list. Distinguishes between misconfigurations that are directly exploitable and those that weaken defense-in-depth.

A06:2021 - Vulnerable and Outdated Components

The risk: Using components (libraries, frameworks, software) with known vulnerabilities, or failing to keep them updated.

TurboPentest coverage:

Nuclei checks for known CVEs in detected software versions
Nmap identifies service versions and matches them against known vulnerability databases
Nikto detects outdated web server software and components
OpenVAS maintains an extensive database of known vulnerabilities mapped to software versions
Trivy (white box) performs deep dependency analysis of container images, OS packages, and application libraries
Semgrep (white box) can identify use of deprecated or vulnerable API patterns

Shannon AI validation: Deduplicates version-based findings across tools and enriches them with exploitability context. A vulnerable jQuery version found by Nuclei is correlated with ZAP's findings to determine if the vulnerability is reachable.

A07:2021 - Identification and Authentication Failures

The risk: Weak authentication mechanisms, credential stuffing vulnerabilities, missing multi-factor authentication, or improper session management.

TurboPentest coverage:

ZAP tests authentication mechanisms, session management, and login functionality
Nuclei checks for default credentials, weak password policies, and authentication bypass vulnerabilities
Nikto detects basic authentication misconfigurations and default credential pages
FFUF discovers authentication endpoints and login pages that may have weaker protections

Shannon AI validation: Analyzes the full authentication surface by combining discovered login endpoints (FFUF) with authentication testing results (ZAP) and known default credential checks (Nuclei).

A08:2021 - Software and Data Integrity Failures

The risk: Code and infrastructure that does not protect against integrity violations, including insecure CI/CD pipelines, unsigned updates, or insecure deserialization.

TurboPentest coverage:

Nuclei checks for insecure deserialization patterns and missing integrity controls
ZAP detects insecure deserialization in web applications
Gitleaks (white box) identifies exposed CI/CD secrets that could enable pipeline compromise
Semgrep (white box) detects insecure deserialization patterns and missing integrity checks in code

Shannon AI validation: Correlates CI/CD exposure findings from Gitleaks with application-level integrity issues to assess supply chain risk holistically.

A09:2021 - Security Logging and Monitoring Failures

The risk: Insufficient logging, missing monitoring, or inadequate incident response capability that allows breaches to go undetected.

TurboPentest coverage:

ZAP checks for verbose error messages that indicate poor logging configuration
Nikto identifies exposed log files and debugging endpoints
FFUF discovers exposed monitoring dashboards and log viewers
Nuclei detects exposed logging endpoints and debug modes

Shannon AI validation: Flags the absence of security headers that indicate monitoring (such as Report-To or NEL headers) and consolidates findings related to information leakage through error messages and debug interfaces.

A10:2021 - Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF)

The risk: Web applications fetching remote resources without validating user-supplied URLs, allowing attackers to reach internal services.

TurboPentest coverage:

ZAP actively tests for SSRF by injecting internal URLs and monitoring for out-of-band interactions
Nuclei runs SSRF-specific templates against common vulnerable patterns
Semgrep (white box) identifies code patterns where user input flows to HTTP request functions without URL validation

Shannon AI validation: Cross-references SSRF-susceptible endpoints found by ZAP with Semgrep's source code analysis to confirm whether server-side request functions are reachable with user-controlled input.

Comprehensive Coverage Through Correlation

The real power of TurboPentest's OWASP Top 10 coverage is not any individual tool - it is Shannon AI's ability to correlate findings across all 15 tools and map them to a coherent risk picture. A single vulnerability might be partially detected by three different tools, but only Shannon AI's correlation can combine those partial signals into a confirmed, validated finding with accurate severity and specific remediation steps.

See how TurboPentest's tools work together to deliver comprehensive OWASP Top 10 coverage for your applications.