OWASP Web Application Security
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OWASP Web Application Security
This course is part of Secure Coding for Application Development Specialization
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What you'll learn
Describe the OWASP Top 10 risks & how web vulnerabilities impact application security.
Analyze common attacks like SQL injection, XSS, & authentication flaws in web applications.
Apply secure coding practices & validation techniques to prevent application vulnerabilities.
Evaluate application risks & implement mitigation strategies using OWASP-based security practices.
Skills you'll gain
- Risk Analysis
- Vulnerability Scanning
- Secure Coding
- Application Security
- Vulnerability Management
- Security Testing
- Linux Commands
- Cyber Security Assessment
- Cyber Attacks
- Computer Security
- Security Engineering
- Risk Mitigation
- Security Awareness
- Authentications
- Security Management
- Cyber Security Strategy
- Software Development
Tools you'll learn
Details to know
April 2026
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There are 3 modules in this course
This course introduces the world of web application security using the OWASP framework, helping you understand how applications are attacked and how to defend them using secure coding and security best practices.
You’ll begin by exploring how modern web applications are structured and how attackers identify and exploit vulnerabilities. The course familiarizes you with the OWASP Top 10 risk categories, common attack patterns, and real-world security challenges. From there, you’ll move into the practical side of security analysis, examining vulnerabilities such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), authentication flaws, and misconfigurations. You’ll learn how these vulnerabilities arise and how they impact application behavior, data security, and user trust. You will also gain hands-on exposure to dynamic security testing using OWASP ZAP, enabling you to analyze running applications, intercept traffic, and identify vulnerabilities through automated and real-time testing. The course then shifts to mitigation and defense. You’ll learn how to apply secure coding practices, implement proper input validation and output handling, and strengthen authentication, session management, and configuration security to reduce risk. By the end of this course, you will be able to: • Explain the fundamentals of web application security and the OWASP risk model. • Analyze common vulnerabilities such as injection attacks, XSS, and authentication flaws. • Identify how attackers exploit application weaknesses and assess their impact. • Perform dynamic vulnerability analysis using OWASP ZAP. • Apply secure coding techniques to prevent common web vulnerabilities. • Implement configuration hardening and defensive security practices. • Evaluate application risks and recommend structured mitigation strategies. Designed for aspiring application security professionals, developers, cybersecurity learners, and IT practitioners, this course provides a practical foundation for understanding and securing modern web applications. To be successful in this course, learners should have a basic understanding of web technologies and programming concepts. Start your journey into application security and learn how to identify, analyze, test, and defend against real-world web threats.
Understand the OWASP risk landscape by analyzing core web application vulnerabilities and how attackers exploit them. Learn how to interpret OWASP Top 10 categories, identify common attack patterns such as injection and authentication failures, and map real-world exploitation techniques to application security risks.
What's included
16 videos8 readings4 assignments
16 videos•Total 78 minutes
- Specialization Introduction•5 minutes
- Course Introduction•4 minutes
- Understanding OWASP and the Top 10 Risk Categories•5 minutes
- Applying OWASP Risk Thinking to Real Attack Scenarios•4 minutes
- Web Application Architecture and Security Fundamentals•4 minutes
- Demonstration: Analyzing OWASP Risks Through a Controlled Login Simulation•5 minutes
- Demonstration: Inspecting Web Application Architecture and Security Controls•5 minutes
- Exploring Injection Vulnerabilities Across Web Applications•6 minutes
- Analyzing SQL Injection and Malicious Query Execution•5 minutes
- Examining Advanced SQL Injection Techniques and Variants•5 minutes
- Demonstration: Simulating SQL Injection Exploitation in a Vulnerable Application•6 minutes
- Demonstration: Mitigating Injection Vulnerabilities Using Secure Coding Controls•5 minutes
- Examining Broken Authentication and Identity Failures•5 minutes
- Analyzing Session Hijacking and Session Fixation Attacks•5 minutes
- Demonstration: Simulating Session Hijacking in a Controlled Environment•5 minutes
- Demonstration: Implementing Secure Authentication and Session Protection Controls•5 minutes
8 readings•Total 75 minutes
- Course Overview•10 minutes
- Foundations of OWASP Risk Thinking in Web Security•10 minutes
- How Web Applications are Targeted by Attackers?•10 minutes
- Security Risks of Insecure Defaults and Poor Configuration Management•10 minutes
- Practical Impact of Injection Attacks in Real-World Applications•10 minutes
- Identity as a Primary Attack Surface in Web Applications•10 minutes
- Understanding the Security Risks of Serialization and Object Processing•10 minutes
- Module Summary: OWASP Risk Model and Core Web Vulnerabilities•5 minutes
4 assignments•Total 33 minutes
- Test Your Knowledge: Interpreting OWASP and Web Application Security•6 minutes
- Test Your Knowledge: Examining Injection Vulnerabilities in Web Applications•6 minutes
- Test Your Knowledge: Securing Authentication and Session Management•6 minutes
- Knowledge Check: OWASP Risk Model and Core Web Vulnerabilities•15 minutes
Explore client-side and configuration-based vulnerabilities that commonly impact web applications. Understand how attackers exploit weaknesses such as XSS, XXE, insecure deserialization, and misconfigurations. Additionally, gain practical exposure to dynamic security testing using OWASP ZAP, enabling you to identify vulnerabilities in running applications through real-time analysis.
What's included
13 videos6 readings4 assignments
13 videos•Total 61 minutes
- Understanding XML External Entities (XXE) and Attack Mechanics•6 minutes
- XXE Attack Variants, Detection and Prevention•5 minutes
- Identifying Security Misconfigurations and Hardening Targets•5 minutes
- Demonstration: Exploiting XXE in a Vulnerable XML Parser•5 minutes
- Demonstration: Hardening XML Processing and Identifying Security Misconfigurations•5 minutes
- Exploring Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) Attacks•4 minutes
- Analyzing XSS Attack Variants and Mitigation Strategies•4 minutes
- Examining Insecure Deserialization Vulnerabilities•5 minutes
- Demonstration: Performing XSS Exploitation in a Web Application•5 minutes
- Demonstration: Exploiting and Securing Insecure Deserialization Flows•6 minutes
- Introducing OWASP ZAP and Its Role in Web Application Security•3 minutes
- Demonstration: Installing and Navigating the OWASP ZAP Interface•3 minutes
- Demonstration: Performing Automated Vulnerability Scanning Using OWASP ZAP•6 minutes
6 readings•Total 55 minutes
- Why Misconfigurations are a Major Attack Vector?•10 minutes
- Structured Data Processing and Hidden Risks in XML Handling•10 minutes
- The Impact of Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)•10 minutes
- Techniques for Optimizing AI Pipelines for Performance and Accuracy•10 minutes
- Advanced Proxy-Based Testing and OWASP ZAP Architecture•10 minutes
- Module Summary: Client-Side and Configuration-Based Vulnerabilities•5 minutes
4 assignments•Total 33 minutes
- Test Your Knowledge: XML and Configuration-Based Vulnerabilities•6 minutes
- Test Your Knowledge: Client-Side Injection and Deserialization Risks•6 minutes
- Test Your Knowledge: Dynamic Security Testing Using OWASP ZAP•6 minutes
- Knowledge Check: Client-Side and Configuration-Based Vulnerabilities•15 minutes
This final module assesses your web application security skills through a roleplay-based, AI-graded assessment, where you identify vulnerabilities, analyze attacks, and apply OWASP principles using tools like OWASP ZAP, while reinforcing OWASP Top 10, web attacks, and secure coding practices.
What's included
1 video1 reading2 assignments
1 video•Total 3 minutes
- Course Summary•3 minutes
1 reading•Total 30 minutes
- Practice Project: Web Application Vulnerability Analysis and Mitigation•30 minutes
2 assignments•Total 60 minutes
- End Course Knowledge Check: OWASP and Web Application Security•30 minutes
- Web Application Vulnerability Assessment and OWASP-Based Remediation Strategy•30 minutes
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Frequently asked questions
OWASP provides a widely accepted framework to identify and manage common web application security risks.
You will learn about injection attacks, XSS, authentication flaws, misconfigurations, and other OWASP Top 10 risks.
No. Basic knowledge of web applications or programming concepts is sufficient.
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¹ Some assignments in this course are AI-graded. For these assignments, your data will be used in accordance with Coursera's Privacy Notice.