[appsec]2026-01-017 min read

Applying the OWASP Top 10 in a small team

How a small development team can cover the most common web risks without a dedicated security department.

Broken access control first

Access control failures are the most common category for a reason. Enforce authorization on the server for every request, and write tests that try to read another user’s data.

Put checks in the pipeline

Dependency scanning and a basic SAST step in CI catch a large share of issues before review. Fail the build on critical findings so they cannot be ignored.

bash

npm audit --audit-level=critical
docker run --rm -v "$PWD":/src returntocorp/semgrep semgrep --config auto /src

Review with a checklist

A short pull-request checklist covering input validation, authentication, secrets and logging keeps security part of normal review rather than a separate event.

#owasp#ssdlc