Software and Data Integrity Failures Prevention

Software and data integrity failures occur when code and infrastructure don't adequately protect against integrity violations. This includes vulnerabilities in the software supply chain, auto-update mechanisms without integrity verification, and insecure deserialization where untrusted data is used to abuse application logic. Think of it as accepting packages without checking if they've been tampered with during delivery—you might be introducing something harmful into your environment.

This category, newly prominent in the 2021 OWASP Top 10, reflects the growing sophistication of attacks targeting the software development and deployment pipeline. Modern applications don't just face threats during runtime; they're vulnerable throughout their entire lifecycle from development through deployment and updates. Attackers have realized it's often easier to compromise the supply chain than to attack hardened production systems directly.