Application Security Weekly (Video)

Portswigger's list of web hacking techniques is a long-running celebration of curiosity and research from the web hacking community. James Kettle shares his thoughts on the entries from 2025 and how he expects LLMs and agents to influence what the list will look like for next year. He also shares some insights on using LLMs for his own blackbox research, giving us a peek into the work he'll be sha...

Red team exercises set goals to see if a particular outcome can be accomplished through a simulated attack, but the ultimate outcome should be educating the org about how to improve tools and processes that make attacks more difficult to succeed. Gwyddon "Data" Owen shares his experience building a red team, creating an exercise, and leveraging the results to improve security. And while the adopti...

It's one thing to write secure code, it's another to release it into the wild. That code needs to be designed, built, tested, released, and maintained. Farshad Abasi and Cameron Walters explain how the OWASP Secure Pipeline Verification Standard picks up from where ASVS left off, how it complements other supply chain security efforts like SLSA, and why they updated it with explicit coverage for AI...

Security problems aren't changing very much even though security teams are. We catch up on the implications of the Claude Code source leak, the very human lessons from the axios NPM compromise, and what secure design looks like when it involves agents, humans, or both. AppSec has always celebrated interesting and impactful vulns. And LLMs are now a favored tool for finding flaws. We shouldn't forg...

The future of secure software is going through a mix of skills expected of humans and skills files created for LLMs. We might even posit that appsec as a discipline will fade (and that might not even be a bad thing!). Keith Hoodlet describes the skills he was looking for in building teams of security researchers and why there's still an emphasis on the ability to learn about and understand how sof...

So much of appsec's efforts can be consumed by vuln management and a race to patch security flaws. But that's more a symptom of the ease of scanning and the volume of CVEs. Erik Nost walks through the principles behind proactive security, why the concept sounds familiar to secure by design, and why organizations still struggle with creating effective practices for visibility. Resources https://www...

What happens when secure coding guidance goes stale? What happens LLMs write code from scratch? Mark Curphy walks us through his experience updating documentation for writing secure code in Go and recreating one of his own startups. One of the themes of this conversation is how important documentation is, whether it's intended for humans or for prompts to LLMs. Importantly, LLMs don't innovate on...

Medical devices are a special segment of the IoT world where availability and patient safety are paramount. Tamil Mathi explains why many devices need to fail open -- the opposite of what traditional appsec approaches might initially think -- and what makes threat modeling these devices interesting and unique. He also covers how to get started in this space, from where to learn hardware hacking ba...

As more developers turn to LLMs to generate code, more appsec teams are turning to LLMs to conduct security code reviews. One of the biggest themes in all the discussion around LLMs, agents, and code is speed -- more code created faster. James Wickett shares why speed continues to pose a challenge to appsec teams and why that's often because teams haven't invested enough in foundational appsec pri...

Journalists put a lot of effort into collecting information and protecting their sources, but everyone can benefit from having a digital environment that's more secure and more privacy protecting. Runa Sandvik shares her experience working with journalists and targeted groups to craft plans for how they use their devices and manage their information. And she also makes the point that the burden of...

A major premise of appsec is figuring out effective ways to answer the question, "What security flaws are in this code?" The nature of the question doesn't really change depending on who or what wrote the code. In other words, LLMs writing code really just means there's mode code to secure. So, what about using LLMs to find security flaws? Just how effective and efficient are they? We talk with Ad...

When it comes to agents and MCPs, the interesting security discussion isn't that they need strong authentication and authorization, but what that authn/z story should look like, where does it get implemented, and who implements it. Dan Moore shares the useful parallels in securing APIs that should be brought into the world of MCPs -- especially because so many are still interacting with APIs. Reso...

Everyone is turning to LLMs to generate code, including attackers. Thus, it's no great surprise that there are now examples of malware generated by LLMs. We discuss the implications of more malware with Rob Allen and what it means for orgs that want to protect themselves from ransomware. Resources https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/voidlink-cloud-malware-shows-clear-signs-of-being-ai-g...

Supply chain security remains one of the biggest time sinks for appsec teams and developers, even making it onto the latest iteration of the OWASP Top 10 list. Paul Davis joins us to talk about strategies to proactively defend your environment from the different types of attacks that target supply chains and package dependencies. We also discuss how to gain some of the time back by being smarter a...

MongoBleed and a recent OWASP CRS bypass show how parsing problems remain a source of security flaws regardless of programming language. We talk with Kalyani Pawar about how these problems rank against the Top 25 CWEs for 2025 and what it means for relying on LLMs to generate code. Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/asw-366

Not all infosec advice is helpful. Bad advice wastes time, makes people less secure, and takes focus away from making software more secure. Bob Lord talks about his efforts to tamp down hacklore -- the security myths and mistakes that crop up in news stories and advice to users. He talks about how these myths come about, why they're harmful, and how they're related to the necessity of building sof...

Developers are adding LLMs to their code creation toolboxes, using them to assist with writing and reviewing code. Chris Wysopal talks about the security downsides of relying on LLMs and how appsec needs to adapt to dealing with more code at a faster pace. Resources https://www.veracode.com/blog/genai-code-security-report/ https://www.veracode.com/blog/ai-code-security-october-update/ https://www....

In an era dominated by AI-powered security tools and cloud-native architectures, are traditional Web Application Firewalls still relevant? Join us as we speak with Felipe Zipitria, co-leader of the OWASP Core Rule Set (CRS) project. Felipe has been at the forefront of open-source security, leading the development of one of the world's most widely deployed WAF rule sets, trusted by organizations gl...

Using OWASP SAMM to assess and improve compliance with the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) is an excellent strategy, as SAMM provides a framework for secure development practices such as secure by design principles and handling vulns. Segment Resources: https://owaspsamm.org/ https://cybersecuritycoalition.be/resource/a-strategic-approach-to-product-security-with-owasp-samm/ As genAI becomes a more pop...

Open source projects benefit from support that takes many shapes. Kat Cosgrove shares her experience across the Kubernetes project and the different ways people can make meaningful contributions to it. One of the underlying themes is that code is written for other people. That means PRs need to be understandable, discussions need to be enlightening, documentation needs to be clear, and collaborati...

The MCP standard gave rise to dreams of interconnected agents and nightmares of what those interconnected agents would do with unfettered access to APIs, data, and local systems. Aaron Parecki explains how OAuth's new Client ID Metadata Documents spec provides more security for MCPs and the reasons why the behavior and design of MCPs required a new spec like this. Segment resources: https://aaronp...

For OT systems, uptime is paramount. That's a hard rule that makes maintaining, upgrading, and securing them a complex struggle. Tomas "Data" Owens and James Cotter discuss how Tennessee is tackling the organizational and technical challenges that come with hardening OT systems across the state. Those challenges range from old technology (like RS-232 over Wi-Fi!?) to limited budgets. They talk abo...

What are your favorite resources for secure code? Co-hosts John Kinsella and Kalyani Pawar talk about the reality of bringing security into a business. We talk about the role of the OWASP Top 10 and the OWASP ASVS in crafting security programs. And balance that with a discussion in what's the best use of everyone's time -- developers and appsec folks alike -- in crafting code that's secure by desi...

Secure code should be grounded more in concepts like secure by default and secure by design than by "spot the vuln" thinking. Matias Madou shares his experience in secure coding training and the importance of teaching critical thinking. He also discusses why critical thinking is so closely related to threat modeling and how LLMs can be a tool for helping developers get beyond the superficial advic...

Just how bad can things get if someone clicks on a link? Rob Allen joins us again to talk about ransomware, why putting too much attention on clicking links misses the larger picture of effective defenses, and what orgs can do to prepare for an influx of holiday-infused ransomware targeting. Segment resources https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/how-a-ransomware-gang-encrypted-nevada-gov...