Which of the OWASP Top 10 Caused the World’s Biggest Data Breaches?

The OWASP Top 10 is a widely used index of web application security vulnerabilities, but its effectiveness in predicting real-world breaches is limited. A study analyzing 1,792 data breaches found that the most severe vulnerability, A1-Injection, caused only 4 of the top 50 breaches (8%), while the 9th most severe vulnerability, A9-Known Vulnerable Components, was responsible for 12 breaches (24%). The study also revealed that OWASP's Top 10 vulnerabilities were not always the root cause of major data breaches. Instead, other threats such as malware and phishing were often to blame. Furthermore, the study highlighted the importance of addressing known vulnerable components and security misconfiguration in preventing large-scale data breaches.