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Application & OT Security · Foundational

Cryptographic Failures

OWASP Top 10 category for failures to protect data with appropriate cryptography, formerly called Sensitive Data Exposure.

Definition

Includes cleartext transmission, weak or deprecated algorithms (MD5, SHA-1, DES), hard-coded or reused keys, missing certificate validation, predictable randomness and unsalted password hashes. Mitigations include classifying data, encrypting in transit with TLS 1.2+ and at rest with strong algorithms, using vetted libraries, proper key management and slow salted password hashing.

Example

An application stores passwords as unsalted MD5 hashes.

Exam tip

2021 renamed Sensitive Data Exposure to Cryptographic Failures to focus on root cause (A02 in 2021, A04 in 2025).

Related terms