What is OWASP ZAP?

Learn what OWASP ZAP is, how it works, and when to use it.

In today’s digital landscape, web applications attract a myriad of security threats. Protecting your data and applications is more important than ever before: that’s where OWASP ZAP – or OWASP Zed Attack Proxy – comes into play.

What is OWASP ZAP?

As already mentioned, OWASP ZAP translates to OWASP Zed Attack Proxy. OWASP ZAP is an open source security tool that is designed to help developers find vulnerabilities in web applications. OWASP ZAP generally acts as a proxy that intercepts requests and allows users to scan, analyze, and imitate attacks towards web applications thus helping developers identify security flaws and issues before hackers exploit them.

The key features of OWASP ZAP include automated vulnerability scanning, an intercepting proxy as well as active and passive scanning for vulnerabilities within web applications. OWASP ZAP features a user friendly interface and comes with a wide array of extensibility options via plugins.

How and When to use OWASP ZAP?

The OWASP Zed Attack Proxy is best employed when you’re building web applications and want to catch vulnerabilities early, thus reducing remediation costs.

Aside from that, run OWASP Zed Attack Proxy on staging or pre-production environments to ensure your code is safe and conduct regular security audits to ensure data security. Also consider using OWASP ZAP after introducing major new features into your software solution, or when conducting quick manual testing sessions.

To use OWASP Zed Attack Proxy, download it from the official website and set it up, configure your browser to route traffic through its proxy (use localhost as a host and 8080 as the port), then browse your web application manually or by using automated tools. To perform active vulnerability scans, use the Attack feature of OWASP ZAP. Select the target URL and start an automated scan, and then the application will be scanned through for common vulnerabilities like injection, Cross-site Scripting, and the like.

What Tools To Use Besides OWASP ZAP?

Besides the OWASP Zed Attack Proxy, consider using data breach search engines like BreachDirectory.com: such data breach search engines will let you find out whether your username, email or IP address has been compromised as well as investigate other activity on the Web by investigating Blockchain addresses, malware, KEV/CVE IDs, or simply gaining more information about a specific IP address.

Take BreachDirectory for a spin today and start securing your online life.

Summary

ZAP is short for an OWASP Zed Attack Proxy. This is a software solution that acts as an intercepting proxy allowing developers to identify and remediate security flaws within software that they build. Set up the Zed Attack Proxy through a proxy (localhost:8080 would work in most cases), then browse your app and see the results or perform a manual vulnerability scan by selecting a URL from the list in the tool.

Besides the OWASP Zed Attack Proxy, consider using BreachDirectory and the BreachDirectory API to secure your online life and investigate cybercrime, and we’ll see you in the next one!

FAQ

What is OWASP ZAP?

OWASP Zed Attack Proxy is a software solution that acts as an intercepting proxy allowing developers to identify and eliminate security flaws within their web applications.

Why Should I Use a Data Breach Search Engine?

Data breach search engines like BreachDirectory.com will help you see if your data has been stolen in any data breach and also help you perform a wide variety of investigative activities on email addresses, usernames, Blockchain or IP addresses, or other data.

The BreachDirectory API will let you in on the stolen data in the data breach search engine through a JSON form.