Skip to content

OWASP A07: Identification and authentication failures

Is your login system actually secure?

Background

Classic mistakes: no rate limiting on failed logins, predictable password resets, sessions that never expire, no MFA.

Questions to ask yourself

  • Does our customer portal allow weak passwords?
  • Does it lock accounts after repeated failed attempts?
  • Do password reset emails expire quickly?
  • Do we offer or require MFA?
  • How long do sessions stay alive?

What you can do today

Don't roll your own auth

Authentication is a solved problem.

  • 01Use a recognised authentication provider (Auth0, Microsoft Entra ID, AWS Cognito, Okta, Clerk).
  • 02Enforce MFA for any account handling money or personal data.
  • 03Set sensible password rules (long over complex), use modern hashing (bcrypt/argon2), rate-limit attempts.