Protecting corporate operations from potential dangers

In the ever-evolving landscape of cybersecurity, a new challenge has emerged: business logic abuse. This insidious threat, often hard to detect and stop, has become a significant concern for businesses worldwide.

The Open Worldwide Application Security Project (OWASP) published its first Business Logic Abuse Top 10 vulnerabilities in May 2025, highlighting the growing importance of understanding this threat. Traditional security tools like firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and basic bot protection aren't designed to identify and stop business logic abuse.

Cybercriminals can exploit business logic by interacting with applications in unintended ways. They may take advantage of insecure code in APIs, abuse insufficiently protected certificate request processes to obtain privileged certificates, or use AI to automate sophisticated attacks like phishing and data theft. Many attacks take advantage of weak application security testing, lack of dynamic security measures, and poorly configured authentication mechanisms.

Business logic determines how data is shown, stored, created, and modified. It enforces specific business practices and links end-user applications with databases. Key areas for CISOs to prioritise include login, checkout, and account creation workflows, which are susceptible to business logic abuse.

Successful business logic attacks can result in theft of sensitive data, including personal details, financial information, and commercially sensitive intelligence. System outages, data breaches, financial losses, damage to reputation, and even an organisation's ability to function can result from these attacks. Business logic is a valuable target for cybercriminals due to its integral role in business operations.

Attackers can directly steal money by taking advantage of unprotected business logic, such as paying money for customers to sign up to certain mailing lists. They can also gain access to sensitive data and functionality by taking advantage of flawed assumptions in business logic. Business logic attacks can exploit one-time or short-lived resources, tokens, or login sessions to access sensitive operations or data.

Embracing secure-by-design principles and improving functions like API discovery and behavioural analytics as part of the software development process can make a big difference. CISOs, security leaders, and developer teams must understand the workflows, processes, and expected user behavior of their workflows to identify potential weak points and vulnerabilities.

Cultural and organisational changes, such as breaking down silos between security and engineering internally, can help protect organisations from business logic abuse. Security should become a proactive enabler rather than a reactive barrier. Developers may not be familiar with all aspects of the codebase they're working with, leading to potential logic flaws.

Behavioural analytics, API monitoring, and automation are vital for creating the visibility needed to prevent business logic abuse. Advanced application security to protect and limit the scope of APIs and implement access controls are important for organisations to protect themselves.

In conclusion, understanding and combating business logic abuse is a crucial step in cybersecurity. By embracing secure-by-design principles, understanding the workflows, and implementing advanced application security, businesses can significantly reduce their vulnerability to this insidious threat.