Many application security (AppSec) programs face significant gaps in their ability to cover the latest OWASP Top 10 categories, particularly those introduced or emphasized in the 2025 update. Traditional security scanners often struggle with modern authentication methods and complex API interactions, leaving critical vulnerabilities unaddressed.
A primary challenge identified is the handling of API security. While many programs treat API testing as an extension of Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST), key categories like Broken Object Level Authorization (BOLA), Broken Function Level Authorization (BFLA), and Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) require authenticated, multi-role testing that standard scanners are not equipped to perform at scale. Modern authentication flows, including OAuth2, JWT validation, and multi-factor authentication (MFA) protected sessions, frequently fall outside the scope of conventional scans. This means that the specific endpoints where account takeover could occur often remain untested.
Furthermore, signature-dependent detection methods are insufficient for newer threats. Categories that the OWASP Top 10 2025 update has elevated, such as supply chain compromise, third-party script injection, and fail-open behavior, often manifest before a specific Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) identifier or a detectable signature exists. This leaves organizations vulnerable to attacks that exploit unpatched or unknown weaknesses.
The accelerated pace of software development also contributes to coverage gaps. When full security scans take hours and risk overwhelming production environments, organizations are forced to limit scan frequency. This creates windows of exposure where misconfigurations, verbose error messages, exposed administrative interfaces, and infrastructure-as-code (IaC) drift can persist between release cycles.
Qualys's TotalAppSec platform is presented as a solution designed to address these specific challenges. It aims to provide coverage across all ten OWASP Top 10 2025 categories through a unified platform. This includes AI-powered DAST, dedicated API security testing, deep learning malware detection, and support for modern authentication mechanisms. The platform also claims to offer TruRisk prioritization to reduce alert noise, reportedly by approximately 95%.
TotalAppSec is designed to map to the OWASP Top 10 2025 categories. It is noted that A06 (Insecure Design) is a program-level discipline that no single scanner can fully own, though TotalAppSec contributes by detecting symptoms and providing risk-based views. The platform's API security capabilities, which cover approximately 600 checks for BOLA, BFLA, and other API-related issues, operate against the separate OWASP API Security Top 10 2023 standard.
In practice, TotalAppSec aims to expand visibility beyond the known attack surface by continuously discovering web applications and APIs across multi-cloud environments. This includes identifying assets through API gateways like MuleSoft, AWS API Gateway, Azure APIM, and Apigee, as well as incorporating AI and API discovery during active scans.
One customer reportedly used TotalAppSec's continuous discovery features to identify around 250 unknown web applications and 750 Swagger files. Another user scaled their AppSec coverage by 400% across a multi-team SaaS portfolio while maintaining a history of zero critical AppSec failures over more than 15 years.
The platform supports modern authentication flows, including OAuth2 and JWT, to test endpoints frequently targeted in account takeover attacks. Its deep learning detection is intended to identify threats that signature-based systems might miss, while business-risk prioritization helps teams focus on the most critical fixes.
Organizations that proactively audit their coverage gaps against the OWASP Top 10 2025 list and address discovery blind spots are expected to avoid significant remediation efforts in the future. The effectiveness of an AppSec program is increasingly being measured by its ability to align with current exploitation trends rather than just cataloging known vulnerabilities.
