| title | displaytext | layout | tab | order | tags |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
shouldiuseesapi |
Should I use ESAPI? |
true |
3 |
esapi |
[NOTE: The heretical opinions on this ESAPI tab are 100% my own and do not necessarily reflect the rest of other ESAPI contributors or the OWASP staff, leadership, community. --kevin wall]
Or, specifically, "Should I use ESAPI for Java?" since that's the only one run by OWASP that still shows any semblance of life. Maintenance activities is down, way down in fact of its peak development activities. Some of us are still trying and haven't given up and volunteers are still welcome. But without active contributors, projects make slow progress.
The first question to ask is, are you already using ESAPI in your project, and if so, do you have a lot vested in it? If so, then the answer to "Should I use ESAPI?" probably is "yes". The second question you should ask, if I'm using it, why am I not contributing to it in some manner? But we won't go there.
If you are starting out on a new project or trying for the first time to secure an existing project, then before you consider ESAPI, you should consider these possible alternatives:
- Output encoding: OWASP Java Encoder Project
- General HTML sanitization: OWASP Java HTML Sanitizer
- Validation: JSR-303/JSR-349 Bean Validation
- Strong cryptography: Google Tink, Keyczar
- Authentication / authorization: Apache Shiro
- CSRF protection: OWASP CSRFGuard Project or OWASP CSRFProtector Project
Note that this is not to suggest that ESAPI is dead, but rather to acknowledge the fact that it isn't being as well-maintained as most F500 companies would like for their enterprise software. There may be alternatives, such as companies that you can purchase ESAPI support from. Those are not being considered here for various reasons, not the least of which is to remain vendor neutral. Rather, instead these recommendations should be taken as possible alternatives to secure your application. It is not a perfect world that we live in, but I would be remiss as an appsec guy if I were to plug ESAPI over other good security solutions simply because of my contributions to / involvement with ESAPI. I think that ESAPI has it's place and I will do my best to maintain it, but not to the exclusion of my family or day job. If you would like to volunteer to help, you know where to find me.