What is a best practice and a common anti-pattern when using OWASP ZAP?
Quick Answer
Do run the baseline scan on every deploy to a test environment and the full active scan on a schedule; do not point an active scan at production, since it actively injects payloads and can mutate data.
Detailed Answer
Do run the baseline scan on every deploy to a test environment and the full active scan on a schedule; do not point an active scan at production, since it actively injects payloads and can mutate data.
The anti-pattern usually comes from treating the tool as a checkbox rather than a control people have to live with. A gate that is too loud gets bypassed; a gate that blocks on things nobody can fix gets disabled; a suppression with no expiry becomes a permanent blind spot. The best practice above is the version that survives contact with a real team under delivery pressure.
Generally: make the signal trustworthy (low noise), make the required action clear and achievable, give an honest escape hatch for genuine exceptions, and review suppressions and thresholds on a schedule so the configuration does not quietly rot into "always green, never useful."
Code Example
# Best practice vs anti-pattern for OWASP ZAP # Do run the baseline scan on every deploy to a test environment and the full active scan on a schedule; do not point an active scan at production, since it actively injects payloads and can mutate data. # review suppressions/thresholds on a schedule so config doesn't rot
Interview Tip
Pair every best practice with the failure it prevents — it shows you learned it the hard way, not from a doc.