Free Delivery on orders above £75 for our US and Europe customers

Threat Modeling with OWASP Cornucopia

The open, collaborative and gamified way to identify threats and security across modern software

View the collection Learn to play

The OWASP Cornucopia collection. Every angle covered.

Quick Guide to Playing Cornucopia

1. Set the Scene: Pick a feature or app. Bring visuals (diagrams, stories). Gather 3 to 6 people including devs, testers, product folks, and ideally someone with security knowledge.

2. Deal the Cards: Shuffle the deck. Remove Jokers and low-numbered Cornucopia cards (2 to 4s). Deal the rest evenly.

3. Start Playing: Take turns playing cards. Stick to the same suit if possible. Read your card aloud and say how the threat might apply, no need to solve it yet. Highest card of the suit wins, unless trumped by a Cornucopia card. Winner starts the next round.

4. Score: +1 for a valid threat, +1 if your card wins the round. Most points wins.

5. Wrap-Up: Review threats, map to security standards, and turn them into backlog items.

Tip: have someone take notes for later use.

Cornucopia Starter Tips

  • Top 5 tips

  • Keep it simple to begin with

    Remove Aces and Jokers until the team is familiar with the game flow. You can reintroduce them once everyone’s more confident.

  • Start with a fictional app

    Use an imaginary or future application to practise. It lowers the stakes and lets people focus on learning the method, not worrying about real issues.

  • Tailor the deck to your tech stack

    Remove cards that don’t apply. Or focus on cards relevant to specific standards like PCI DSS or ISO 27001.

  • Keep sessions manageable

    For short time slots, use just one suit to narrow focus, play a single round per day or sprint, or pre-select a few cards that relate to your current work or sprint goals

  • Encourage input

    If someone misses a valid threat, invite others to contribute. Reward sharp insights with bonus points to keep it fun and collaborative.

Hybrid teams? No problem

We developed a style of play where everyone has the physical deck, but plays the game through video conferencing.

Meet our croupier Why?
Back to top