Salesforce Penetration Testing

Specialized Penetration Testing for Salesforce Low-Code Applications

Find and Remediate Critical Configuration Errors

Salesforce.com’s low-code platform powers critical business applications worldwide, but misconfigurations and excessive customization can create serious security risks.

Raxis specializes in Salesforce penetration testing to uncover vulnerabilities, verify configurations, and ensure compliance with PCI DSS, HIPAA, GDPR, and SOC. Partnering with AutoRABIT, we combine automated scanning with expert manual testing for a thorough security assessment.

AutoRabit Logo, partnering with Raxis for Salesforce Penetration Testing

We partner with AutoRABIT to ensure that every security risk can be identified and addressed by Raxis engineers.

Expertise in Salesforce Penetration Testing

Our team has deep experience testing Salesforce low-code applications, with a focus on permissions, custom code, and integrations.

AutoRABIT Guard Integration

Guard’s automated scanning capabilities enhance our ability to identify configuration risks and compliance gaps efficiently.

Compliance-Driven Approach

Our Salesforce penetration testing and detailed reports help organizations meet PCI DSS and other regulatory requirements.

Holistic Testing

We combine automated scans with manual Salesforce penetration testing to uncover both known and novel vulnerabilities, ensuring comprehensive coverage.

Try a Free Salesforce Security Assessment

Free Salesforce Assessment

Free AutoRABIT Guard Scan

For qualified organizations, Raxis will leverage AutoRABIT Guard to detect misconfigurations, weak permissions, and exposed data in your Salesforce setup.

Actionable Recommendations

Receive a tailored report showing what a Salesforce penetration test could uncover using real findings from your environment.

Compliance Gap Analysis

Identify areas where your Salesforce instance may fall short of regulatory standards and how a Raxis Salesforce penetration test could help you achieve compliance.

No Commitment

After the assessment, we’ll schedule a quick call to walk through the results and explore your Salesforce security and compliance needs — completely pressure-free.

Why Penetration Test Salesforce Low-Code Applications?

1. Permission System Vulnerabilities

Salesforce’s low-code ecosystem empowers teams to build business-critical workflows and applications quickly, but that convenience often hides deep security complexity. Each click-configured object, automation, and permission layer adds potential exposure that traditional code reviews and vulnerability scanners simply can’t detect. A single misconfigured sharing rule or overprivileged role can turn a powerful business platform into a major data-loss vector.

Unlike static web apps, Salesforce operates within a deeply interconnected, multi-tenant environment where logic, access control, and integrations converge. This makes comprehensive penetration testing essential, not just to validate the security of custom Apex code or Lightning components, but to uncover weaknesses in how permissions, data visibility, and authentication interact under real-world attack conditions.

Raxis penetration tests simulate adversary behavior inside this complex fabric, identifying the subtle privilege escalations and data exposures that often evade automated tools. Our approach helps organizations see how configuration choices, low-code workflows, and third-party app integrations might be exploited in practice—before attackers discover them.

Common issues include:

Overprivileged User Accounts

Excessive permissions, such as granting System Administrator access unnecessarily, can allow users to access or modify sensitive data. For example, improper use of “Modify All Data” or “View All Data” permissions can lead to unauthorized data exposure.

Guest User Misconfigurations

Salesforce Communities often rely on Guest User accounts for unauthenticated access. Misconfigured Guest User settings* can expose sensitive data or functionality, potentially allowing attackers to manipulate data or escalate privileges.

Permission Drift

Over time, permission sets, profiles, and sharing rules can drift from their intended configurations, especially in dynamic environments with frequent updates. This can result in unintended access to encrypted fields, business logic, or credentials.

Insecure Sharing Settings

Incorrectly configured sharing rules or “without sharing” Apex classes can bypass Salesforce’s security controls, allowing unauthorized access to records or objects.

*A notable vulnerability in Salesforce Communities, uncovered in 2024, exploited Guest User misconfigurations to enable full account takeovers.

Raxis Approach

We perform Salesforce penetration testing to analyze permission sets, profiles, and sharing rules to identify overprivileged accounts, misconfigured Guest Users, and permission drift. Our penetration testers then perform PoC exploits to demonstrate how attackers could leverage these issues, such as extracting sensitive data or escalating privileges. For example, we simulate attacks exploiting predictable Salesforce IDs to access non-public ContentDocument objects, as identified in recent research.

2. Configuration Risks in Low-Code Components

Salesforce’s low-code architecture, powered by Lightning components, Flows, and declarative tools, makes it remarkably easy to build business applications at speed. Yet, beneath that convenience lies a shared security responsibility: each configuration choice, default setting, and automation can quietly expand the attack surface.

Because Salesforce prioritizes usability and rapid deployment, default configurations often err on the side of accessibility rather than security. These defaults can expose sensitive fields, business logic, or API endpoints to users or integrations that were never intended to see them. Even more concerning, low-code layers like Aura components and Flows operate in complex, interconnected environments where a single overlooked validation or permission can ripple across multiple modules.

Industry research has uncovered dozens of zero-day and configuration-related vulnerabilities, proof that even “click-built” functionality can carry the same risk profile as custom code. Identifying and testing these issues requires a penetration testing approach that looks beyond static misconfigurations to simulate how attackers actually exploit low-code weaknesses in practice.

Insecure Default Settings

Default configurations often prioritize usability over security, leaving encrypted fields or business logic exposed to unauthorized access.

SOQL Injection in Aura Controllers

A zero-day vulnerability in a default Aura controller allowed attackers to inject malicious queries via the “contentDocumentId” parameter, potentially extracting database contents.

Custom Code Vulnerabilities

Custom Apex code or Visualforce pages can introduce flaws like improper input validation or insecure API calls, leading to data leaks or logic bypasses.

Raxis Approach

We conduct scans for misconfigurations and insecure patterns in low-code components, while our Salesforce penetration testers validate these findings through manual testing. We simulate attacks like SOQL injection* to assess the exploitability of identified flaws and provide actionable remediation guidance.

*SOQL injection is a security vulnerability in Salesforce applications where attackers manipulate input fields to inject malicious SOQL (Salesforce Object Query Language) queries, potentially accessing unauthorized data or bypassing security controls. This occurs when user inputs, such as form fields or URL parameters, are not properly validated or sanitized, allowing attackers to alter queries executed by custom Apex code or Aura controllers.

3. API and Integration Risks

Salesforce’s open, API-driven architecture is one of its greatest strengths—and one of its biggest security challenges. Every connected system, mobile app, or third-party integration increases the number of potential entry points into your Salesforce environment. While APIs are designed to facilitate data exchange and automation, misconfigurations or weak access controls can inadvertently expose entire datasets, authentication tokens, or backend logic to attackers.

In large Salesforce deployments, APIs are often consumed by multiple systems—marketing automation, customer portals, mobile apps, and custom middleware—all operating with different authentication methods and permission scopes. Without strict governance, even a single exposed endpoint can provide a path for lateral movement, data exfiltration, or service disruption.

Third-party integrations from the AppExchange add another layer of complexity. Many rely on broad OAuth permissions, unvalidated input, or incomplete rate-limit enforcement, all of which can be exploited by sophisticated adversaries. A compromised integration or overprivileged API connection can effectively bypass Salesforce’s internal security model, turning what seems like a benign business connector into a backdoor.

Unauthenticated API Access

Misconfigured APIs can allow attackers to access sensitive data without proper authentication.

Insecure Third-Party Integrations

Apps from the Salesforce AppExchange or custom integrations may introduce vulnerabilities if not properly vetted or configured.

API Rate Limit Bypasses

Attackers can exploit poorly configured APIs to exfiltrate data or disrupt services.

Raxis Approach

We penetration test Salesforce APIs for authentication flaws, rate limit bypasses, and insecure data handling. Using Burp Suite, AutoRABIT Guard, and manual Salesforce penetration testing to identify misconfigured APIs, we perform PoC exploits to demonstrate potential data breaches or service disruptions.

4. Metadata and Code Quality Issues

Metadata forms the backbone of Salesforce—defining object relationships, permissions, validation rules, and automation logic. Because so much of the platform’s behavior depends on metadata rather than traditional source code, even small misconfigurations can have outsized impacts on data integrity and security. Poorly controlled metadata updates or flawed code deployments can alter how sensitive records are shared, processed, or stored—sometimes without direct visibility to administrators.

Salesforce’s dynamic nature and continuous integration model make maintaining metadata hygiene a constant challenge. Changes introduced through development pipelines, managed packages, or admin configuration can easily bypass standard review processes, introducing compliance gaps or logic errors. Without consistent validation and monitoring, organizations risk pushing insecure Apex code or broken permission logic into production, undermining both data confidentiality and regulatory compliance.

Effective security testing must therefore go beyond static code scans to examine how metadata and code interact in the live environment. A penetration testing approach focused on Salesforce’s metadata layer helps uncover vulnerabilities that traditional SAST (static analysis) tools overlook—logic flaws, overexposed fields, and configuration drift that can cascade into data corruption or compliance violations.

Data Corruption

Coding errors or bad logic in custom code can corrupt data or expose sensitive information.

Compliance Risks

Defective code or misconfigured metadata can violate PCI DSS, HIPAA, or GDPR requirements, leading to regulatory penalties.

Lack of Code Visibility

Without real-time monitoring, defective code can reach production environments, increasing the risk of breaches.

Raxis Approach

AutoRABIT Guard provides visibility into metadata and code quality, identifying issues like defective Apex code or misconfigured objects. Our Salesforce penetration testers validate these findings by attempting to exploit logic flaws or metadata misconfigurations, ensuring compliance with standards like PCI DSS.

Our Salesforce Penetration Testing Methodology

  1. Pre-Engagement Planning
    • Define scope, including Salesforce orgs, custom code, APIs, and low-code components.
    • Identify compliance requirements (e.g., PCI DSS, HIPAA, GDPR).
    • Coordinate with your team to ensure minimal disruption.
  2. Intelligence Gathering
    • Gathers publicly available data from websites, social media, domain registries, and dark web sources to identify potential security risks.
    • Analyzes collected data to detect exploitable vulnerabilities, such as exposed credentials or sensitive information.
    • Provide actionable insights to help you address vulnerabilities before cybercriminals can exploit them.
  3. Vulnerability Identification
    • Using AutoRABIT Guard, scan permission sets, profiles, sharing rules, and metadata for misconfigurations.
    • Review API calls using Burp Suite and other manual tools.
    • Identify insecure code patterns, API vulnerabilities, and compliance gaps.
    • Generate a prioritized list of potential issues for manual validation.
  4. Strategic Threat Modeling
    • Raxis catalogs critical assets, including infrastructure and data repositories, to establish a clear security baseline.
    • Leverage public sources, dark web data, and industry insights to identify and map potential threats to your organization.
    • Simulate real-world adversary tactics to expose vulnerabilities and provide actionable strategies for risk prioritization and resilience.
  5. Adversarial Simulation
    • Mimic real-world cyberattacks using hacker tools and techniques to evaluate your security defenses.
    • Target common attack vectors, including phishing, privilege escalation, lateral movement, and data exfiltration.
    • Test your organization’s ability to detect and respond to threats effectively.
  6. Manual Salesforce Penetration Testing
    • Perform gray-box and white-box testing to simulate real-world attacks against the Salesforce application.
    • Develop PoC exploits for vulnerabilities like SOQL injection, Guest User misconfigurations, or API flaws.
    • Test internal and external attack scenarios to assess the full attack surface.
  7. Post Exploitation Analysis
    • Simulate real-world breach consequences, focusing on pivoting, privilege escalation, and data compromise.
    • Evaluate compromised systems based on data sensitivity and their potential to enable further network attacks.
    • Safe data exfiltration and redaction highlight true exposure, delivering clear strategies to strengthen defenses.
  8. Reporting and Remediation Planning
    • Deliver a detailed report with findings, PoC exploit details, and remediation recommendations.
    • Provide guidance on secure configurations, code fixes, and backup strategies.
    • Support retesting to validate remediation efforts.
  9. Retest and Validation
    • Ensure findings align with PCI DSS, HIPAA, GDPR, and other relevant standards.
    • Provide documentation to support audit requirements.

Frequently Asked Questions

While Salesforce provides a secure infrastructure, your organization is responsible for configuring it properly. The complexity of Salesforce’s permission system, custom Apex code, Lightning components, and integrations introduces numerous opportunities for misconfiguration. Our penetration testing revealed that over 80% of Salesforce instances have at least one critical security flaw—not because Salesforce is insecure, but because of how it’s configured and customized. We test your specific implementation, custom code, permission sets, sharing rules, and integrations to find the vulnerabilities unique to your Salesforce environment.

AutoRABIT Guard is an excellent automated scanning tool that identifies known misconfigurations, permission issues, and code quality problems in your Salesforce metadata. Think of it as a comprehensive vulnerability scanner. Penetration testing goes several steps further—our experts manually validate findings, develop proof-of-concept exploits, test business logic flaws, attempt privilege escalation, and simulate real attacker techniques that automated tools cannot detect. Guard tells you what might be vulnerable; penetration testing proves how an attacker would exploit it and demonstrates the actual business impact. We use Guard to accelerate discovery, then apply human expertise to validate exploitability and uncover logic flaws automation misses.

No. Our Salesforce penetration testing is designed to be safe and non-disruptive to your business operations. We use read-only queries where possible, create test records that don’t interfere with real data, and carefully coordinate timing with your team. We avoid actions that could trigger workflows, corrupt data, or cause downtime. For particularly sensitive operations, we can test in sandbox environments first, though we always recommend some production testing since production configurations often differ from sandbox. Our team has extensive experience testing live Salesforce environments for Fortune 500 companies without incident.

Absolutely—and you should prioritize this. Salesforce Communities with Guest User access are among the most commonly exploited attack vectors. The 2024 vulnerability that allowed full account takeovers specifically targeted Guest User misconfigurations. We thoroughly test Guest User permissions, Community sharing settings, unauthenticated access points, and the boundary between authenticated and unauthenticated functionality. We’ve discovered Guest Users with access to sensitive objects, misconfigured sharing rules that expose customer data, and permission drift that inadvertently grants excessive access. If you have Communities, Experience Cloud, or any public-facing Salesforce functionality, this testing is critical.

Yes. Custom code is often where the most critical vulnerabilities hide. We perform comprehensive code review and testing of all custom Apex classes, triggers, controllers, and Visualforce pages. Specifically, we test for SOQL/SOSL injection vulnerabilities, improper input validation, insecure sharing settings (“with sharing” vs “without sharing”), exposed sensitive data in debug logs, hardcoded credentials, and business logic flaws. We also test custom Aura and Lightning Web Components for client-side security issues. Our penetration testers don’t just read code—we actively exploit vulnerabilities to demonstrate real-world impact with proof-of-concept attacks.

Our Salesforce penetration testing directly supports PCI DSS (especially Requirement 11.3 for penetration testing), HIPAA Security Rule technical safeguards validation, SOC 2 Type II control testing, GDPR security measures demonstration, and ISO 27001 certification requirements. We provide detailed reports that map findings to specific compliance control requirements, making audit preparation straightforward. For PCI DSS specifically, if you store, process, or transmit cardholder data in Salesforce, annual penetration testing is mandatory—and it must cover your Salesforce application, custom code, integrations, and any external-facing components.

We assess both the security of AppExchange applications installed in your org and the integrations connecting Salesforce to external systems. For AppExchange apps, we review the permissions they request, test for data leakage, analyze their API calls, and assess whether they introduce new attack vectors. For integrations, we test authentication mechanisms (OAuth, API keys, JWT), data transmission security, API endpoint security, webhook validation, and whether third-party systems can be leveraged to compromise Salesforce. Many organizations don’t realize that a vulnerable third-party integration can become a backdoor into their Salesforce data.

Yes—and this is why periodic testing is crucial. Salesforce releases three updates per year (Spring, Summer, Winter), and each can introduce new features, change default behaviors, or expose new attack vectors. Additionally, your team makes ongoing configuration changes, deploys custom code, and adds integrations. We test your current state to identify security issues introduced by recent updates, permission drift from accumulated changes, new vulnerabilities in recently deployed code, and misconfigurations that weren’t present during your last assessment. We’ve repeatedly found critical vulnerabilities introduced by routine updates or “quick fixes” that bypassed security review.

We immediately notify your team of any critical findings—we don’t wait until the final report. For high-severity issues like exposed customer data, authentication bypass, or privilege escalation vulnerabilities, we provide verbal notification within 24 hours along with emergency mitigation recommendations. After testing concludes, you receive a detailed report with proof-of-concept exploits, step-by-step remediation guidance, secure code examples for fixes, and prioritized action items. We also include complimentary retesting after you’ve implemented fixes to validate that vulnerabilities are properly resolved. Our goal is not just to find issues, but to help you fix them correctly.

Pricing and timeline depend on your Salesforce environment’s complexity: number of custom objects and fields, lines of custom Apex code, number of integrations and APIs, whether you have Communities/Experience Cloud, number of permission sets and profiles to review, and compliance requirements (PCI DSS, HIPAA, etc.). A basic Salesforce security assessment typically starts around $15,000-$35,000 and takes 1-4 weeks. Comprehensive testing for complex enterprise Salesforce environments with extensive customization ranges from $35,000-$75,000+ and takes 4+ weeks. We also offer the free AutoRABIT Guard scan to help you understand your security posture before committing to full penetration testing. Contact us for a customized quote based on your specific Salesforce implementation.

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