A Salesforce security scanner is critical to avoiding potentially catastrophic misconfigurations in permissions, settings, and security considerations.
Why It Matters: Human error is a major source of data loss. And when team members have access to too many datasets, the likelihood of these costly errors skyrockets.
- A 2016 study found that a minute of operational downtime costs a company an average of $9,000—with the most expensive going all the way up to $17,000 per minute.
- People get complacent. Automating oversight with a Salesforce security scanner drastically increases the organization’s ability to stay on top of configuration changes to stay aligned with best practices.
Here are four things you need to know about misconfigurations in Salesforce and what you can do to prevent them:
1. What Are the Dangers of Misconfigurations?
Misconfigurations in Salesforce are one of the most common—and most overlooked—security risks. Unlike external threats, these issues happen when well-meaning admins or developers unintentionally expose sensitive data through overly broad permissions, improper sharing settings, or insecure integrations.
A single misconfigured permission set or profile can grant users access to data they should never see, increasing the chances of costly errors leading to exposures.
These gaps can go unnoticed for months, creating silent vulnerabilities that put customer trust, regulatory compliance, and company reputation at risk. In fast-paced environments with frequent updates and deployments, the risk multiplies. Without proactive scanning and visibility, organizations are essentially flying blind—leaving sensitive data exposed to internal misuse or external exploitation.
2. What Are the Most Common Types of Salesforce Misconfigurations?
Salesforce environments are complex, and with that complexity comes a range of common misconfigurations that can quietly compromise security.
- Over-permissioned users is one of the most frequent issues—where profiles or permission sets grant more access than necessary, often due to role changes or quick fixes during development.
- Field-level security gaps expose sensitive data like Social Security numbers or health information when not properly restricted.
- Misconfigured sharing rules and public links can inadvertently open access to unauthorized users. Additionally, inactive users with lingering access and API integrations without IP restrictions are easy back doors for data leakage.
These mistakes might seem minor individually, but together, they create a perfect storm for data exposure and compliance violations.
3. Real-World Examples of Salesforce Breaches from Misconfigurations
2023 Salesforce Community Sites Data Exposure
The COVID-19 pandemic led to a heightened need for digital services, forcing many organizations to scramble to put together new digital platforms. Misconfigured Salesforce Community websites allowed unauthenticated users to access sensitive records. Organizations across various sectors, including banks and healthcare providers, inadvertently exposed data such as Social Security numbers and bank account information due to these misconfigurations.
Salesforce “Modify All” Permissions Incident
A faulty database script inadvertently granted ‘modify all’ permissions to all user profiles in some organizations, leading to widespread unauthorized access to company data. Salesforce had to shut down affected instances to mitigate the issue.
Apollo Data Breach
Apollo, a sales intelligence firm, suffered a breach exposing over 200 million contact listings and billions of datapoints. The exposed data included information imported from Salesforce accounts, highlighting the risks associated with misconfigurations and data aggregation.
4. How to Prevent These Costly Mistakes
Addressing misconfigurations in Salesforce starts with gaining full visibility into your org’s settings, permissions, and custom code. Manual reviews don’t cut it—an automated Salesforce security scanner is essential for identifying risks before they become breaches.
AutoRABIT Guard continuously scans your environment for misconfigured profiles, excessive permissions, unsecured Apex code, and other vulnerabilities.
By integrating directly into your DevOps pipeline, Guard helps catch misconfigurations early and ensures that every release aligns with security best practices. Once issues are detected, Guard provides clear, actionable remediation guidance, empowering teams to fix problems quickly and reduce exposure. Continuous scanning and remediation are key to staying secure and compliant.
Next Step…
Keeping track of your Salesforce settings becomes more difficult as your organization continues to grow. Manually overseeing these configurations will inevitably lead to oversights that can have massive consequences for data security.
Check out this video to learn how AutoRABIT Guard is uniquely positioned to keep your environment optimized and secure.