Salesforce AppExchange hosts thousands of third-party applications, but each integration introduces security vulnerabilities. When third-party apps are compromised, attackers gain access to customer records, sales data, and confidential business information.
According to Verizon's 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report, third-party involvement in data breaches doubled year-over-year, jumping from 15% to 30%. In 2025, attackers compromised the Salesloft Drift integration, affecting over 700 organizations.
Understanding AppExchange security and learning how to choose the right AppExchange apps is critical for every Salesforce user.
Why AppExchange Security Matters & Why Protecting Your Data Is Important
Third-party applications access Salesforce data through OAuth tokens and API connections. Compromised integrations create direct pathways to sensitive data. Recent AppExchange development trends show increasing focus on security as a platform priority.
Financial Impact
According to IBM's 2025 Cost of a Data Breach Report, U.S. organizations face an all-time high of $10.22 million per incident (9% increase from 2024). Organizations require an average of 241 days to identify and contain breaches.
Business Disruption
Nearly all breached organizations suffered operational disruption, with most requiring over 100 days for recovery.
Data Exposure
Recent 2025 breaches exposed massive customer dataFarmers Insurance (1.1M customers), Allianz Life (1.4M customers), and Google (2.55M records).
Regulatory Risk
Data breaches trigger mandatory reporting under GDPR, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and GLBA. Fines can exceed 4% of annual revenue.
Real-World Impact
Google's Threat Intelligence Group identified over 700 organizations affected by the Salesloft Drift breach in August 2025. The attack impacted leading cybersecurity vendors, including Cloudflare, PagerDuty, Palo Alto Networks, Proofpoint, and Zscaler.
A November 2025 incident involved Gainsight-published applications. Salesforce confirmed its core platform was not compromised;d breaches resulted from compromised third-party integrations.
Social Engineering Factor
According to ECS Houston, deepfake technology usage surged 550% since 2019, reaching 8 million instances by 2025. Voice phishing now bypasses multi-factor authentication by impersonating IT support.
Understanding AppExchange Security & Review Requirements
Salesforce requires security reviews for all AppExchange applications. Reviews assess
- SOQL injections and malicious code prevention
- Cross-site scripting (XSS) validation
- CRUD and field-level security (FLS) enforcement
- Authentication robustness
- Record-sharing violation prevention
- AES-256 encryption standards
Timeline & Cost: Reviews typically take 4-5 weeks. Paid applications pay $999 per submission; free applications can request fee waivers.
How to Protect Your Salesforce Data
- Audit Connected Applications - Identify all third-party apps with Salesforce access. Remove unused applications immediately. Refer to our guide on how to choose AppExchange apps for evaluation criteria.
- Implement Approval Workflows - Review permissions, verify compliance requirements, and confirm vendor security certifications. Optimize approval workflows to enforce security controls and prevent unauthorized changes.
- Secure Credentials - Use Protected Custom Metadata Types, never store secrets in code.
- Enforce Data Sharing - Use "with sharing" keywords in Apex to prevent unintentional data exposure.
- Manage OAuth Tokens - Regularly rotate tokens and establish expiration policies.
- Enable Real-Time Monitoring - Monitor API logs for unusual access patterns. Conduct quarterly audits.
- Deploy Security Solutions - Use AppExchange marketplace security tools certified to ISO/IEC 27001 standards.
- Train Teams - Educate staff on social engineering, phishing, and never sharing MFA codes.
Compliance Considerations
GDPR : Implement formal approval processes with privacy assessments. Verify data processing agreements with vendors.
Industry Standards : Ensure AppExchange services meet HIPAA (healthcare), PCI-DSS (payment), and GLBA (financial) requirements.
What to Do If an App Is Compromised
- Revoke all app permissions immediately.
- Change all associated credentials
- Audit accessed data
- Notify affected customers
- Contact Salesforce support
How Tejas Software Helps Secure Integrations
TOMS (Tejas Order Management System) protects 2M+ orders annually in isolated, encrypted environments. Order data remains secure even if AppExchange is compromised. See the complete TOMS buyers' guide for detailed security features.
TWMS (Tejas Warehouse Management System) manages 4.5M+ SKUs with real-time visibility that never exposes inventory to compromised integrations.
myPOmanager (Tejas Purchase Order Management) enforces approval workflows and audit trails, preventing unauthorized procurement changes.
When order management, warehouse operations, and purchase orders operate within a secure, integrated environment, AppExchange exposure decreases significantly. Our systems maintain compliance with HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and GDPR standards.
FAQs
What happens if an installed app is compromised?
Immediately revoke permissions, change credentials, audit accessed data, notify customers, and contact Salesforce support.
How often should we audit AppExchange applications?
Conduct security audits quarterly at a minimum. Monitor API activity logs continuously.
Can Salesforce itself be breached through AppExchange?
Salesforce's core platform has not been compromised. However, compromised integrations provide unauthorized access to Salesforce data.
How long does the security review process take?
Applications typically complete reviews in 4-5 weeks at $999 per version for paid applications.
Is third-party risk really increasing?
According to Verizon's 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report, third-party involvement in breaches doubled year-over-year, jumping from 15% to 30%.
How can we reduce AppExchange security risks?
Audit all connected applications this week. Implement approval workflows this month. Deploy specialized security solutions for order, warehouse, and procurement data this quarter.
