Performing a Magento Security Audit: Checks and Procedure

Magento is one of the most renowned eCommerce CMS platforms that most online business owners know. If you own a Magento store and are worried about its security, you have landed on the right page. 

You might have the urge to seek Magento upgrade services from your development experts to enhance the security of the site. But you can only do that when you know the vulnerabilities within. 

Online or eCommerce stores are common sites that are prime targets of attackers. Therefore, ensuring strong security is a priority, not just for your business but also for the consumers’ data. 

In the case of the Magento store, you can run your security audits and determine the vulnerabilities before they worsen. 

Why is it Important For Your eCommerce Site to Get A Magento Security Audit?

Online stores often record very crucial data of consumers, such as credit cards or personal data. Attackers leveraging on the security loopholes can gain access to these data and compromise your business operations, leading you to earn a bad reputation in the market.

Therefore, over Magento, you have the flexibility to run a security audit, detect the vulnerabilities and fix them. You can take the help of an expert Magento 2 development company to help you with auditing and fixing the vulnerabilities. 

When you run a Magento security audit, it will help you avoid any potential downtimes due to any cyberattack over the site. It involves the process of testing the code issues, business logic problems, plugin issues, site configurations and others. 

Thus, a proper audit will help you improve the overall site health and will let you make necessary improvements and optimizations for enhancing security. 

What are the Different Areas of Security You Must Audit in your Magento Store?

Here are some of the areas that you must audit on your Magento store to determine security vulnerabilities:

1. Performance

Magento security audits should look into the overall performance aspect of a website. For instance, you can check how frequently your site shows a 404 Error page when your site is capable of rendering third-party plugins. Remember, seeking Magento upgrade services for your security aspects should not deteriorate the usability and UX of your site. 

2. Security

Your site will help you collect the personal data of consumers, including the transaction details. Thus, the Magento security audit you run should be able to ensure that data on your site is not accessible by general users. Keep a check on all the security patches within your site, and also look for any changes in the codes due to extensions.

While taking the security audit further, check for secure processing of the payment gateways and execute the administrator rights. 

3. Health

When you determine the proficiency of performance and security areas of your Magento site, you will get the overall health status of your store. Running an overall health audit on your Magento store would help you determine any overrides done to the main codes. 

Not only that but with the health check, you will be observing the performance level of third-party modules or extensions. 

How to Execute the Magento Security Audit?

For performing the Magento security audit, you will need a detailed understanding of the platform and its all-round features. You can take the help of expert developers to guide you in the process. Here are the steps you can follow in order to run your Magento security audit:

1. Preliminary Preparations

You must first create a back of the entire site to prepare a safety net in case things go sideways. Now, get used to the architecture of your Magento site, its customizations and third-party modules. Let your developer help you with the list of features or customizations available on your store for an easy start. 

Understanding the implementations first would help you recognise any potential change during the audit. Thus, it will help you identify all potential security threats easily. 

2. Check the Browser Compatibility

You must check the browser compatibility as your next important step! Moving ahead with incompatible browsers might result in losses on the users’ front. List all the common browsers out there, and check how your site works. Use at least two versions of an individual browser to get more clarity on compatibility. 

Find the issues that pop up with different browsers and fix them with the help of experts providing Magento upgrade services. Thus, it will ensure that all of your users have the liberty to access your site, irrespective of the browser they are on. 

3. Review the Codes of Third-Party Extensions or Plugins

One thing that entices budding entrepreneurs to get a Magento store for their eCommerce startup is its flexibility to add numerous extensions. There are several themes and third-party extensions available for your store, out of which a few might be integrated into yours. You must be careful when testing these extensions for easy management or implementation. 

Run a code review on the third-party extensions and check if they aren’t turning out to be security hazards. Use the latest version of all the extensions on your site. Look out if the codes of these extensions are making enough changes to the website’s core code. Search for any backdoor possibilities associated with these extensions. 

4. Check for Business Logic Problems

When there are improperly set website functions, it might lead to business logic errors. As a result, this might give rise to security vulnerabilities. At first, these problems might be challenging to detect through traditional measures. 

But, with the help of a thorough security audit, you will be able to identify or fix those logic errors. Thus, you can help prevent your Magento store from being exposed to potential threats in the long run. 

Bottom Line

There are numerous Magento stores online that are running their eCommerce business proficiently. Any kind of security hassle might just compromise the flow of their business, resulting in massive losses. Therefore, experts provide Magento upgrade services, under which they run a thorough security audit for determining and fixing vulnerabilities. 

With the right guidance from the experts, you can even run the audit checks yourself. But it is always advised to have an experienced hand on the wheel while you focus on expanding your business!