Magento's flexibility and open-source nature drive thousands of merchants worldwide. However, it also drives great responsibility. The popularity of the platform makes it a prime target for hackers ready to exploit any Magento security vulnerabilities and steal data.
That's why securing your Magento admin panel and customers' data is a must. But you can't do that if you don't know what to expect.
So, in this guide, you'll learn about the most common Magento security vulnerabilities and how they affect your store. We'll also walk you through the best practices you can implement to protect your business.
But let's make one thing clear first.
Why You Need To Protect Magento Security?
Magento experts improve platform security with each release, providing security patches for the most common issues. So why should you go the extra mile to protect your store?
eCommerce is booming, making more merchants move their businesses online. This consequently makes hackers level up in their trying to exploit Magento vulnerabilities.
Therefore, it's a matter of when rather than if you'll be targeted if your store is not properly secured.
So, that's why you should always stay protected:
Security gap between Magento 1 and Magento 2
Since Adobe ended support for Magento 1 in June 2020, there are some stores still running on this version of the platform. They no longer receive any security updates or patches. This leaves them alarmingly exposed to security breaches.
Magento 2, as we've already mentioned, constantly receives security updates and improves security architecture.
So, if you're one of those stores still using Magento 1, upgrade to Magento 2 to get better password hashing, 2F authentication support and CSRF protection.
Rise of cyberattacks in eCommerce
The number of eCommerce stores has become so high, hackers no longer need to target massive retailers. They step up their efforts with automated bots that scan Magento stores for weak access control, misconfigured admin panels and poor file permission ethics.
The card skimming and malware injection are also becoming a common thing.
Legal compliance and customer trust
In the age of CPA and GDPR, security breaches no longer hurt only your revenue. You lose trust and face serious lawsuits, fines and reputation damage if customers' sensitive data is exposed.
You can't take any risks unless you want to lose months of sales due to an "insignificant" security lapse.
Evolving security threads
Technologies are evolving, so are cybercriminals. What worked before might not work today.
In 2025, there is an increased number of attacks involving AI-powered intrusion attempts, zero-day exploits targeting Magento core code.
Security protection is no longer optional, it's continuous.
Common Magento Security Vulnerabilities
It doesn't matter how well-designed your store is. If any of the security vulnerabilities go unaddressed, you're at risk.
So, here are the most common Magento security vulnerabilities and tips on how you can stay ahead of them.
1. Outdated Magento version
The first and the most common Magento security issue you're facing is an outdated Magento version. Security issues in them are often listed publicly. Hackers use that to reverse-engineer the fix, once the patch is released, and target those stores that haven't updated yet.
View your Magento version directly in the admin panel or find it in the composer.json file. If it's not the latest, update Magento version as soon as you can.
2. Unpatched extensions
While Adobe constantly improves and fixes any Magento security issues, some extension vendors don't. That's why running on the latest Magento version won't be enough.
Unpatched extensions can be your weakest security point. Especially if developers stopped supporting their products or releasing security patches.
So, choose only reputable vendors, update your extensions and remove all unused ones from your system.
3. Explosed admin panel login
Your admin panel is a "goldmine" for cybercriminals. And like in the gold rush, they will do all they can to dig for that gold, often starting with the admin login.
Hackers use bots to find stores still using the default admin URL. Then, apply the automated script that will run thousands of usernames and passwords, trying to find the ones that fit.
That's why you have to put all your efforts into protecting your admin login page.
Change the default admin URL path, enable 2F authentication and implement strong password and login policies.
For an extra layer of security, restrict access by IP and enable login log to track login attempts in Magento.
4. SQL injection (SQLi)
This type of attack is used to manipulate your store database queries by injecting harmful code into URLs, headers or form fields. It's meant to trick your databases into revealing, modifying or deleting sensitive data.
If they are successful, attackers get their hands on customers' data, product information, admin credentials and order data.
You should avoid using raw SQL queries and dynamic query construction to prevent that. Moreover, validate all user imports before processing them and often run vulnerability scans.
5. Cross-site scripting (XSS)
Sometimes hackers don't even need to target your admin login page to get sensitive data. They target users' browsers instead.
They inject malicious scripts into your website pages to steal session cookies and capture input data from reviews, search, blog comments or different forms.
In certain scenarios, XSS can lead to admin panel account takeovers and unauthorised admin actions.
To prevent that, set proper content security policies (CSP) in your website headers, limiting rich text fields. Unless it's absolutely necessary.
Additionally, validate all inputs before displaying them on frontend and enable admin action log to monitor any unauthorised changes within the admin.
6. Insecure file permissions
Uploading malicious scripts into your system is all it takes for hackers to steal data. The scariest part? You won't even notice it's there until it's too late.
To prevent that, you should be very cautious when it comes to the Magento file permissions. Attackers will look for writable directories to exploit.
So, don't give files and folders full permissions to all users and scripts. On top of that, use a server-level to monitor authorised file changes.
Example of the compromised file access warning in security reports
7. Remove code execution (RCE)
RCE is one of the most dangerous Magento security issues since it allows attackers to run code in your server remotely. If they succeed, they could potentially take full control over your server to launch further attacks or steal the data.
Magento already had an experience with that in 2015 "Shoplift Bug", and some further versions.
The first step to secure your server from this kind of attack is to disable the exec, passthru and shell_exec PHP functions unless needed.
Avoid using extensions that interact with the system functions directly. Finally, constantly download Magento latest version and update to get vital security patches.
How to Avoid Magento Security Issues?
Knowing what risks you're facing is only half the battle. To avoid these issues altogether, you should take actionable steps. Start by implementing the following best practices.
- Install security patches. First things first. Adobe fixes the most common Magento security issues and addresses the vulnerabilities. Apply security patches promptly to stay protected.
- Enable 2F authentication. Add an extra layer of security for the admin panel and prevent unauthorised logins even if hackers somehow access the admin credentials. But don't rely on SMS-based 2FA. Use Google Authenticator or other tools offered by Magento instead.
- Use secure hosting and HTTPS. Use a hosting service that offers the latest TLS protocols for your server and has a proven record in security. HTTPS, on the other hand, will protect sensitive data by encrypting it between your site and users.
- Run regular security checks. Spot vulnerabilities before hackers do with regular security audits. Review your system manually or rely on tools like Magento Security Scan Tool to do it for you automatically, daily.
Once you do all that, you shouldn't worry about your store security, right? Unfortunately, there is no set-and-forget approach here.
You should explore all available features and implement the best Magento security tips constantly to stay ahead of hackers. But knowing what they exploit the most often allows you to draw a plan and start improving from there.
