Magento and Adobe Commerce penetration testing: how the security of an enterprise store is analysed
By Kike Gandia · Co-Founder & CEO, OSCP
A Magento penetration test assesses store security by simulating the behaviour of an attacker who knows the platform: the default paths, the exposed APIs, the common vulnerability patterns in third-party extensions and the business flows that can be manipulated. It's a real offensive analysis, not a version scanner.
Phase 1: Magento-specific reconnaissance
Enumeration in Magento includes: detecting the exact version (Magento 1 vs Magento 2, Open Source vs Adobe Commerce) and its patch level, identifying the admin panel URL (which many stores leave at /admin), enumerating active extensions through fingerprinting of paths and assets, and detecting extension versions via accessible module files.
Testing the admin panel
The Magento admin panel is the highest-value target. Tests include: brute force and credential stuffing (with or without rate-limiting protection), detection of missing MFA, authentication bypass attempts on extensions that modify the login flow, and review of administrator role permissions to identify privilege escalation between roles with limited access.
Analysis of extensions and custom code
Magento extensions are complex PHP modules with full access to the database, the file system and the platform's internal APIs. The analysis covers: matching versions against the history of known CVEs, code review of custom modules looking for SQLi, XSS, SSRF, insecure deserialisation and command injection, and analysis of permission handling on API endpoints registered by extensions.
REST and GraphQL API testing
Magento 2 exposes a complete API (REST and GraphQL) that is the backend of many headless integrations and mobile apps. Tests include: enumeration of unauthenticated endpoints, authorisation testing (access to other customers' resources), mass assignment in resource creation and modification, and injection testing on filtering and search parameters.
FAQ
Does Magento penetration testing require access to the source code?
Not for black-box or grey-box analysis. If you want to audit the code of custom extensions, the source code is provided for complementary static analysis.
Can the penetration test be done without affecting real orders?
Yes. Tests that involve creating orders, modifying data or active injections are carried out in a staging environment. If one doesn't exist, we help set it up before the analysis.
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