💃 Locking The Front Door 🕺

Good morning, Salesforce Nerds! If Salesforce security were a house 🏚️, Connected Apps used to be like side doors left politely unlocked for “trusted guests.”

Handy, sure, but not exactly what you’d want if burglars start roaming the neighborhood. 😱 

Salesforce has decided it’s time to lock those doors.

Beginning soon, all Connected Apps will face stricter usage restrictions by default.

That means instead of apps being allowed unless restricted, they’ll be blocked unless explicitly approved. ✅ 

The shift is simple to explain. But has deep implications for architects, admins, and integration-heavy orgs.

It’s not just another checkbox. It’s Salesforce moving from “trust but verify” to “verify, then trust.” ❌ 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

💃 Locking The Front Door 🕺

• Why Is This Happening

• What's Actually Changing

• Inside The Security Toolbox

• A Day In The Life

• Plan, Don't Panic

SOCIAL ENGINEERING MEETS OAUTH

WHY IS THIS HAPPENING

The rise in social engineering attacks has made OAuth tokens a favorite target. 🎯 

Why?

Because once an attacker tricks a user into approving a malicious app, that token can bypass MFA, session restrictions, and login hours like a VIP pass through the velvet rope. 🎫 

Salesforce knows this isn’t just a hypothetical.

Threat actors are already exploiting poorly governed app connections in the wild. 👀 

The new enforcement flips the model to “default deny,” forcing admins to explicitly trust Connected Apps before they can touch your data.

In other words, Salesforce is hardening the weakest link: human approval. 😅 

FROM SUGGESTIVE TO MANDATORY

WHAT’S ACTUALLY CHANGING

Today, most orgs rely on “Connected App usage restrictions” as an optional guardrail.

They let you specify which profiles or permission sets can use a given app. That’s nice, but if you didn’t configure them, apps often got a free pass. 🆓 

With the new change:

❌ Default behavior = Blocked. If a Connected App doesn’t have policies defined, it won’t be usable.

✅ Explicit allow = Required. Admins must define who (via profiles or permission sets) can use each app.

▶️ OAuth scopes still apply. Even trusted apps can only do what you grant them.

The practical takeaway:

Your integrations, SSO apps, and vendor connectors need to be reviewed and configured, or they’ll simply stop working. 👈️ 

POLICIES, SCOPES, AND TRUST

INSIDE THE SECURITY TOOLBOX

Connected App controls aren’t new. ⛔️ 

Salesforce has been quietly handing us tools for years. Here’s how they fit together:

🔑 Profiles & Permission Sets – Decide which users can access a given app.

🛡 Session Policies – Restrict app usage by IP range, login hours, or high-assurance sessions.

🎯 OAuth Scopes – Limit what an app can actually do with its token (e.g., read data but not modify).

🧩 PIN Length & Token Expiration – Layered defenses for mobile and external apps.

The upcoming enforcement doesn’t replace these.

It forces you 🫵 to use them.

Think of it as Salesforce nudging every org toward zero-trust principles: apps should earn access, not assume it. 💯 

WHEN VENDORS BREAK BAD

A DAY IN THE LIFE

Let’s play this out. 👇️ 

Your marketing team uses a shiny automation tool connected to Salesforce.

It’s been humming along for years, authenticating through a Connected App that no one thought twice about. 🌴🍹 

Then enforcement hits.

Suddenly, the nightly sync fails. Error logs start filling with “invalid_client” messages. The marketing VP panics because campaigns are stuck. 💥

What happened?

The app was never explicitly allowed. Salesforce blocked it until you set policies. ❌ 

The fix: an admin defines a permission set granting access to that Connected App, assigns it to the integration user, and re-tests. Sync resumes. 🔄 

The lesson: if you don’t audit your Connected Apps now, you may be guaranteeing a future “all hands on deck” war room.

AUDIT BEFORE THE HAMMER DROPS

PLAN, DON’T PANIC

This isn’t a reason to freak out. It’s a reason to plan. 📜

Architects should treat this as an opportunity to tighten governance. A solid prep plan includes:

🔍️ Audit: Inventory all Connected Apps in your org. Check who’s using them and why.

📑 Classify: Group apps into critical, nice-to-have, and “why is this even here?” categories.

🔐 Lock Down: Apply usage restrictions with profiles or permission sets.

🧪 Test in Sandbox: Validate integrations don’t break before the enforcement date.

🔊 Communicate: Alert vendors and business stakeholders early.

The outcome? A cleaner, more predictable Connected App footprint.

And a stronger security posture against token-based attacks. 💪 

Salesforce isn’t trying to make your life harder. It’s giving you a reason to finally get serious about Connected App governance.

SOUL FOOD

Today’s Principle

and now....Salesforce Memes