What is the Content Security Policy (CSP) in Salesforce in 2023?

This is a set of guidelines for securing websites that developers and system administrators may use. Clickjacking, cross-site scripting (XSS), and other code injection attacks are all prevented or detected with the aid of CSP since they involve executing malicious information within the trusted web page context and salesforce custom application development.

Implementation of CSP in Salesforce

To further safeguard your organization's apps and data, Salesforce has implemented CSP policies. Protecting your LWC apps and your company's data will need some reworking to ensure compliance with Salesforce's CSP regulations, but it will be well worth the effort.

To implement our CSP policies, we use several Salesforce technologies like LWC, Apex, the Salesforce Lightning Design System, and others.

If you adopt CSP as a configuration best practice, you'll be kept informed as Salesforce continues improving its browser client's security and CSP standards.

Salesforce CSP Overview

Content Security Policy (CSP) is used by the Lightning Component framework to control what may and cannot be shown. The primary goal is to aid in the prevention of cross-site scripting (XSS) and other code injection threats.

The CSP is a set of guidelines established by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) that dictate where a page's contents can be sourced. The CSP rules cover all components and libraries on the page level. The header information of a web page contains the CSP rules and Salesforce development services that the browser will use to prevent scripts, pictures, and other data from being loaded from untrusted sources. Client-side JavaScript is likewise affected by CSP directives, such as when HTML includes restrictions for inline JavaScript.

Don't forget to check out: How Does Salesforce Secure Your Data? Learn Here!

CSP Restrictions in Salesforce

The Lightning Component architecture implements the World Wide Web Consortium's CSP to restrict resources from specific domains. Whether or not Lightning Locker is active, the rules will still apply to all components and libraries on the page. To further reduce exposure to cross-site scripting threats, the "Enable Stricter Content Security Policy" org option was included in the Winter '19 version. The option was set to "on" by default.

CSP in Cloud framework

To increase its share of the communications service provider market, Salesforce has introduced a new architecture to facilitate migrating mission-critical business processes to the cloud.

This pioneer in cloud computing currently offers its customer relationship management (CRM) software to CSPs. Still, if some restrictions are removed, it sees greater prospects in the business-to-consumer (B2C) sector. A crucial Salesforce development company, Salesforce.com Inc.'s senior vice president of global communications and media, Andy Baer, claims that customers of communications service providers like Liberty Global Inc. (Nasdaq: LBTY), Fastweb SpA (Milan: FWB), and Sky Italia have had trouble integrating various cloud applications and making them work together with their existing legacy systems.

Salesforce's goal in solving these issues is evidently to boost its own CSP business and the businesses of its partners and affiliates.

To provide just one example, the cloud software business Vlocity Inc., built on the Salesforce platform and counts Salesforce as an investor, recently announced a relationship with the OSS/BSS player Matrixx Software Inc.

Check out another amazing blog by Hexaview here: Salesforce Apex Trigger

Creation of CSP-trusted Sites in Salesforce

The Lightning Component architecture implements the World Wide Web Consortium's Content Security Policy to restrict resources from specific domains. To utilize a third-party API that communicates with a server outside of Salesforce, you must add that server to the CSP Trusted Sites list.

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: You may not use any external JavaScript resources, not even from a CSP Trusted Site. Third-party JavaScript libraries can be used by including the library's file in a static resource and then including that resource in your component. Once the library has been loaded from the static resource, you can continue using it.

1. In the Quick Find box in Setup, type CSP and click on CSP Trusted Sites. The page shows a list of all registered CSP Trusted Sites and details such as the site's name and URL.
2. Go to Add a Trusted Site.
3. Identify the Reliable Source. Take Google Maps as an illustration.
4. Input the web address of the reliable source. There must be an "HTTP://" or "HTTPS://" at the beginning of the URL. A domain name is required, and a port is optional.
5. Type some text to describe the Trusted Site. Step six is to uncheck the Active checkbox to temporarily disable a Trusted Site without destroying it. To limit the scope of the authorization, choose the Context for this trusted site.

Summing it Up

Setting up the community's Content Security Policy, or CSP can be difficult for administrators. CSP is an additional security measure that can prevent or lessen the impact of some threats. Since many Salesforce communities are accessible to the public, enforcing a Content Security Policy may help keep your community safe. While extremely simple forms should operate immediately in communities without any changes to the CSP, more complex forms may need to be modified. This post will explain where to set up your CSP in Salesforce and how to allow the third-party domains needed to make advanced forms to operate inside a community.

Salesforce enabled Strict CSP Security settings by default for new Lightning Communities. If you are looking to integrate salesforce into your organization, Hexaview is there for you. We will help you stay on top of these changes as Salesforce requirements constantly change. Services like Salesforce NetSuite integration, Custom Salesforce application development services, data migration services, Salesforce managed services, platform optimization, and Salesforce maintenance; visit our website to learn more.