Skip to main content

Shopify Token

A Shopify token is a credential used to authenticate and authorize access to Shopify's API services. These tokens are essential for developers and applications to interact with Shopify stores, enabling actions such as managing products, orders, and customer data. Exposure of a Shopify token can lead to unauthorized access to sensitive store information and operations, posing significant security risks.

How Does It Look​

Shopify tokens can appear in various contexts, such as:

  • Environment variables:

    export SHOPIFY_API_TOKEN="shpat_1234567890abcdef"

  • Configuration files (JSON):

    {
      "shopify": {
        "api_token": "shpat_1234567890abcdef"
      }
    }

  • Code snippets:

    shopify_token = "shpat_1234567890abcdef"

  • Connection strings:

    https://apikey:shpat_1234567890abcdef@shop.myshopify.com/admin/api/2021-01/orders.json

Severity​

  • 🔴 Critical

The severity of a Shopify token exposure is critical because it grants access to the Shopify API, which can be used to manipulate store data, access customer information, and perform financial transactions. The blast radius includes potential data breaches, financial fraud, and operational disruptions.

What Can an Attacker Do?​

With immediate access to a Shopify token, an attacker can perform a wide range of actions:

An attacker can immediately access the Shopify store's API, allowing them to perform unauthorized operations.

Key actions an attacker can perform:

  • Delete or modify data: Alter product listings or delete orders (if the credential has write permissions).
  • Access billing information: View or change billing details (if the account has billing scope enabled).
  • Spin up resources for cryptomining: Utilize store resources for unauthorized purposes (if compute permissions are granted).
  • Access customer data: Retrieve sensitive customer information (if read access is enabled).

Additionally, an attacker could escalate their access by exploiting other vulnerabilities within the Shopify store or its integrations, potentially leading to further data breaches or lateral movement within the network.

Real-World Impact​

Exposure of a Shopify token poses significant business risks, including:

The primary impact is unauthorized access to store operations and sensitive data.

Potential consequences include:

  • Data Exposure: Customer and order data (if the credential has read access to sensitive data).
  • Financial Loss: Unauthorized transactions or fraudulent activities (if billing/resource creation is permitted).
  • Operational Disruption: Alteration or deletion of store data, impacting sales and customer trust (if the attacker has delete/modify permissions).
  • Reputational Damage: Loss of customer trust and brand reputation.

In the worst-case scenario, the exposure could lead to cascading effects such as widespread data breaches, financial fraud, and long-term reputational damage.

Prerequisites for Exploitation​

To exploit a Shopify token, an attacker needs:

  • Network access: Ability to send requests to the Shopify API.
  • Additional context: Knowledge of the store's domain or API endpoints.
  • No rate limits: Exploitation is easier if the store does not enforce strict API rate limits.

How to Verify If It's Active​

To verify if a Shopify token is active, use the following command:

curl -X GET "https://[SHOP_NAME].myshopify.com/admin/api/2021-01/shop.json" -H "X-Shopify-Access-Token: [TOKEN]"

Valid credential response: A successful response will return store details in JSON format.

Invalid/expired credential response: An error message indicating unauthorized access or invalid token.

Detection Patterns​

Common Variable Names:

  • SHOPIFY_API_TOKEN
  • SHOPIFY_ACCESS_TOKEN
  • SHOPIFY_TOKEN
  • API_TOKEN
  • ACCESS_TOKEN
  • SHOP_TOKEN

File Locations:

  • .env
  • config.json
  • settings.yaml
  • credentials.py
  • shopify_config.js

Regex Pattern:

shpat_[0-9a-fA-F]{32}

Remediation Steps​

  1. Revoke immediately - Go to Shopify Admin > Apps > Manage private apps and delete the compromised token.
  2. Audit access logs - Review Shopify API logs for unauthorized requests or data exports during the exposure window.
  3. Assess blast radius - Identify all systems, applications, and environments that used the exposed credential.
  4. Rotate credential - Generate a new private app token in Shopify Admin with least-privilege permissions.
  5. Update dependent systems - Deploy the new credential to all applications and update CI/CD pipelines securely.
  6. Harden access controls - Enable IP allowlisting in Shopify and require two-factor authentication for admin access.
  7. Implement secrets management - Migrate credentials to a secrets manager (HashiCorp Vault, AWS Secrets Manager) to prevent hardcoding.
  8. Add detection controls - Set up pre-commit hooks and repository scanning to catch credential leaks before they reach production.

Credential exposures often go undetected for extended periods, increasing the window for exploitation. As a long-term strategy, plan to establish an internal process or engage an external vendor for continuous external exposure monitoring. This helps identify leaked secrets across public repositories, paste sites, dark web forums, and other external sources before attackers can leverage them. Proactive detection and rapid response are essential to minimizing the impact of credential leaks.

References​