Every user expects a smooth website payment checkout.

Unfortunately, payment gateways like PayPal often show up errors like “Security header is not valid (#10002: Security error).”

This PayPal security error occurs due to wrong credentials or improper endpoints of the payment gateway.

That’s why, at Bobcares, we often get requests to fix PayPal errors as a part of our Server Management Services.

Today, let’s discuss what is 10002 security error and see how our Support Team fixes it.

What is the PayPal 10002 security error?

Nowadays, e-commerce websites like Magento, WooCommerce, etc. holds a large customer base. And, everyone likes to do online purchases. So, it is always important to avoid errors, especially during payment. In simple words, an error with payment will simply drive away valid customers.

A typical PayPal payment error in a Magento website appears as.

Let’s now see what does the 10002 security error code says.

When customers try to checkout for online payment, it ends up in an error. Here, the error code is 10002. The error message appears as,

SHORT: Security error
LONG: Security header is not valid.

The error message says that the security headers, that is, API username, password or signature are not valid.

Causes and fixes for PayPal 10002 security error

So far, we saw what is PayPal security error. Now let’s discuss the causes for this error and see how our Support Engineers fix them.

Usually, this error occurs due to wrong credentials or improper endpoints.

1.Wrong Credentials

Sometimes, customers may enter incorrect API username, password or signature. Usually, these wrong details can cause payment errors.

From our expertise in managing eCommerce websites, mostly, copy-pasting, typos, extra white spaces, etc. trigger this error.

So, to troubleshoot this error, our Support Engineers double-check the API settings. These settings will be available in the SDK or the Admin panel of the shopping cart that uses PayPal.

We assist customers in editing these details and this fixes the error.  That makes the payment without any errors.

2. Incorrect Endpoint

Similarly, the same error may occur when the gateway sends the data to the wrong endpoint. That is, the user account mode does not match with the endpoint which is PayPal.

Payment gateways like PayPal have two modes, the live mode, and the test mode.

Usually, payment in shopping cart uses the live mode. Or in the test mode, it uses sandbox credentials. When there is a mismatch in the modes at the payment endpoint, it shows up the error.

In this case, our Support Team makes sure that the live credentials are sent to the live endpoint.

If the customer needs to test the account, we ensure that both the ends are in the test mode. These test mode details will be present in the customer’s sandbox test account.

[Having trouble in fixing PayPal 10002 security error? – We will help you.]

Conclusion

In short, PayPal 10002 security error occurs due to wrong credentials or improper endpoints during payment. We also saw how our Support Engineers fix them.