Overview
A Point-of-Sale (POS) system combines hardware and software to process transactions, manage inventory, and capture sales data for businesses such as retail stores, restaurants, and hotels. These systems handle highly sensitive cardholder data and are frequent targets for cyber attackers aiming to steal payment information.
A compromised POS device can silently capture card data or act as a launchpad for malware that spreads throughout your network, leading to costly data breaches, non-compliance penalties, and reputational damage. Our PCI POS Penetration Testing service evaluates the security of your POS devices, software, network segmentation, and supporting infrastructure to identify weaknesses that could expose cardholder data or allow unauthorized access.
POS
POS Device Assessment
Evaluate hardware, firmware, and software for security vulnerabilities.
Network Segmentation Testing
Verify PCI DSS-compliant isolation from corporate and guest networks.
Application Security Testing
Identify injection flaws, buffer overflows, and weak authentication in POS software.
Payment Data Flow Analysis
Trace cardholder data across systems to locate potential exposure points.
Credential & Access Control Testing
Check for default credentials, privilege escalation, and remote access weaknesses.
Malware & Endpoint Protection Review
Assess presence and effectiveness of anti-malware and EDR solutions.
Logging & Monitoring Evaluation
Evaluate logging completeness, integrity, and alerting mechanisms.
Compliance & Hardening
Validate PCI DSS control implementation and POS system hardening.
What you will get
Deliverables that keep every stakeholder aligned
We deliver more than raw findings: you receive a complete package that leadership, engineers, and auditors can all act on immediately.
Reporting package
Evidence-rich documentation for executives and technical teams.
Executive summary that explains business impact, key risks, and the
narrative behind the assessment.
Vulnerability summary with grouped issues, risk owners, severity,
and time-to-fix guidance.
Technical analysis that includes screenshots, observations, attack
flow notes, and proof-of-exploitation where appropriate.
Metrics & scoring covering CVSS, likelihood/impact rationales,
and remediation priority to unblock quick decisions.
Remediation toolkit
Clear next steps, mapped to the people fixing the issues.
Excel remediation tracker that consolidates every vulnerability with
owners, status, due dates, and comments so progress is easy to measure.
Prioritized backlog with quick wins, blocked items, and prerequisites
highlighted to reduce remediation friction.
Restitution meeting to walk through findings live, align on
fixes, and answer engineer questions while the context is fresh.
Optional retest to validate patches and refresh CVSS scores so the
final report reflects your latest posture.
Where this service excels
Recent scenarios our team solved
Real-world stories that mirror the way customers deploy, defend, and recover.
Retail
Cardholder data exposure in logging
Discovered PANs written to verbose payment gateway logs during retries.
Outcome
Redacted sensitive fields, updated logging libraries, and validated PCI DSS evidence with QSAs.
Hospitality
Flat network around PoS systems
Proved lateral movement from guest Wi‑Fi into payment enclaves via poorly filtered firewall rules.
Outcome
Rebuilt segmentation, deployed jump boxes with MFA, and tightened firewall baselines.
E-commerce
Third-party skimmer injection
Identified compromised marketing script inserting rogue card fields on checkout.
Outcome
Implemented subresource integrity, CSP, and third-party script attestation with monitoring.
Testing Methodology
1
Scoping & Kick-off
Define in-scope locations, objectives, rules of engagement, and safety protocols for POS testing activities.
2
Asset Discovery
Identify all POS terminals, supporting infrastructure, and connected devices including servers, firewalls, and payment gateways.
3
Network & Segmentation Testing
Verify network isolation and firewall configurations in line with PCI DSS requirements to ensure proper segmentation from corporate and guest environments.
4
Device & Application Security Testing
Assess POS hardware, firmware, and application software for misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, and insecure communication channels.
5
Payment Data Flow Analysis
Map how cardholder data is captured, transmitted, and stored to detect potential leakage or exposure to non-secure systems.
6
Credential & Access Review
Test authentication mechanisms, remote access policies, and privilege management to identify weak or shared credentials and unauthorized access paths.
7
Malware & Endpoint Protection Assessment
Validate anti-malware coverage, detection effectiveness, and update mechanisms. Review endpoint telemetry and behavioral analytics for anomalies.
8
Reporting & Debrief
Produce a detailed report including an executive summary, scope, methodology, prioritized findings with PoCs, business impact, risk ratings, and actionable remediation. Present results during a restitution meeting.
FAQ
POS systems are frequent targets for attackers aiming to steal payment card data. A compromised POS device can lead to data theft, PCI DSS violations, and severe financial losses. This assessment helps identify exploitable weaknesses, validate PCI DSS segmentation, and strengthen overall POS environment security.
Typically around 5 business days, depending on the environment’s size, number of POS devices, and network complexity.
All testing is conducted safely and non-destructively. For production systems, test windows are coordinated to avoid service disruption. Any potentially intrusive actions are performed only after explicit approval.