IoT Penetration Testing
Your devices are the backbone of your business, but if threat actors can get their hands on them, they can often sidestep even the most advanced software defenses.
Packetlabs' IoT Penetration Testing uncovers the hidden risks in your embedded systems, IoT devices, and physical interfaces. We go beyond surface-level checks, examining debug ports, firmware, side-channel vulnerabilities, and insecure communication channels that could be exploited in the real world.
Your three-step path to device protection:
1. Emulate Attackers: Replicate the tactics of sophisticated attackers using advanced techniques such as firmware extraction, reverse engineering, UART/JTAG interface analysis, and fault injection to ensure that testing reflects real-world threats.
2. Employ an Exhaustive Approach: Analyze every layer of your device, from the PCB to the cloud, probing debug ports, dissecting firmware, testing side-channel exploits, and evaluating insecure communications.
3. Leverage Clear Findings: Translate findings into a clear, prioritized plan to secure your hardware layer, protect your intellectual property, and ensure physical access never becomes a digital compromise.
Every test brings clarity; every finding brings strength.
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Your three-step path to device protection:
1. Emulate Attackers: Replicate the tactics of sophisticated attackers using advanced techniques such as firmware extraction, reverse engineering, UART/JTAG interface analysis, and fault injection to ensure that testing reflects real-world threats.
2. Employ an Exhaustive Approach: Analyze every layer of your device, from the PCB to the cloud, probing debug ports, dissecting firmware, testing side-channel exploits, and evaluating insecure communications.
3. Leverage Clear Findings: Translate findings into a clear, prioritized plan to secure your hardware layer, protect your intellectual property, and ensure physical access never becomes a digital compromise.
Every test brings clarity; every finding brings strength.
Service Highlights
Hidden Ports. Full Control Prevented
Many connected devices ship with hidden debug interfaces like UART, JTAG, or SPI that engineers use for maintenance, but attackers can abuse for total compromise. We identify, access, and test these ports to ensure they can’t be exploited for privilege escalation or unauthorized control. Why it matters: One exposed interface can give an intruder the keys to the kingdom. By closing these hardware backdoors, you prevent attacks that bypass software defenses entirely.
Our Uncompromising Standards.
Board-Ready Remediation Guidance
When findings are packaged for both strategy and execution from the outset, security gaps can be addressed more efficiently: executives can allocate budget, assign resources, and prioritize remediation initiatives in days rather than weeks while engineers can start fixing issues immediately, guided by specific instructions tied to the exact vulnerabilities discovered. This results in reduced time-to-fix for high-risk vulnerabilities and faster closure of attack windows.
Full Documentation
We demonstrate the impact of each of the findings we discover, and step beyond the potential/theoretical impact of the findings. This process helps with buy-in with your development and technical teams who understandably push back when findings do not clearly outline the potetial impact and why they need to be fixed.
PCB Analysis
By mapping out the printed circuit board (PCB) and identifying interface pinouts, you uncover potential attack vectors that would remain completely invisible in a purely software-focused assessment. These physical connections (often designed for debugging, maintenance, or manufacturing) can be exploited to bypass authentication, extract firmware, or inject malicious code directly into the device.
Vulnerability Mapping
Firmware is the brain of your device, and if it’s compromised, every layer above it is at risk. Disassembling firmware and mapping vulnerabilities allows you to uncover flaws before they’re weaponized in the field. By peeling back the layers of compiled code, you can spot insecure functions, outdated cryptographic libraries, unpatched CVEs, and even leftover debugging hooks: each one a potential doorway for attackers to bypass controls, steal data, or alter device behavior.
Exploitable Proof-of-Concept Scenarios
An exploitable PoC bridges the gap between theoretical vulnerabilities and actual business impact. It shows, step-by-step, how an attacker could leverage the flaw to cause tangible harm—whether that’s data theft, service disruption, or financial fraud. This, in turn, removes ambiguity for executives who need to understand the risk in terms of operational or reputational consequences, not just CVSS scores.
Why Invest in IoT Penetration Testing?
Pinpoint Critical Vulnerabilities
Publicly disclosed exploits of embedded devices (whether it be IoT, medical equipment, or industrial controllers) can severely erode customer trust. By proactively finding and fixing vulnerabilities, you demonstrate a commitment to safety, reliability, and security.
Bolster Your SDL
A well-implemented SDL embeds security checks and practices into every stage of development, from requirements gathering to design, coding, and testing to deployment By identifying and mitigating risks early, you minimize the number of vulnerabilities that reach production.
Reinforce Third-Party Vendor Security
Third-party components (whether they be hardware, firmware, or software) often come with inherited risks that can be exploited to compromise the end product. By gaining visibility into these risks, organizations can proactively detect vulnerabilities before they are integrated into production systems.
Safeguard Your Reputation
Security incidents (especially those involving actual exploitation) can quickly erode years of brand-building. A single publicized breach can damage reputation, depress stock value, or cause potential partners and clients to reconsider relationships. Proactive protection reduces the likelihood of negative headlines and loss of competitive advantage.
Resources
Pentest Sourcing Guide
Download our Pentest Sourcing Guide to learn everything you need to know to successfully plan, scope, and execute your penetration testing projects.
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