Internet of Things (IoT) Penetrating Testing Services

Process

At Artifice Security, our IoT penetration testing process goes far beyond the OWASP Top 10. We focus on discovering both known and zero-day vulnerabilities across the entire IoT attack surface — from physical device hardware to cloud API integrations and everything in between.

Our consultants bring deep expertise in network security and embedded systems, including hands-on experience from roles in electronic warfare and component-level electronics. This unique skill set allows us to deliver highly technical, manual penetration tests that other firms simply can’t replicate.

Our IoT Security Testing Covers:

This is just a sample of the depth we bring to each engagement. In reality, our IoT penetration tests include hundreds of manual checks — tailored to your device’s architecture, threat model, and intended use.

methodology

At Artifice Security, we follow a proven, repeatable methodology developed from years of hands-on experience performing IoT security assessments across diverse industries and technologies. Our approach ensures that every vulnerability is verified through manual testing, and every finding is backed by clear, reproducible proof-of-concept (PoC) evidence.

As a 100% manual penetration testing firm, we never rely solely on automated scanners. Instead, our consultants combine embedded systems knowledge, reverse engineering skills, and security research techniques to deliver the most accurate and actionable results possible.

Here’s how we execute every IoT penetration test:

01

Define the Scope of Your IoT Penetration Test

Before launching any IoT security assessment, Artifice Security collaborates closely with your team to define a clear and customized scope of work. Understanding your device’s functionality, environment, and components is essential to ensure a thorough and safe penetration test. Whether the device will be tested on-site or remotely, we tailor every engagement to your organization’s unique needs.

During this phase, we gather critical details such as:

• The intended purpose and real-world use cases of the IoT device

• Whether physical hardware is available for testing or remote access is required

• All in-scope components, including mobile apps, cloud dashboards, APIs, and communication protocols

• Any specific devices, features, or environments to be excluded from testing

• Agreed-upon testing timeline, availability, and working hours

• Contact details for stakeholders, technical points of contact, and emergency escalation if critical vulnerabilities are discovered

By clearly defining the scope upfront, we ensure that your organization receives an efficient, focused, and high-value penetration test that reflects your real-world risk posture.

02

Information Gathering & OSINT Reconnaissance

During the information-gathering phase of your IoT penetration test, Artifice Security performs passive reconnaissance using Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) tools and advanced research techniques. This phase is critical for identifying publicly accessible data that could expose your IoT device or infrastructure to risk, often without your team even being aware.

Our consultants uncover overlooked exposures by gathering data across the open web, technical forums, developer repositories, and even dark web breach databases. We focus on identifying weaknesses early in the assessment to shape a realistic, attacker-like strategy.

We perform targeted intelligence gathering such as:

• Identifying publicly available IT and network data related to your organization

• Locating exposed documents (PDFs, DOCXs, spreadsheets, presentations) that may contain hardcoded credentials, internal IPs, or sensitive architecture details

• Searching for leaked usernames and passwords in dark web credential dumps and breach databases

• Investigating public discussion forums and repositories (like GitHub or Pastebin) for accidental leaks of firmware, API keys, or code

• Researching the IoT device model for known vulnerable components or outdated dependencies

This phase sets the stage for deeper testing by revealing how much valuable information an external attacker can gather without direct interaction—giving you a better picture of your organization’s digital footprint and risk exposure.

03

Enumeration Phase

n the enumeration phase, Artifice Security conducts active reconnaissance to identify all potential attack vectors in your IoT ecosystem. This step builds on the data gathered during the information-gathering phase and lays the groundwork for precise, targeted exploitation.

We analyze the full IoT attack surface, hardware, firmware, interfaces, communications, and cloud integration, by actively probing the device and its connected services. Our methodology is designed to uncover configuration flaws, insecure implementations, and exposures that typical security reviews miss.

Our enumeration activities include:

• Extracting and analyzing firmware from the device to reverse-engineer functionality and locate hardcoded secrets or backdoors

• Identifying all active network services, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, and other wireless interfaces

• Enumerating web services, backend APIs, cloud platforms, and mobile application interfaces connected to the IoT device

• Inspecting the device’s update mechanism for secure delivery, integrity verification, and potential tampering risks

• Mapping software components and libraries, including third-party dependencies that may introduce vulnerabilities

• Investigating how the device stores personal or sensitive data, such as PII, health records, or credentials

• Assessing the implementation and location of data encryption, both in-transit and at-rest

• Reviewing the device’s security support model, firmware update policies, and remote management access

• Analyzing default configurations to identify insecure default settings or excessive privileges

• Inspecting all physical hardening mechanisms (e.g., tamper detection, JTAG lockouts, debug interface protections)

• Correlating all findings with known CVE vulnerabilities, proprietary disclosures, and industry-specific threat intelligence

By thoroughly enumerating your IoT stack, Artifice Security uncovers systemic weaknesses that attackers exploit, well before they become an incident.

04

Attack and Exploitation Phase

During the attack and exploitation phase, Artifice Security applies advanced, manual penetration testing techniques to safely exploit vulnerabilities identified in your IoT device and its supporting infrastructure. This phase mimics real-world threat actors but is executed with strict safeguards in place to protect data integrity and prevent disruption of your normal business operations.

Our experts draw on deep knowledge of embedded systems, reverse engineering, and IoT ecosystems to chain together vulnerabilities and demonstrate full attack paths, providing repeatable, proof-of-concept results you can validate internally.

Tactics we perform in this phase include:

• Leveraging leaked or harvested data (e.g., credentials, tokens, secrets) to gain privileged access to the device

• Extracting hardcoded credentials or encryption keys from firmware images

• Identifying and exploiting firmware-level backdoors or debug interfaces left accessible in production builds

• Targeting insecure network services or exposed administrative ports to bypass access controls

• Exploiting vulnerabilities in web dashboards, mobile apps, and backend APIs for remote control or data theft

• Attempting unauthorized firmware loading, testing the effectiveness of secure boot or signature validation

• Accessing or exfiltrating personal information and sensitive data stored locally or in connected cloud services

• Escalating privileges across different components (e.g., gaining root shell access from user-level compromise)

• Demonstrating end-to-end exploitation chains, including data exfiltration if approved by the client in scope

Our team documents each successful attack with detailed proofs-of-concept, providing clear insights into the actual impact of each vulnerability and the business risk it presents. This phase is where theoretical vulnerabilities become actionable intelligence.

05

Reporting Phase

At Artifice Security, the reporting phase is where our findings are translated into actionable insights your team can use immediately. Because we rely on manual IoT penetration testing, we guarantee that every vulnerability listed in your report is validated, no false positives, and each issue is accompanied by detailed, repeatable proofs-of-concept.

Your deliverables begin with a professionally written executive summary that clearly communicates the overall risk to your organization in language accessible to both technical and non-technical stakeholders. This section also highlights positive findings, giving you a complete view of your current IoT security posture, not just what’s wrong, but what’s working well.

We then provide a threat-ranking methodology, which explains how we score each vulnerability’s likelihood of exploitation and potential business impact. This helps you prioritize remediation efforts based on actual risk—not just severity ratings from a scanner.

Each vulnerability entry includes:

• A technical summary of the issue

• Affected systems or components

• Screenshots and proof-of-concept attack steps

• Custom remediation guidance aligned to your exact IoT environment

If you need to show security progress to auditors, vendors, or clients, we also provide a customer-facing version of the report and, if requested, a formal attestation letter stating that a professional IoT security assessment was performed.

Deliverables include:

• Executive summary that clearly conveys business risk

• Prioritized list of vulnerabilities by criticality

• Detailed attack chain visualizations and narratives

• Repeatable proofs-of-concept with step-by-step replication

• Realistic, best-practice remediation steps tailored to your architecture

06

Remediation Testing

As part of every IoT penetration testing engagement, Artifice Security includes a full remediation testing phase (also known as retesting) at no additional cost. Once your team has addressed the vulnerabilities identified in the initial assessment, our consultants will re-evaluate the device to verify that all fixes were properly implemented and effective.

This critical step not only ensures that the risk has been fully mitigated, it also provides your stakeholders, compliance auditors, and customers with tangible evidence that the security gaps have been closed.

Following the retesting phase, we deliver an updated penetration testing report. This revised report includes:

• Confirmation of resolved vulnerabilities

• Notes on any remaining or partially remediated issues

• Updated risk scoring

• Clear evidence of improved security posture

By including remediation testing, we help you achieve full-cycle IoT security validation, demonstrating that your organization takes threats seriously and takes measurable steps to address them.

FAQ