Re: The goal of pentest by PCI DSS?

["David M. Zendzian" <dmz () dmzs com>]

Yes to all of the above.  First and foremost is can you gain access to
cardholder data.  Second (and just as important) is can any systems
within the cardholder environment be compromised.

And as for social engineering, it doesn't specifically state that, but
if you can get a customer to work on that then they will be better
rewarded knowing what risks they really have.

David

Taras wrote:
> Hello, all!
>
> There is requirement 11.3 in PCI DSS [0]: "...
> Perform external and internal penetration testing at least once a year
> and after any significant infrastructure or application upgrade or
> modification (such as an operating system upgrade, a sub-
> network added to the environment, or a web server added to the
> environment).
> ...
> "
>
> From "Information Supplement: Payment Card Industry Data Security
> Standard (PCI DSS) Requirement 11.3 Penetration Testing" [1]:
>
> "
> ...
> The scope of penetration testing is the cardholder data environment and
> all systems and networks connected to it. 
> ...
> The penetration tests should attempt to exploit vulnerabilities and
> weaknesses throughout the cardholder data environment, attempting to
> penetrate both at the network level and key applications. The
> goal of penetration testing is to determine if unauthorized access to
> key systems and files can be achieved. 
> ..
> "
> Does this mean that the main aim of pentester by PCI DSS is cardholder
> data?  Or simply aim is to gain access (exploit vulnerabilities) to as
> much systems in CDE as possible? I asked about this because we can gain
> access to for example Oracle DB and do not try to search PANs in it. 
> Or we can gain access to some users workstation and do not try to search
> cardholder data in file system.
>
> One more question. Do you use social engineering in pentests by PCI DSS?
>
> Thanks for answers!
>
> [0]
> https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/security_standards/download.html?id=pci_dss_v1-2.pdf
> [1]
> https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/pdfs/infosupp_11_3_penetration_testing.pdf


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