Currently, I’m in the process of hiring a web developer who will be working on a site that processes credit cards. While he won’t have the credentials to log into the payment gateway’s UI he will have access to the API login and transaction key since it’s embedded in the application’s code.
I’d like to be aware of all the ‘what if’ scenarios pertaining to the type of damage one could do with that information. Obviously, he can process credit cards but the money goes into the site owner’s bank account so I’m not sure how much damage that could cause. Can anyone think of any other possible scenarios?
UPDATE: The payment gateway being used is Authorize.net.
Do they really need access to your production sites?
Don’t store the key in your code, store it in your production database, or on a file on the production server.