EvidenceSheet
PCI DSS v4.0.1 · Req 1: Network Security Controls

1.2.6 Security features for insecure services in use

For every service, protocol and port that is in use and regarded as insecure, the entity must define and implement security features so that the associated risk is mitigated. The guidance adds that where the business genuinely needs such an item, its use should be justified and its risk understood and accepted by the organisation. Applicability: no special notes; applies to every assessed entity. Objective under the customized approach: the particular risks arising from ports, protocols and services that are insecure are understood, evaluated and suitably reduced.

Source: PCI DSS v4.0.1, 1.2.6. The statement above is our statement of the clause, read from the published text and cited so you can check it against the official text, not the instrument verbatim. Open PCI DSS v4.0.1 in the compliance library.

Version 4.0.1 is the active version; 4.0 has been retired. Appendix A1 applies only to multi-tenant service providers, A2 only to card-present POS POI terminals that still use SSL or early TLS, and A3 only when a payment brand or acquirer requires it. Which requirements apply to you follows your validation type.

4
artefacts
1
held by a system
1
at each review
moderate
to go live
Cloud console / configuration management
where the evidence lives
teal = a system already holds it · olive = produced at each review. To go live: easy when half or more of the artefacts are already held by a system, moderate from a quarter to a half, hard below a quarter.

These are the artefacts auditors commonly ask for on this requirement, our guidance rather than text from the standard. Your assessor decides what is sufficient in your context, and asks for samples across the period when a report covers one.

system holds itEvidence a system already holds

  • NSC configuration extracts showing the mitigating features are applied · Cloud console / configuration management

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

  • Risk acceptance records signed by management for continued use · Policy repository / GRC workspace

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

  • Inventory of active insecure services, protocols and ports (for example telnet, FTP, SNMPv1) with risk rationale · Policy repository / GRC workspace
  • Documented compensating security features for each insecure item, such as tunnelling or source restriction · Document repository

First move

Start with the 1 of 4 artefacts that already live in a system (Cloud console / configuration management); keep the periodic reviews but log each one as a dated record with a named reviewer.

Common gaps auditors find

Do this for your whole sheet

Paste the rows you run your controls from and get this mapping for every control at once, with the periodic-review ones flagged and a first move per row. No account for the first run.

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1.2.5 Allowed services, protocols and ports justified · 1.2.7 Six-monthly review of NSC configurations