EvidenceSheet
PCI DSS v4.0.1 · Req 10: Logging and Monitoring

10.2.1.3 Access to the audit logs is itself logged

Audit logs must record every access made to the audit logs themselves. Applies to all entities. The guidance explains that attackers often try to alter logs to hide what they did, so a trail of access lets the entity trace inconsistencies or tampering back to an individual account. Customized approach objective: every access to audit log data leaves a record.

Source: PCI DSS v4.0.1, 10.2.1.3. 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
2
held by a system
1
at each review
easy
to go live
SIEM / log platform
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

  • SIEM or log platform self-audit configuration showing user access is recorded · SIEM / log platform
  • Operating system audit rules covering local log directories · SIEM / log platform

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

  • Access reports for log storage buckets or archives · SIEM / log platform

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

  • Sample entries showing who searched, exported or modified log data · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

Automate the pull from your SIEM / log platform. Retention and alert rules exported from the SIEM; review evidence is the closed-alert record with reviewer and time.

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.

Build my evidence sheet

10.2.1.2 Logs capture all administrative actions · 10.2.1.4 Logs capture invalid logical access attempts