What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on 2.1.2 Requirement 2 roles and responsibilities assigned?

RACI matrix for hardening standard ownership, build approvals and wireless configuration; Role descriptions for platform, server and cloud engineering staff referencing configuration duties; Staff acknowledgement records of assigned configuration responsibilities; Interview notes with owners of the configuration standards.

What is the most common gap auditors find on 2.1.2?

No single owner for configuration standards, so updates after new vulnerabilities are missed

PCI DSS v4.0.1 · Req 2: Secure Configurations

`2.1.2` Requirement 2 roles and responsibilities assigned

Responsibilities for the Requirement 2 activities (building and maintaining configuration standards, handling vendor defaults, disabling unneeded functions, securing wireless) must be written down, allocated, and understood by those who hold them. Applicability: no special notes; applies to every assessed entity. Customized approach objective: daily responsibility for all Requirement 2 work is allocated, and the holders are answerable for these controls operating successfully and continuously.

Source: PCI DSS v4.0.1, 2.1.2. 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.

artefacts

held by a system

at each review

moderate

to go live

HR system / LMS

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

Staff acknowledgement records of assigned configuration responsibilities · HR system / LMS

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

Interview notes with owners of the configuration standards · Cloud console / configuration management

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

RACI matrix for hardening standard ownership, build approvals and wireless configuration · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Role descriptions for platform, server and cloud engineering staff referencing configuration duties · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

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

Common gaps auditors find

No single owner for configuration standards, so updates after new vulnerabilities are missed
Cloud platform teams unaware that Requirement 2 duties apply to them
Roles documented but not communicated to third parties building systems on the entity's behalf

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

2.1.1 Requirement 2 policies and procedures governed · 2.2.1 System configuration standards maintained