EvidenceSheet
PCI DSS v4.0.1 · Req 2: Secure Configurations

2.2.7 Non-console administrative access encrypted

All non-console administrative access must be encrypted with strong cryptography. The guidance explains the purpose (stopping an eavesdropper capturing administrator IDs, passwords and other authorization factors), gives out-of-band technologies such as lights-out management, IPMI and KVM switches with remote capability as examples of non-console access, and recommends that protocols not fall back to weaker, insecure versions. Applicability: this includes administrative access through application programming interfaces (APIs) and interfaces reached by browser. Objective under the customized approach: administrative authorization factors in cleartext cannot be read or captured from any network transmission.

Source: PCI DSS v4.0.1, 2.2.7. 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.

5
artefacts
4
held by a system
1
at each review
easy
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

  • Configuration standard specifying approved admin protocols (for example SSH, TLS with current versions) · Cloud console / configuration management
  • Configuration evidence that telnet, HTTP and other cleartext admin services are disabled · Cloud console / configuration management
  • Settings for out-of-band management, IPMI, KVM and admin APIs showing strong cryptography · Cloud console / configuration management
  • TLS scan results showing weak protocol fallback is not supported · Vulnerability scanner / patch tooling

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

  • Observation record of an administrator session showing encrypted connection and certificate details · Document repository

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

none for this control

First move

Automate the pull from your Cloud console / configuration management. Configuration snapshots and change history from the cloud console or IaC repository, diffed against the baseline.

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

2.2.6 System security parameters configured against misuse · 2.3.1 Wireless vendor defaults changed or confirmed secure