6.3.2 Inventory of bespoke software and components
The entity must keep an inventory covering the custom and bespoke software it runs, together with the third-party software components built into that software, so that vulnerability and patch management can be carried out. The testing procedures also check that the inventory is actually used to find and deal with vulnerabilities. It applies to all entities. Objective under the customized approach: known weaknesses in third-party components cannot be exploited by way of custom or bespoke software the entity owns. Future-dated: treated as a best practice up to 31 March 2025 and mandatory since then.
Source: PCI DSS v4.0.1, 6.3.2. 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.
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
- Software composition analysis tool output for in-scope repositories · Source control / CI pipeline
- Evidence of inventory-driven vulnerability alerts leading to remediation tickets · Vulnerability scanner / patch tooling
periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review
- Reconciliation of application architecture documents against the inventory · Cloud console / configuration management
governing documentDocuments that govern the control
- Inventory or software bill of materials listing bespoke applications and embedded third-party libraries, APIs and services · Vendor register / contract repository
First move
Common gaps auditors find
- Inventory lists applications but not the libraries and dependencies inside them
- Transitive dependencies are missing from the component list
- Inventory is generated once for the assessment and not kept current or used
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 sheet6.3.1 Vulnerability identification and risk ranking · 6.3.3 Timely installation of security patches