8.3.10 Service provider customer password guidance

Service providers only (an additional requirement). If customers' users rely on passwords or passphrases alone as the authentication factor reaching cardholder data (any single-factor implementation), the service provider must give customer users guidance that includes: advice for customers to change their passwords or passphrases periodically; and advice on when, and in what circumstances, passwords or passphrases should be changed. Applicability: applies only when the assessed entity is a service provider; excludes consumers who log in to view their own payment card details. This requirement is superseded by 8.3.10.1 once that requirement takes effect. Objective under the customized approach: passwords and passphrases held by a service provider's customers cannot remain in use indefinitely.

Source: PCI DSS v4.0.1, 8.3.10. 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.