EvidenceSheet
PCI DSS v4.0.1 · Req 8: Identify and Authenticate Users

8.3.11 Tokens, smart cards and certificates individually assigned

Where the entity relies on authentication factors like physical or logical tokens, smart cards or certificates: each factor must be assigned to one individual user and not shared among several users; and physical or logical safeguards (for instance a PIN, a password or biometric data) must make sure nobody but the assigned user can use the factor to gain access. Objective under the customized approach: an authentication factor is unusable by anybody other than its assigned user.

Source: PCI DSS v4.0.1, 8.3.11. 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
1
held by a system
2
at each review
moderate
to go live
Identity provider / directory
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 requiring a PIN or biometric to unlock tokens or smart cards · Identity provider / directory

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

  • Token and smart card issuance register mapping each device or certificate to one user · Endpoint management (MDM / EDR)
  • Certificate authority records showing per-user certificate issuance · Key management / PKI

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

  • Procedure for issuing, replacing and revoking tokens · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

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

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.

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8.3.10.1 Service provider customer passwords 90 days or dynamic · 8.4.1 MFA for non-console administrative CDE access