8.3.4 Lockout after 10 attempts for 30 minutes
Invalid authentication attempts must be limited by: locking the user ID after at most 10 attempts; and keeping the account locked for at least 30 minutes, or until the user has been positively identified. The guidance advises confirming identity before a locked account is reactivated, for example by an administrator, the help desk or a self-service reset mechanism. Applicability: not intended for point-of-sale terminal user accounts that are limited to a single card number per transaction. Objective under the customized approach: an authentication factor cannot be guessed through an online brute force attack.
Source: PCI DSS v4.0.1, 8.3.4. 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
- Directory account lockout policy showing threshold and lockout duration · Identity provider / directory
- Application and web portal lockout configuration · Identity provider / directory
periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review
- Unlock procedure requiring identity confirmation · Identity provider / directory
- Test records demonstrating lockout behaviour · Identity provider / directory
governing documentDocuments that govern the control
none for this control
First move
Common gaps auditors find
- Lockout threshold set on the directory but not on standalone applications
- Lockout duration configured for 5 minutes with automatic reset
- Network devices with local accounts have no lockout at all
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 sheet8.3.3 Identity verified before factor changes · 8.3.5 Initial and reset passwords unique and changed