What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on 9.3.2 Visitor access procedures for the CDE?

Visitor management procedure covering pre-authorization, escort, badging and expiry; Visitor pre-registration or host approval records; Sample visitor badges showing distinct design and expiry marking; Badging system configuration showing visitor badges expire and carry no door permissions; Observation notes of escorted visitors within the CDE.

What is the most common gap auditors find on 9.3.2?

Visitor badges look similar to employee badges

PCI DSS v4.0.1 · Req 9: Restrict Physical Access

`9.3.2` Visitor access procedures for the CDE

Procedures must be in operation for approving and administering visitor access to the CDE, including that: visitors receive authorization before they enter; visitors are escorted throughout their time in the CDE; visitors are plainly identified and issued a badge or other identification that has an expiry; and the visitor badge or identification visibly sets visitors apart from personnel. Applicability: all entities. Customized approach objective: the rules governing visitors entering the CDE are set and enforced, and visitors cannot go beyond the physical access they were authorized for while inside the CDE.

Source: PCI DSS v4.0.1, 9.3.2. 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.

artefacts

held by a system

at each review

hard

to go live

Physical access / facilities

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

Badging system configuration showing visitor badges expire and carry no door permissions · Physical access / facilities

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

Visitor pre-registration or host approval records · Physical access / facilities
Observation notes of escorted visitors within the CDE · Physical access / facilities

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Visitor management procedure covering pre-authorization, escort, badging and expiry · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Sample visitor badges showing distinct design and expiry marking · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

Mostly documents and reviews. Pull the 1 system-held artefact from your Physical access / facilities on a schedule; put the documents under version control with an owner and review date, and log each review as a dated record with a named reviewer.

Common gaps auditors find

Visitor badges look similar to employee badges
Visitor cards encoded with door access, allowing unescorted movement
Contractors signed in once and then left to work unescorted in the CDE
Paper visitor badges have no expiry date

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

9.3.1.1 Personnel access to sensitive areas controlled · 9.3.3 Visitor badges returned or deactivated