The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) 4.0, issued a comprehensive set of requirements, to safeguard online payment systems against breaches and theft of cardholder data.
Requirement 6.4.3 is one of the critical components for businesses that take online payment and focuses on the management and integrity of scripts on webpages that take payment card (i.e., credit card) payments.
To help you navigate this requirement and learn how security teams, QSA’s, and developers use Feroot’s security tools to easily not only comply with Requirement 6.4.3.
Understanding Requirement 6.4.3
Requirement 6.4.3 gives clear mandate for managing scripts loaded and executed in the consumer’s browser during payment transactions. The three main directives are:
- Authorization of Scripts: Each script must be verified as authorized before execution.
- Assurance of Script Integrity: The integrity of each script must be assured to prevent tampering.
- Management of Script Inventory and Justification: An inventory of all scripts must be maintained, with justifications for each script’s necessity for the operation of the payment page.
These requirements apply to all scripts, including those loaded from the entity’s environment and third-party sources. The goal is to prevent unauthorized code from compromising the payment page, by ensuring that all scripts are necessary for the operation of the payment page.
Definition:
“Necessary” for this requirement means that the entity’s review of each script justifies and confirms why it is needed for the functionality of the payment page to accept a payment transaction.
How Feroot Helps to Comply at Ease:
1. Feroot Inspector: A Vital Tool for Script Management
Feroot Inspector gives you an automated way to maintain an accurate inventory of all scripts and an easy way to assess which scripts are authorized and which ones are not.
Use Access Insight Report and Page Details Scripts report to:
- Confirm the authorization of each script, ensuring that only approved scripts are loaded and executed.
- Maintain an up-to-date inventory of scripts.
- Enables you and your QSA to manage justifications for their necessity, thereby streamlining script management and compliance efforts.
2. Feroot Threat Intelligence: Ensuring Script Integrity
To assure the integrity of scripts, Feroot Threat Intelligence evaluates scripts for vulnerabilities, malware, and malicious hosts. This proactive assessment helps in identifying and mitigating potential threats before they can compromise the payment page.
3. Feroot DomainGuard: Activate and Manage Content Security Policy (CSP)
Feroot DomainGuard enhances your security posture by helping you quickly implement and maintain CSP. It restricts the locations from which scripts can be loaded, thereby preventing the substitution of unauthorized content on the payment page. This measure is used for maintaining the integrity of the payment transaction process. In a nutshell: Feroot DomainGuard is a hyper-scalable CSP solution for both mid-size and global enterprises.
4. Feroot PageGuard: Security Policy and Tag Controls
Feroot PageGuard further integrity and protection of payment page security by enabling you to set and enforce policies and controls to ensure only necessary scripts are loaded and access only permitted information. This minimizes the attack surface by eliminating backdoors and unpermitted data collection that can be exploited by attackers.
The Importance of Compliance
The functionality of scripts (i.e., what scripts are actually accessing) on payment pages can be altered without your knowledge, posing significant risks. Both, unauthorized scripts and authorized scripts can facilitate the exfiltration of cardholder data directly from the consumer’s browser. By ensuring that only necessary and authorized scripts are loaded and only approved script’s actions are permitted , you can significantly reduce the likelihood of such breaches.
Feroot’s tools not only assist in achieving compliance with PCI DSS 4.0 Requirement 6.4.3 but also enhance the overall security posture of payment pages. Through authorization, integrity assurance, and effective management of scripts, companies can safeguard against unauthorized behavior, such as data e-skimming (aka Magecart) and other forms of cyberattacks.
In conclusion, Feroot provides an essential toolkit for businesses seeking to comply with PCI DSS 4.0, specifically Requirement 6.4.3. By leveraging Feroot Inspector, Threat Intelligence, DomainGuard, and PageGuard, companies can ensure the authorization, integrity, and necessary management of scripts on payment pages. This comprehensive approach not only meets the compliance requirements but also significantly enhances safeguards of payment transactions.
Next reading: User Guide – How to Use Feroot to Comply with PCI DSS 4.0 Requirement 6.4.3 on Your Payment Pages
