PCI Compliance

Master PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) compliance for secure payment processing and handling of cardholder data.

When to Use This Skill

• Building payment processing systems

• Handling credit card information

• Implementing secure payment flows

• Conducting PCI compliance audits

• Reducing PCI compliance scope

• Implementing tokenization and encryption

• Preparing for PCI DSS assessments

PCI DSS Requirements (12 Core Requirements)

Build and Maintain Secure Network

• Install and maintain firewall configuration

• Don't use vendor-supplied defaults for passwords

Protect Cardholder Data

• Protect stored cardholder data

• Encrypt transmission of cardholder data across public networks

Maintain Vulnerability Management

• Protect systems against malware

• Develop and maintain secure systems and applications

Implement Strong Access Control

• Restrict access to cardholder data by business need-to-know

• Identify and authenticate access to system components

• Restrict physical access to cardholder data

Monitor and Test Networks

• Track and monitor all access to network resources and cardholder data

• Regularly test security systems and processes

Maintain Information Security Policy

• Maintain a policy that addresses information security

Compliance Levels

Level 1: > 6 million transactions/year (annual ROC required) Level 2: 1-6 million transactions/year (annual SAQ) Level 3: 20,000-1 million e-commerce transactions/year Level 4: < 20,000 e-commerce or < 1 million total transactions

Data Minimization (Never Store)

NEVER STORE THESE

PROHIBITED_DATA = { 'full_track_data': 'Magnetic stripe data', 'cvv': 'Card verification code/value', 'pin': 'PIN or PIN block' }

CAN STORE (if encrypted)

ALLOWED_DATA = { 'pan': 'Primary Account Number (card number)', 'cardholder_name': 'Name on card', 'expiration_date': 'Card expiration', 'service_code': 'Service code' }

class PaymentData: """Safe payment data handling."""

def __init__(self):
    self.prohibited_fields = ['cvv', 'cvv2', 'cvc', 'pin']

def sanitize_log(self, data):
    """Remove sensitive data from logs."""
    sanitized = data.copy()

    # Mask PAN
    if 'card_number' in sanitized:
        card = sanitized['card_number']
        sanitized['card_number'] = f"{card[:6]}{'*' * (len(card) - 10)}{card[-4:]}"

    # Remove prohibited data
    for field in self.prohibited_fields:
        sanitized.pop(field, None)

    return sanitized

def validate_no_prohibited_storage(self, data):
    """Ensure no prohibited data is being stored."""
    for field in self.prohibited_fields:
        if field in data:
            raise SecurityError(f"Attempting to store prohibited field: {field}")

Tokenization

Using Payment Processor Tokens

import stripe

class TokenizedPayment: """Handle payments using tokens (no card data on server)."""

@staticmethod
def create_payment_method_token(card_details):
    """Create token from card details (client-side only)."""
    # THIS SHOULD ONLY BE DONE CLIENT-SIDE WITH STRIPE.JS
    # NEVER send card details to your server

    """
    // Frontend JavaScript
    const stripe = Stripe('pk_...');

    const {token, error} = await stripe.createToken({
        card: {
            number: '4242424242424242',
            exp_month: 12,
            exp_year: 2024,
            cvc: '123'
        }
    });

    // Send token.id to server (NOT card details)
    """
    pass

@staticmethod
def charge_with_token(token_id, amount):
    """Charge using token (server-side)."""
    # Your server only sees the token, never the card number
    stripe.api_key = "sk_..."

    charge = stripe.Charge.create(
        amount=amount,
        currency="usd",
        source=token_id,  # Token instead of card details
        description="Payment"
    )

    return charge

@staticmethod
def store_payment_method(customer_id, payment_method_token):
    """Store payment method as token for future use."""
    stripe.Customer.modify(
        customer_id,
        source=payment_method_token
    )

    # Store only customer_id and payment_method_id in your database
    # NEVER store actual card details
    return {
        'customer_id': customer_id,
        'has_payment_method': True
        # DO NOT store: card number, CVV, etc.
    }

Custom Tokenization (Advanced)

import secrets from cryptography.fernet import Fernet

class TokenVault: """Secure token vault for card data (if you must store it)."""

def __init__(self, encryption_key):
    self.cipher = Fernet(encryption_key)
    self.vault = {}  # In production: use encrypted database

def tokenize(self, card_data):
    """Convert card data to token."""
    # Generate secure random token
    token = secrets.token_urlsafe(32)

    # Encrypt card data
    encrypted = self.cipher.encrypt(json.dumps(card_data).encode())

    # Store token -> encrypted data mapping
    self.vault[token] = encrypted

    return token

def detokenize(self, token):
    """Retrieve card data from token."""
    encrypted = self.vault.get(token)
    if not encrypted:
        raise ValueError("Token not found")

    # Decrypt
    decrypted = self.cipher.decrypt(encrypted)
    return json.loads(decrypted.decode())

def delete_token(self, token):
    """Remove token from vault."""
    self.vault.pop(token, None)

Encryption

Data at Rest

from cryptography.hazmat.primitives.ciphers.aead import AESGCM import os

class EncryptedStorage: """Encrypt data at rest using AES-256-GCM."""

def __init__(self, encryption_key):
    """Initialize with 256-bit key."""
    self.key = encryption_key  # Must be 32 bytes

def encrypt(self, plaintext):
    """Encrypt data."""
    # Generate random nonce
    nonce = os.urandom(12)

    # Encrypt
    aesgcm = AESGCM(self.key)
    ciphertext = aesgcm.encrypt(nonce, plaintext.encode(), None)

    # Return nonce + ciphertext
    return nonce + ciphertext

def decrypt(self, encrypted_data):
    """Decrypt data."""
    # Extract nonce and ciphertext
    nonce = encrypted_data[:12]
    ciphertext = encrypted_data[12:]

    # Decrypt
    aesgcm = AESGCM(self.key)
    plaintext = aesgcm.decrypt(nonce, ciphertext, None)

    return plaintext.decode()

Usage

storage = EncryptedStorage(os.urandom(32)) encrypted_pan = storage.encrypt("4242424242424242")

Store encrypted_pan in database

Data in Transit

Always use TLS 1.2 or higher

Flask/Django example

app.config['SESSION_COOKIE_SECURE'] = True # HTTPS only app.config['SESSION_COOKIE_HTTPONLY'] = True app.config['SESSION_COOKIE_SAMESITE'] = 'Strict'

Enforce HTTPS

from flask_talisman import Talisman Talisman(app, force_https=True)

Access Control

from functools import wraps from flask import session

def require_pci_access(f): """Decorator to restrict access to cardholder data.""" @wraps(f) def decorated_function(*args, **kwargs): user = session.get('user')

    # Check if user has PCI access role
    if not user or 'pci_access' not in user.get('roles', []):
        return {'error': 'Unauthorized access to cardholder data'}, 403

    # Log access attempt
    audit_log(
        user=user['id'],
        action='access_cardholder_data',
        resource=f.__name__
    )

    return f(*args, **kwargs)

return decorated_function

@app.route('/api/payment-methods') @require_pci_access def get_payment_methods(): """Retrieve payment methods (restricted access).""" # Only accessible to users with pci_access role pass

Audit Logging

import logging from datetime import datetime

class PCIAuditLogger: """PCI-compliant audit logging."""

def __init__(self):
    self.logger = logging.getLogger('pci_audit')
    # Configure to write to secure, append-only log

def log_access(self, user_id, resource, action, result):
    """Log access to cardholder data."""
    entry = {
        'timestamp': datetime.utcnow().isoformat(),
        'user_id': user_id,
        'resource': resource,
        'action': action,
        'result': result,
        'ip_address': request.remote_addr
    }

    self.logger.info(json.dumps(entry))

def log_authentication(self, user_id, success, method):
    """Log authentication attempt."""
    entry = {
        'timestamp': datetime.utcnow().isoformat(),
        'user_id': user_id,
        'event': 'authentication',
        'success': success,
        'method': method,
        'ip_address': request.remote_addr
    }

    self.logger.info(json.dumps(entry))

Usage

audit = PCIAuditLogger() audit.log_access(user_id=123, resource='payment_methods', action='read', result='success')

Security Best Practices

Input Validation

import re

def validate_card_number(card_number): """Validate card number format (Luhn algorithm).""" # Remove spaces and dashes card_number = re.sub(r'[\s-]', '', card_number)

# Check if all digits
if not card_number.isdigit():
    return False

# Luhn algorithm
def luhn_checksum(card_num):
    def digits_of(n):
        return [int(d) for d in str(n)]

    digits = digits_of(card_num)
    odd_digits = digits[-1::-2]
    even_digits = digits[-2::-2]
    checksum = sum(odd_digits)
    for d in even_digits:
        checksum += sum(digits_of(d * 2))
    return checksum % 10

return luhn_checksum(card_number) == 0

def sanitize_input(user_input): """Sanitize user input to prevent injection.""" # Remove special characters # Validate against expected format # Escape for database queries pass

PCI DSS SAQ (Self-Assessment Questionnaire)

SAQ A (Least Requirements)

• E-commerce using hosted payment page

• No card data on your systems

• ~20 questions

SAQ A-EP

• E-commerce with embedded payment form

• Uses JavaScript to handle card data

• ~180 questions

SAQ D (Most Requirements)

• Store, process, or transmit card data

• Full PCI DSS requirements

• ~300 questions

Compliance Checklist

PCI_COMPLIANCE_CHECKLIST = { 'network_security': [ 'Firewall configured and maintained', 'No vendor default passwords', 'Network segmentation implemented' ], 'data_protection': [ 'No storage of CVV, track data, or PIN', 'PAN encrypted when stored', 'PAN masked when displayed', 'Encryption keys properly managed' ], 'vulnerability_management': [ 'Anti-virus installed and updated', 'Secure development practices', 'Regular security patches', 'Vulnerability scanning performed' ], 'access_control': [ 'Access restricted by role', 'Unique IDs for all users', 'Multi-factor authentication', 'Physical security measures' ], 'monitoring': [ 'Audit logs enabled', 'Log review process', 'File integrity monitoring', 'Regular security testing' ], 'policy': [ 'Security policy documented', 'Risk assessment performed', 'Security awareness training', 'Incident response plan' ] }

Common Violations

• Storing CVV: Never store card verification codes

• Unencrypted PAN: Card numbers must be encrypted at rest

• Weak Encryption: Use AES-256 or equivalent

• No Access Controls: Restrict who can access cardholder data

• Missing Audit Logs: Must log all access to payment data

• Insecure Transmission: Always use TLS 1.2+

• Default Passwords: Change all default credentials

• No Security Testing: Regular penetration testing required

Reducing PCI Scope

• Use Hosted Payments: Stripe Checkout, PayPal, etc.

• Tokenization: Replace card data with tokens

• Network Segmentation: Isolate cardholder data environment

• Outsource: Use PCI-compliant payment processors

• No Storage: Never store full card details

By minimizing systems that touch card data, you reduce compliance burden significantly.