PCI DSS Compliance Report
This article explains how to generate a PCI DSS Compliance Report in Acunetix 360.
TIP: For more information about other reports available in Acunetix 360, refer to Overview of Reports, Report Templates, and Built-In Reports. |
What is a PCI DSS Compliance Report?
A PCI Compliance Report helps your organization meet the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).
- Major card schemes established the PCI DSS set of security standards in 2004 and they're updated regularly. If your organization relies on payment by credit and/or debit cards, you are strictly expected to abide by these rules. With Acunetix 360's PCI DSS Compliance Report, you can easily view which vulnerabilities and issues infringe on the standard.
- As the PCI DSS Report includes all technical details, it mainly addresses the needs of developers and IT personnel. The report primarily presents a summary of the overall security posture.
NOTE: There can be other vulnerabilities and security issues found in your web applications but not listed in the PCI DSS Compliance Report. |
Generating a PCI DSS Compliance Report
This section provides instructions for how to generate a PCI DSS Compliance Report for a completed PCI DSS scan in Acunetix 360. Generating the report results in exporting either an HTML or PDF file.
IMPORTANT: In order to be able to generate an approved PCI DSS Report in Acunetix 360, you must first run a PCI DSS scan. A normal scan in Acunetix 360 presents only an unofficial PCI DSS Report. For instructions on how to run a PCI DSS scan, refer to PCI DSS Scanning in Acunetix 360. |
How to Generate a PCI DSS Compliance Report in Acunetix 360
- Log in to Acunetix 360.
- Select Scans > Recent Scans from the main menu.
- Click Report to the right of the relevant scan.
- Select Export in the top right-hand corner.
- Use the Report drop-down to select PCI DSS v3.2 Compliance or PCI DSS 4.0 Compliance according to your report preference.
- Use the Format drop-down to select HTML or PDF according to your report format preference.
- Configure your report by selecting or deselecting the following options:
- Exclude Addressed Issues: Excludes those issues on which you've already taken action. (All Information level findings are marked as Accepted Risk automatically by default. To change this behavior, refer to Do not mark Information issues as accepted risks in General Settings).
- Exclude History of Issues: Excludes the issue history from the report. If unselected, only the last 10 history items appear in the report. For further information, refer to Viewing Issues in Acunetix 360.
- Export Confirmed: Includes only confirmed vulnerabilities in the report.
- Export Unconfirmed: Includes only unconfirmed vulnerabilities in the report.
- Click Export.
Your report automatically starts downloading and can be viewed from your default download location.
Understanding the PCI DSS Compliance Report
There are four sections in the PCI DSS Compliance Report. The content of each section is explained below.
Scan Metadata
This heading section provides basic details about the scan.
Vulnerabilities
This section provides a numerical and graphical overview of
- The number of issues detected at various Vulnerability Severity Levels
- The total number of detected vulnerabilities
- The total number of confirmed vulnerabilities that Acunetix 360 verified by taking extra steps such as extracting some data from the target
Vulnerability Summary
This section provides a summary of information about each discovered vulnerability and categorizes them based on severity. If you click on an identified vulnerability, you jump to the detailed information about the vulnerability further down in the report.
The table below explains each column in the vulnerability summary section.
Column | Description |
CONFIRM | This shows whether Acunetix 360 has verified the vulnerability. |
VULNERABILITY | This displays the name of the issue and provides a link to the full information about the vulnerability. |
METHOD | This is the HTTP method of the request in which Acunetix 360 sent the payload. It demonstrates what Acunetix 360 deployed in order to identify the issue. |
URL | This is a reference to the URL that contains the issue. |
SEVERITY | This is the vulnerability severity level of the issue. |
Vulnerability Details
This section describes all identified issues and vulnerabilities, along with their impact and proof of exploit. It also explains what actions to take and a remedy for each one, including external references for more information.
The table below explains each of the headings in the vulnerability details section.
Headings | Description |
Name | This is the name of the identified issue |
Tag | This is the label to group, organize, and filter issues in the target web application. |
Proof of Exploit | This is a piece of evidence supplied to prove that the vulnerability exists, showing information that is extracted from the target using the vulnerability. For more information, refer to What is Acunetix 360?. |
Vulnerability Details | This displays further details about the vulnerability. |
Certainty value | This indicates how sure Acunetix 360 is about the existence of the identified issue. |
Impact | This shows the effect of an issue or vulnerability on the Target URL. |
Required Skills for Successful Exploitation | This gives details on how malicious hackers could exploit this issue. |
Actions to Take | These are the immediate steps you can take to decrease the impact or prevent exploitation. |
Remedy | This offers further steps to resolve the identified issue. |
External references | This provides links to other websites where you can find more information. |
Classification | PCI DSS 4.0: This provides further information to help you comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Saving Standard (PCI DSS) requirements. |
Proof of Concept Notes | These notes demonstrate, in principle, how a system may be compromised. |
Remedy References | This provides further information on the solution of identified issues. |
Request | This is the whole HTTP request that Acunetix 360 sent to detect the issue. |
HTTP Response | This is the reply from the system against the payload. |
Show/Hide Scan Details
The last section provides information on the profile and policy settings that Acunetix 360 used to adjust its scan to achieve better scan coverage. For example, it lists all enabled security checks. This information gives developers more details on how the scan was run. For more information, refer to Security Checks.
