Excel VBA to find and mask PAN data using regex for PCI DSS compliance

Question

Because most of the tools to discover credit card data in file systems does no more that list the suspicious files, tools are needed to mask any data in files that must be retained.

For excel files, where loads of credit card data may exist, I figure a macro that detects credit card data in the selected column/row using regex and replaces the middle 6-8 digits with Xs would be useful to many. Sadly, I'm not a guru in the regex macro space.

The below basically works with regex for 3 card brands only, and works if the PAN is in a cell with other data (e.g. comments fields)

The below code works, but could be improved. It would be good to improve the regex to make it work for more/all card brands and reduce false-positives by including a LUHN algorithm check.

Improvements/Problems remaining :

• Match all card brand's PANs with expanded regex
• Include Luhn algorithm checking (FIXED - good idea Ron)
• Improve the Do While logic (FIXED by stribizhev)
• Even better handling of cells that don't contain PANs (FIXED)

Here's what I have so far which seems to be working ok for AmEx, Visa and Mastercard:

Sub PCI_mask_card_numbers()
' Written to mask credit card numbers in excel files in accordance with PCI DSS.
' Highlight the credit card data in the Excel sheet, then run this macro.

Dim strPattern As String: strPattern = "([4][0-9]{3})([^a-zA-Z0-9_]?[0-9]{4})([^a-zA-Z0-9_]?[0-9]{4})([^a-zA-Z0-9_]?[0-9]{4})|" & _
"([5][0-9]{3})([^a-zA-Z0-9_]?[0-9]{4})([^a-zA-Z0-9_]?[0-9]{4})([^a-zA-Z0-9_]?[0-9]{4})|" & _
"([3][0-9]{2})([^a-zA-Z0-9_]?[0-9]{4})([^a-zA-Z0-9_]?[0-9]{4})([^a-zA-Z0-9_]?[0-9]{4})|" & _
"([3][0-9]{3})([^a-zA-Z0-9_]?[0-9]{3})([^a-zA-Z0-9_]?[0-9]{4})([^a-zA-Z0-9_]?[0-9]{4})|" & _
"([3][0-9]{3})([^a-zA-Z0-9_]?[0-9]{4})([^a-zA-Z0-9_]?[0-9]{3})([^a-zA-Z0-9_]?[0-9]{4})|" & _
"([3][0-9]{3})([^a-zA-Z0-9_]?[0-9]{4})([^a-zA-Z0-9_]?[0-9]{4})([^a-zA-Z0-9_]?[0-9]{3})|" & _
"([3][0-9]{3})([^a-zA-Z0-9_]?[0-9]{6})([^a-zA-Z0-9_]?[0-9]{5})"

' Regex patterns for PANs above are broken into multiple parts (between the brackets)
' As such the when regex matches the first part of a PAN will fit into one of rMatch(k).SubMatches(#) where # is 0, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20 or 24. 
' Visa start with a 4 and is 16 digits long. Typically the data entry pattern is four groups of four digits
' MasterCard start with a 5 and is 16 digits long. Typically the data entry pattern is four groups of four digits
' AmEx start with a 3 and is 15 digits long. Typically the pattern is 4-6-5, but data entry seems inconsistent

    Dim strReplace As String: strReplace = ""
'     Dim regEx As New RegExp  ' if this line is used instead of the next 2, the MS VBS RegEx v5.5 needs to be enabled manually. The next 2 lines seem to do it from within the script
    Dim regEx As Object
    Set regEx = CreateObject("VBScript.RegExp")
    Dim regEx As New RegExp
    Dim strInput As String
    Dim Myrange As Range
    Dim NewPAN As String
    Dim Aproblem As String
    Dim Masked As Long
    Dim Problems As Long
    Dim Total As Long

With regEx
    .Global = True
    .MultiLine = True
    .IgnoreCase = False
    .Pattern = strPattern ' sets the regex pattern to match the pattern above
End With

Set Myrange = Selection

    MsgBox ("The macro will now start masking credit card numbers identified in the selected cells only. If entire columns are selected, each column will take 10-30 seconds to complete. Ditto for Rows.")

For Each cell In Myrange
    Total = Total + 1

    ' Check that the cell is a likely candidate for holding a PAN, not just a long number
    If strPattern <> "" _
    And cell.HasFormula = False _
    And Left(cell.NumberFormat, 1) <> "$" _
    And Mid(cell.NumberFormat, 3, 1) <> "$" Then
'        cell.NumberFormat = "@"
        strInput = cell.Value

        ' Depending on the data matching the regex pattern, fix it
        If regEx.Test(strInput) Then
            Set rMatch = regEx.Execute(strInput)
            For k = 0 To rMatch.Count - 1
                toReplace = rMatch(k).Value

        ' If the regex matched, replace the PAN based on its regex segment
                Select Case 2
                    Case Is < Len(rMatch(k).SubMatches(0))
                        strReplace = rMatch(k).SubMatches(0) & "xxxxxxxx" & Trim(rMatch(k).SubMatches(3))
                        Masked = Masked + 1
                    Case Is < Len(rMatch(k).SubMatches(4))
                        strReplace = rMatch(k).SubMatches(4) & "xxxxxxxx" & Trim(rMatch(k).SubMatches(7))
                        Masked = Masked + 1
                    Case Is < Len(rMatch(k).SubMatches(8))
                        strReplace = rMatch(k).SubMatches(8) & "xxxxxxxx" & Trim(rMatch(k).SubMatches(11))
                        Masked = Masked + 1
                    Case Is < Len(rMatch(k).SubMatches(12))
                        strReplace = rMatch(k).SubMatches(12) & "xxxxxxxx" & Trim(rMatch(k).SubMatches(13))
                        Masked = Masked + 1
                    Case Is < Len(rMatch(k).SubMatches(16))
                        strReplace = rMatch(k).SubMatches(16) & "xxxxxxxx" & Trim(rMatch(k).SubMatches(19))
                        Masked = Masked + 1
                    Case Is < Len(rMatch(k).SubMatches(20))
                        strReplace = rMatch(k).SubMatches(20) & "xxxxxxxx" & Trim(rMatch(k).SubMatches(23))
                        Masked = Masked + 1
                    Case Is < Len(rMatch(k).SubMatches(24))
                        strReplace = rMatch(k).SubMatches(24) & "xxxxxxxx" & Trim(rMatch(k).SubMatches(26))
                        Masked = Masked + 1
                    Case Else
                        Aproblem = cell.Value
                        Problems = Problems + 1
                        ' MsgBox (Aproblem) ' only needed when curios
                End Select
                If cell.Value <> Aproblem Then
                    cell.Value = Replace(strInput, toReplace, strReplace)
                End If

            Next k
        Else
            ' Adds the cell value to a variable to allow the macro to move past the cell
            ' Once the macro is trusted not to loop forever, the message box can be removed
            ' MsgBox ("Problem. Regex fail? Bad data = " & Aproblem)
        End If
    End If
Next cell
' All done, tell the user
    MsgBox ("Cardholder data is now masked" & vbCr & vbCr & "Total cells highlighted (including blanks) = " & Total & vbCr & "Cells masked = " & Masked & vbCr & "Possible problem cells = " & Problems & vbCr & "All other cells were ignored")

End Sub

Answer 1

Back from vacation. Here's a simple VBA function that will test for the LUHN algorithm. The argument is a string of the digits; the result is boolean.

It generates a checksum digit and compares that digit with the one in the digit string you feed it.

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Option Explicit
Function Luhn(sNum As String) As Boolean
'modulus 10 algorithm for various numbers
Dim X As Long, I As Long, J As Long

For I = Len(sNum) - 1 To 1 Step -2
    X = X + DoubleSumDigits(Mid(sNum, I, 1))
    If I > 1 Then X = X + Mid(sNum, I - 1, 1)
Next I

If Right(sNum, 1) = (X * 9) Mod 10 Then
    Luhn = True
Else
    Luhn = False
End If
End Function

Function DoubleSumDigits(L As Long) As Long
    Dim X As Long
    X = L * 2
    If X > 9 Then X = Val(Left(X, 1)) + Val(Right(X, 1))
    DoubleSumDigits = X
End Function

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