Azure security baseline for Azure Spring Apps
This security baseline applies guidance from the Microsoft cloud security benchmark version 1.0 to Azure Spring Apps. The Microsoft cloud security benchmark provides recommendations on how you can secure your cloud solutions on Azure. The content is grouped by the security controls defined by the Microsoft cloud security benchmark and the related guidance applicable to Azure Spring Apps.
You can monitor this security baseline and its recommendations using Microsoft Defender for Cloud. Azure Policy definitions will be listed in the Regulatory Compliance section of the Microsoft Defender for Cloud portal page.
When a feature has relevant Azure Policy Definitions, they are listed in this baseline to help you measure compliance with the Microsoft cloud security benchmark controls and recommendations. Some recommendations may require a paid Microsoft Defender plan to enable certain security scenarios.
Note
Features not applicable to Azure Spring Apps have been excluded. To see how Azure Spring Apps completely maps to the Microsoft cloud security benchmark, see the full Azure Spring Apps security baseline mapping file.
Security profile
The security profile summarizes high-impact behaviors of Azure Spring Apps, which may result in increased security considerations.
| Service Behavior Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| Product Category | Containers, Web |
| Customer can access HOST / OS | No Access |
| Service can be deployed into customer's virtual network | True |
| Stores customer content at rest | True |
Network security
For more information, see the Microsoft cloud security benchmark: Network security.
NS-1: Establish network segmentation boundaries
Features
Virtual Network Integration
Description: Service supports deployment into customer's private Virtual Network (VNet). Learn more.
| Supported | Enabled By Default | Configuration Responsibility |
|---|---|---|
| True | False | Customer |
Configuration Guidance: Deploy Azure Spring Apps into your own virtual network during service instance provisioning. Then apps and service runtime in Azure Spring Apps will be isolated from the public internet.
Reference: Deploy Azure Spring Apps in a virtual network
Network Security Group Support
Description: Service network traffic respects Network Security Groups rule assignment on its subnets. Learn more.
| Supported | Enabled By Default | Configuration Responsibility |
|---|---|---|
| True | False | Customer |
Configuration Guidance: Use network security groups (NSG) to restrict or monitor traffic by port, protocol, source IP address, or destination IP address. Create NSG rules to restrict your service's open ports (such as preventing management ports from being accessed from untrusted networks).
Please be aware that a number of ports and addresses must be accessible for maintenance tasks. Please see the reference.
Reference: Azure Spring Apps network requirements
NS-2: Secure cloud services with network controls
Features
Azure Private Link
Description: Service native IP filtering capability for filtering network traffic (not to be confused with NSG or Azure Firewall). Learn more.
| Supported | Enabled By Default | Configuration Responsibility |
|---|---|---|
| False | Not Applicable | Not Applicable |
Configuration Guidance: This feature is not supported to secure this service.
Disable Public Network Access
Description: Service supports disabling public network access either through using service-level IP ACL filtering rule (not NSG or Azure Firewall) or using a 'Disable Public Network Access' toggle switch. Learn more.
| Supported | Enabled By Default | Configuration Responsibility |
|---|---|---|
| False | Not Applicable | Not Applicable |
Configuration Guidance: This feature is not supported to secure this service.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud monitoring
Azure Policy built-in definitions - Microsoft.AppPlatform:
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Azure Spring Cloud should use network injection | Azure Spring Cloud instances should use virtual network injection for the following purposes: 1. Isolate Azure Spring Cloud from Internet. 2. Enable Azure Spring Cloud to interact with systems in either on premises data centers or Azure service in other virtual networks. 3. Empower customers to control inbound and outbound network communications for Azure Spring Cloud. | Audit, Disabled, Deny | 1.2.0 |
Identity management
For more information, see the Microsoft cloud security benchmark: Identity management.
IM-1: Use centralized identity and authentication system
Features
Azure AD Authentication Required for Data Plane Access
Description: Service supports using Azure AD authentication for data plane access. Learn more.
| Supported | Enabled By Default | Configuration Responsibility |
|---|---|---|
| True | False | Customer |
Configuration Guidance: Use Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) as the default authentication method to control your data plane access.
Reference: Access Config Server and Service Registry
IM-3: Manage application identities securely and automatically
Features
Managed Identities
Description: Data plane actions support authentication using managed identities. Learn more.
| Supported | Enabled By Default | Configuration Responsibility |
|---|---|---|
| True | False | Customer |
Configuration Guidance: Use Azure managed identities instead of service principals when possible, which can authenticate to Azure services and resources that support Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) authentication. Managed identity credentials are fully managed, rotated, and protected by the platform, avoiding hard-coded credentials in source code or configuration files.
Reference: Use managed identities for applications in Azure Spring Cloud
Service Principals
Description: Data plane supports authentication using service principals. Learn more.
| Supported | Enabled By Default | Configuration Responsibility |
|---|---|---|
| True | False | Customer |
Configuration Guidance: There is no current Microsoft guidance for this feature configuration. Please review and determine if your organization wants to configure this security feature.
Reference: Access Config Server and Service Registry
IM-8: Restrict the exposure of credential and secrets
Features
Service Credential and Secrets Support Integration and Storage in Azure Key Vault
Description: Data plane supports native use of Azure Key Vault for credential and secrets store. Learn more.
| Supported | Enabled By Default | Configuration Responsibility |
|---|---|---|
| False | Not Applicable | Not Applicable |
Feature notes: There are two parts in Azure Spring Cloud's data plane - customer apps and managed components. For customer apps, they can use Managed Identity to access Key Vault. For managed components, Key Vault integration is not supported yet.
Configuration Guidance: This feature is not supported to secure this service.
Privileged access
For more information, see the Microsoft cloud security benchmark: Privileged access.
PA-1: Separate and limit highly privileged/administrative users
Features
Local Admin Accounts
Description: Service has the concept of a local administrative account. Learn more.
| Supported | Enabled By Default | Configuration Responsibility |
|---|---|---|
| False | Not Applicable | Not Applicable |
Configuration Guidance: This feature is not supported to secure this service.
PA-7: Follow just enough administration (least privilege) principle
Features
Azure RBAC for Data Plane
Description: Azure Role-Based Access Control (Azure RBAC) can be used to managed access to service's data plane actions. Learn more.
| Supported | Enabled By Default | Configuration Responsibility |
|---|---|---|
| True | False | Customer |
Configuration Guidance: Use Azure role-based access control (Azure RBAC) to manage access to built-in Spring Cloud Config Server and Spring Cloud Service Registry in Azure Spring Apps. Built-in role definition and instructions are explained in below document.
Reference: Access Config Server and Service Registry
PA-8: Determine access process for cloud provider support
Features
Customer Lockbox
Description: Customer Lockbox can be used for Microsoft support access. Learn more.
| Supported | Enabled By Default | Configuration Responsibility |
|---|---|---|
| True | False | Customer |
Configuration Guidance: In support scenarios where Microsoft needs to access your data, use Customer Lockbox to review, then approve or reject each of Microsoft's data access requests.
Reference: Security controls for Azure Spring Cloud Service
Data protection
For more information, see the Microsoft cloud security benchmark: Data protection.
DP-2: Monitor anomalies and threats targeting sensitive data
Features
Data Leakage/Loss Prevention
Description: Service supports DLP solution to monitor sensitive data movement (in customer's content). Learn more.
| Supported | Enabled By Default | Configuration Responsibility |
|---|---|---|
| False | Not Applicable | Not Applicable |
Configuration Guidance: This feature is not supported to secure this service.
DP-3: Encrypt sensitive data in transit
Features
Data in Transit Encryption
Description: Service supports data in-transit encryption for data plane. Learn more.
| Supported | Enabled By Default | Configuration Responsibility |
|---|---|---|
| True | True | Microsoft |
Configuration Guidance: No additional configurations are required as this is enabled on a default deployment.
Reference: Security controls for Azure Spring Cloud Service
DP-4: Enable data at rest encryption by default
Features
Data at Rest Encryption Using Platform Keys
Description: Data at-rest encryption using platform keys is supported, any customer content at rest is encrypted with these Microsoft managed keys. Learn more.
| Supported | Enabled By Default | Configuration Responsibility |
|---|---|---|
| True | True | Microsoft |
Configuration Guidance: No additional configurations are required as this is enabled on a default deployment.
Reference: Security controls for Azure Spring Cloud Service
DP-5: Use customer-managed key option in data at rest encryption when required
Features
Data at Rest Encryption Using CMK
Description: Data at-rest encryption using customer-managed keys is supported for customer content stored by the service. Learn more.
| Supported | Enabled By Default | Configuration Responsibility |
|---|---|---|
| False | Not Applicable | Not Applicable |
Configuration Guidance: This feature is not supported to secure this service.
DP-6: Use a secure key management process
Features
Key Management in Azure Key Vault
Description: The service supports Azure Key Vault integration for any customer keys, secrets, or certificates. Learn more.
| Supported | Enabled By Default | Configuration Responsibility |
|---|---|---|
| False | Not Applicable | Not Applicable |
Configuration Guidance: This feature is not supported to secure this service.
DP-7: Use a secure certificate management process
Features
Certificate Management in Azure Key Vault
Description: The service supports Azure Key Vault integration for any customer certificates. Learn more.
| Supported | Enabled By Default | Configuration Responsibility |
|---|---|---|
| True | False | Customer |
Configuration Guidance: When enabling custom domain for apps in Azure Spring Apps, customer can store certificates in Azure Key Vault and import to Azure Spring Apps to enforce Transport Layer Security (TLS) against incoming traffic. Please see the reference for detailed instructions.
Reference: Tutorial: Map an existing custom domain to Azure Spring Cloud
Asset management
For more information, see the Microsoft cloud security benchmark: Asset management.
AM-2: Use only approved services
Features
Azure Policy Support
Description: Service configurations can be monitored and enforced via Azure Policy. Learn more.
| Supported | Enabled By Default | Configuration Responsibility |
|---|---|---|
| False | Not Applicable | Not Applicable |
Configuration Guidance: This feature is not supported to secure this service.
Logging and threat detection
For more information, see the Microsoft cloud security benchmark: Logging and threat detection.
LT-1: Enable threat detection capabilities
Features
Microsoft Defender for Service / Product Offering
Description: Service has an offering-specific Microsoft Defender solution to monitor and alert on security issues. Learn more.
| Supported | Enabled By Default | Configuration Responsibility |
|---|---|---|
| False | Not Applicable | Not Applicable |
Configuration Guidance: This feature is not supported to secure this service.
LT-4: Enable logging for security investigation
Features
Azure Resource Logs
Description: Service produces resource logs that can provide enhanced service-specific metrics and logging. The customer can configure these resource logs and send them to their own data sink like a storage account or log analytics workspace. Learn more.
| Supported | Enabled By Default | Configuration Responsibility |
|---|---|---|
| True | False | Customer |
Configuration Guidance: Enable different types of resource logs in Azure Spring Apps, including customer app console logs, managed component logs, ingress logs and build task logs.
Please see the reference for details.
Reference: Analyze logs and metrics with diagnostics settings
Backup and recovery
For more information, see the Microsoft cloud security benchmark: Backup and recovery.
BR-1: Ensure regular automated backups
Features
Azure Backup
Description: The service can be backed up by the Azure Backup service. Learn more.
| Supported | Enabled By Default | Configuration Responsibility |
|---|---|---|
| False | Not Applicable | Not Applicable |
Configuration Guidance: This feature is not supported to secure this service.
Service Native Backup Capability
Description: Service supports its own native backup capability (if not using Azure Backup). Learn more.
| Supported | Enabled By Default | Configuration Responsibility |
|---|---|---|
| False | Not Applicable | Not Applicable |
Configuration Guidance: This feature is not supported to secure this service.
Next steps
- See the Microsoft cloud security benchmark overview
- Learn more about Azure security baselines