This security baseline applies guidance from the Microsoft cloud security benchmark version 1.0 to Batch. 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 Batch.
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 Batch have been excluded. To see how Batch completely maps to the Microsoft cloud security benchmark, see the full Batch security baseline mapping file.
Security profile
The security profile summarizes high-impact behaviors of Batch, which may result in increased security considerations.
Service Behavior Attribute
Value
Product Category
Compute
Customer can access HOST / OS
Read Only
Service can be deployed into customer's virtual network
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 Batch pools within a virtual network. Consider provisioning the pool without public IP addresses to restrict access to nodes in the private network and to reduce the discoverability of the nodes from the internet.
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
True
False
Customer
Configuration Guidance: Deploy private endpoints for Azure Batch accounts. This restricts access to the Batch accounts to the virtual network where they reside or to any peered virtual network.
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
True
False
Customer
Configuration Guidance: Disable public network access to Batch accounts by setting the 'Public network access' setting to disabled.
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 instead of using Shared Keys.
Local Authentication Methods for Data Plane Access
Description: Local authentications methods supported for data plane access, such as a local username and password. Learn more.
Supported
Enabled By Default
Configuration Responsibility
True
False
Customer
Feature notes: Avoid the usage of local authentication methods or accounts, these should be disabled wherever possible. Instead use Azure AD to authenticate where possible.
Configuration Guidance: Restrict the use of local authentication methods for data plane access. Instead, use Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) as the default authentication method to control your data plane access.
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
Shared
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.
Description: Data plane supports authentication using service principals. Learn more.
Supported
Enabled By Default
Configuration Responsibility
True
False
Customer
Additional Guidance: To authenticate an application that runs unattended, you may use a service principal. After you've registered your application, make the appropriate configurations in the Azure Portal for the service principal, such as requesting a secret for the application and assigning Azure RBAC roles.
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 Azure resource access through built-in role assignments. Azure Batch supports Azure RBAC for managing access to these resource types: Accounts, Jobs, Tasks, and Pools.
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.
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
Feature notes: Some of the information specified in Batch APIs, such as account certificates, job and task metadata, and task command lines, are automatically encrypted when stored by the Batch service. By default, this data is encrypted using Azure Batch platform-managed keys unique to each Batch account.
You can also encrypt this data using customer-managed keys. Azure Key Vault is used to generate and store the key, with the key identifier registered with your Batch account.
Configuration Guidance: No additional configurations are required as this is enabled on a default deployment.
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
True
False
Customer
Configuration Guidance: If required for regulatory compliance, define the use case and service scope where encryption using customer-managed keys are needed. Enable and implement data at rest encryption using customer-managed key for those services.
Description: The service supports Azure Key Vault integration for any customer keys, secrets, or certificates. Learn more.
Supported
Enabled By Default
Configuration Responsibility
True
False
Shared
Configuration Guidance: Use Azure Key Vault to create and control the life cycle of your encryption keys, including key generation, distribution, and storage. Rotate and revoke your keys in Azure Key Vault and your service based on a defined schedule or when there is a key retirement or compromise. When there is a need to use customer-managed key (CMK) in the workload, service, or application level, ensure you follow the best practices for key management: Use a key hierarchy to generate a separate data encryption key (DEK) with your key encryption key (KEK) in your key vault. Ensure keys are registered with Azure Key Vault and referenced via key IDs from the service or application. If you need to bring your own key (BYOK) to the service (such as importing HSM-protected keys from your on-premises HSMs into Azure Key Vault), follow recommended guidelines to perform initial key generation and key transfer.
Note: Customer must opt-in to use customer-managed keys otherwise by default the service will use platform keys managed by Microsoft.
Description: The service supports Azure Key Vault integration for any customer certificates. Learn more.
Supported
Enabled By Default
Configuration Responsibility
True
False
Shared
Configuration Guidance: Use Azure Key Vault to create and control the certificate lifecycle, including creation, importing, rotation, revocation, storage, and purging of the certificate. Ensure the certificate generation follows defined standards without using any insecure properties, such as: insufficient key size, overly long validity period, insecure cryptography. Setup automatic rotation of the certificate in Azure Key Vault and the Azure service (if supported) based on a defined schedule or when there is a certificate expiration. If automatic rotation is not supported in the application, ensure they are still rotated using manual methods in Azure Key Vault and the application.
Description: Service configurations can be monitored and enforced via Azure Policy. Learn more.
Supported
Enabled By Default
Configuration Responsibility
True
False
Customer
Configuration Guidance: Use Microsoft Defender for Cloud to configure Azure Policy to audit and enforce configurations of your Azure resources. Use Azure Monitor to create alerts when there is a configuration deviation detected on the resources. Use Azure Policy [deny] and [deploy if not exists] effects to enforce a secure configuration across Azure resources.
For any scenarios where built-in policy definitions don't exist, you can use Azure Policy aliases in the "Microsoft.Batch" namespace to create custom policies.
AM-5: Use only approved applications in virtual machine
Features
Microsoft Defender for Cloud - Adaptive Application Controls
Description: Service can limit what customer applications run on the virtual machine using Adaptive Application Controls in Microsoft Defender for Cloud. Learn more.
Supported
Enabled By Default
Configuration Responsibility
False
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
Configuration Guidance: This feature is not supported to secure this service.
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 Azure resource logs for Azure Batch for the following log types: ServiceLog and AllMetrics.
PV-3: Define and establish secure configurations for compute resources
Features
Azure Automation State Configuration
Description: Azure Automation State Configuration can be used to maintain the security configuration of the operating system. Learn more.
Supported
Enabled By Default
Configuration Responsibility
False
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
Configuration Guidance: This feature is not supported to secure this service.
Azure Policy Guest Configuration Agent
Description: Azure Policy guest configuration agent can be installed or deployed as an extension to compute resources. Learn more.
Supported
Enabled By Default
Configuration Responsibility
False
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
Configuration Guidance: This feature is not supported to secure this service.
Custom VM Images
Description: Service supports using user-supplied VM images or pre-built images from the marketplace with certain baseline configurations pre-applied. Learn more.
Supported
Enabled By Default
Configuration Responsibility
True
False
Shared
Configuration Guidance: When possible, use a pre-configured hardened image from a trusted supplier such as Microsoft or build a desired secure configuration baseline into the VM image template.
Customers may also use custom operating system images for Azure Batch. When using the virtual machine configuration for your Azure Batch, ensure custom images are hardened to your organization's needs. For lifecycle management, the pools store the images in a shared image gallery. You can set up a secure image build process using Azure automation tools, such as Azure Image Builder.
Description: Service supports using user-supplied container images or pre-built images from the marketplace with certain baseline configurations pre-applied. Learn more.
Supported
Enabled By Default
Configuration Responsibility
True
False
Shared
Configuration Guidance: If using Batch pool to run tasks in Docker-compatible containers on the nodes, use pre-configured hardened container images from a trusted supplier such as Microsoft or build the desired secure configuration baseline into the container image template.
Description: Service can be scanned for vulnerability scan using Microsoft Defender for Cloud or other Microsoft Defender services embedded vulnerability assessment capability (including Microsoft Defender for server, container registry, App Service, SQL, and DNS). Learn more.
Supported
Enabled By Default
Configuration Responsibility
False
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
Configuration Guidance: This feature is not supported to secure this service.
PV-6: Rapidly and automatically remediate vulnerabilities
Features
Azure Automation Update Management
Description: Service can use Azure Automation Update Management to deploy patches and updates automatically. Learn more.
Supported
Enabled By Default
Configuration Responsibility
False
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
Configuration Guidance: This feature is not supported to secure this service.