Overview of Azure security controls (v3)

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The Azure Security Benchmark (ASB) provides prescriptive best practices and recommendations to help improve the security of workloads, data, and services on Azure. This benchmark is part of a set of holistic security guidance that also includes:

The Azure Security Benchmark focuses on cloud-centric control areas. These controls are consistent with well-known security benchmarks, such as those described by the Center for Internet Security (CIS) Controls, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS).

What's new in ASB v3

Here's what's new in the Azure Security Benchmark v3:

  • Mappings to the industry frameworks PCI-DSS v3.2.1 and CIS Controls v8 are added in addition to the existing mappings to CIS Controls v7.1 and NIST SP800-53 Rev4.
  • Refining the control guidance to be more granular and actionable, e.g., security guidance is now divided into two separate parts, Security Principle and Azure Guidance. Security Principle is the "what", explaining the control at the technology-agnostic level; Azure Guidance is focused on the "how", elaborating on the relevant technical features and ways to implement the controls in Azure.
  • The addition of new control(s), e.g., DevOps Security as a new control family which also includes topics such as threat modeling and software supply chain security. Key and certificate management was introduced to recommend key and certificate management best practices in Azure.

Controls

The following controls are included in the Azure Security Benchmark v3:

ASB Control Domains Description
Network security (NS) Network Security covers controls to secure and protect Azure networks, including securing virtual networks, establishing private connections, preventing, and mitigating external attacks, and securing DNS.
Identity Management (IM) Identity Management covers controls to establish a secure identity and access controls using Azure Active Directory, including the use of single sign-on, strong authentications, managed identities (and service principals) for applications, conditional access, and account anomalies monitoring.
Privileged Access (PA) Privileged Access covers controls to protect privileged access to your Azure tenant and resources, including a range of controls to protect your administrative model, administrative accounts, and privileged access workstations against deliberate and inadvertent risk.
Data Protection (DP) Data Protection covers control of data protection at rest, in transit, and via authorized access mechanisms, including discover, classify, protect, and monitor sensitive data assets using access control, encryption, key and certificate management in Azure.
Asset Management (AM) Asset Asset Management covers controls to ensure security visibility and governance over Azure resources, including recommendations on permissions for security personnel, security access to asset inventory, and managing approvals for services and resources (inventory, track, and correct).
Logging and Threat Detection (LT) Logging and Threat Detection covers controls for detecting threats on Azure and enabling, collecting, and storing audit logs for Azure services, including enabling detection, investigation, and remediation processes with controls to generate high-quality alerts with native threat detection in Azure services; it also includes collecting logs with Azure Monitor, centralizing security analysis with Azure Sentinel, time synchronization, and log retention.
Incident Response (IR) Incident Response covers controls in incident response life cycle - preparation, detection and analysis, containment, and post-incident activities, including using Azure services such as Microsoft Defender for Cloud and Sentinel to automate the incident response process.
Posture and Vulnerability Management (PV) Posture and Vulnerability Management focuses on controls for assessing and improving Azure security posture, including vulnerability scanning, penetration testing and remediation, as well as security configuration tracking, reporting, and correction in Azure resources.
Endpoint Security (ES) Endpoint Security covers controls in endpoint detection and response, including use of endpoint detection and response (EDR) and anti-malware service for endpoints in Azure environments.
Backup and Recovery (BR) Backup and Recovery covers controls to ensure that data and configuration backups at the different service tiers are performed, validated, and protected.
DevOps Security (DS) DevOps Security covers the controls related to the security engineering and operations in the DevOps processes, including deployment of critical security checks (such as static application security testing, vulnerability management) prior to the deployment phase to ensure the security throughout the DevOps process; it also includes common topics such as threat modeling and software supply security.
Governance and Strategy (GS) Governance and Strategy provides guidance for ensuring a coherent security strategy and documented governance approach to guide and sustain security assurance, including establishing roles and responsibilities for the different cloud security functions, unified technical strategy, and supporting policies and standards.

Azure Security Benchmark Recommendations

Each recommendation includes the following information:

  • ASB ID: The Azure Security Benchmark ID that corresponds to the recommendation.
  • CIS Controls v8 ID(s): The CIS Controls v8 control(s) that correspond to the recommendation.
  • CIS Controls v7.1 ID(s): The CIS Controls v7.1 control(s) that correspond to the recommendation (not available in the web due to the formatting reason).
  • PCI-DSS v3.2.1 ID(s): The PCI-DSS v3.2.1 control(s) that correspond to the recommendation.
  • NIST SP 800-53 r4 ID(s): The NIST SP 800-53 r4 (Moderate and High) control(s) that correspond to this recommendation.
  • Security Principle: The recommendation focused on the "what", explaining the control at the technology-agnostic level.
  • Azure Guidance: The recommendation focused on the "how", explaining the Azure technical features and implementation basics.
  • Implementation and addition context: The implementation details and other relevant context which links to the Azure service offering documentation articles.
  • Customer Security Stakeholders: The security functions at the customer organization who may be accountable, responsible, or consulted for the respective control. It may be different from organization to organization depending on your company’s security organization structure, and the roles and responsibilities you set up related to Azure security.

Note

The control mappings between ASB and industry benchmarks (such as CIS, NIST, and PCI) only indicate that a specific Azure feature(s) can be used to fully or partially address a control requirement defined in these industry benchmarks. You should be aware that such implementation does not necessarily translate to the full compliance of the corresponding control(s) in these industry benchmarks.

We welcome your detailed feedback and active participation in the Azure Security Benchmark effort. If you would like to provide the Azure Security Benchmark team direct input, fill out the form at https://aka.ms/AzSecBenchmark

Download

You can download the Azure Security Benchmark in spreadsheet format.

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