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Azure security baseline for Azure Monitor

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This security baseline applies guidance from the Microsoft cloud security benchmark version 1.0 to Azure Monitor. 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 Monitor.

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 Monitor have been excluded. To see how Azure Monitor completely maps to the Microsoft cloud security benchmark, see the full Azure Monitor security baseline mapping file.

Security profile

The security profile summarizes high-impact behaviors of Azure Monitor, which may result in increased security considerations.

Service Behavior Attribute Value
Product Category DevOps, Security
Customer can access HOST / OS No Access
Service can be deployed into customer's virtual network False
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 the service into a virtual network. Assign private IPs to the resource (where applicable) unless there is a strong reason to assign public IPs directly to the resource.

Reference: Use Azure Private Link to connect networks to Azure Monitor

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). Be aware that by default, NSGs deny all inbound traffic but allow traffic from virtual network and Azure Load Balancers.

Reference: IP addresses used by Azure Monitor

NS-2: Secure cloud services with network controls

Features

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: With Azure Private Link, you can securely link Azure platform as a service (PaaS) resources to your virtual network by using private endpoints. Azure Monitor is a constellation of different interconnected services that work together to monitor your workloads. An Azure Monitor Private Link connects a private endpoint to a set of Azure Monitor resources, defining the boundaries of your monitoring network. That set is called an Azure Monitor Private Link Scope (AMPLS).

Reference: Use Azure Private Link to connect networks to Azure Monitor

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
True False Customer

Configuration Guidance: Disable public network access either using the service-level IP ACL filtering rule or a toggling switch for public network access. See additional information here: Use Azure Monitor Private Link Scope (AMPLS)

Reference: Use Azure Private Link to connect networks to Azure Monitor

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 True Microsoft

Feature notes: The Azure Monitor Agent uses MSI\AAD by default and is documented here: Azure Log Analytics Agent Configuration

Application Insights needs to be configured to enforce AAD and is documented here Application Insights AAD Authentication

Configuration Guidance: No additional configurations are required as this is enabled on a default deployment.

Reference: Azure AD authentication for Application Insights

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
False Not Applicable Not Applicable

Configuration Guidance: This feature is not supported to secure this service.

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

Feature notes: Managed identity must be enabled on Azure virtual machines prior to installing Azure Monitor Agent. Azure Monitor Agent Prerequisites

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: Azure AD authentication for Application Insights

Service Principals

Description: Data plane supports authentication using service principals. Learn more.

Supported Enabled By Default Configuration Responsibility
True False Customer

Feature notes: This is applicable only to Secure WebHooks.

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: Create and manage action groups in the Azure portal

IM-7: Restrict resource access based on conditions

Features

Conditional Access for Data Plane

Description: Data plane access can be controlled using Azure AD Conditional Access Policies. Learn more.

Supported Enabled By Default Configuration Responsibility
True False Customer

Configuration Guidance: Define the applicable conditions and criteria for Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) conditional access in the workload. Consider common use cases such as blocking or granting access from specific locations, blocking risky sign-in behavior, or requiring organization-managed devices for specific applications.

Reference: Azure Monitor Log Analytics API Overview

Privileged access

For more information, see the Microsoft cloud security benchmark: Privileged access.

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 True Microsoft

Configuration Guidance: No additional configurations are required as this is enabled on a default deployment.

Reference: Roles, permissions, and security in Azure Monitor

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

Feature notes: Only available when Azure Monitor Log Analytics is configured with a dedicated cluster.

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. This only applies to Log data in dedicated clusters.

Reference: Customer Lockbox (preview)

Data protection

For more information, see the Microsoft cloud security benchmark: Data protection.

DP-1: Discover, classify, and label sensitive data

Features

Sensitive Data Discovery and Classification

Description: Tools (such as Azure Purview or Azure Information Protection) can be used for data discovery and classification in 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-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 False Customer

Feature notes: All configured by default, except Data ingestion.
For Log Analytics

For Application Insights

Configuration Guidance: Enable secure transfer in services where there is a native data in transit encryption feature built in. Enforce HTTPS on any web applications and services and ensure TLS v1.2 or later is used. Legacy versions such as SSL 3.0, TLS v1.0 should be disabled. For remote management of Virtual Machines, use SSH (for Linux) or RDP/TLS (for Windows) instead of an unencrypted protocol.

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.

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

Feature notes: Azure Monitor data is data about the health of services and is not protected by Customer Lockbox by default. Only Logs can be protected by Lockbox, and only for dedicated clusters.

Configuration Guidance: Azure Monitor data is intended for service health data only, and only Log Data stored in dedicated clusters allows the use of Customer Managed Keys for Data at Rest Encryption. 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.

Reference: Azure Monitor customer-managed key

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
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 secure configuration across Azure resources.

Reference: Create diagnostic settings at scale using Azure Policy

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 True Microsoft

Configuration Guidance: No additional configurations are required as this is enabled on a default deployment.

Reference: Diagnostic settings in Azure Monitor

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