Details of the CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark 1.3.0 (Azure Government) Regulatory Compliance built-in initiative
The following article details how the Azure Policy Regulatory Compliance built-in initiative definition maps to compliance domains and controls in CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark 1.3.0 (Azure Government). For more information about this compliance standard, see CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark 1.3.0. To understand Ownership, review the policy type and Shared responsibility in the cloud.
The following mappings are to the CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark 1.3.0 controls. Many of the controls are implemented with an Azure Policy initiative definition. To review the complete initiative definition, open Policy in the Azure portal and select the Definitions page. Then, find and select the CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark v1.3.0 Regulatory Compliance built-in initiative definition.
Important
Each control below is associated with one or more Azure Policy definitions. These policies may help you assess compliance with the control; however, there often is not a one-to-one or complete match between a control and one or more policies. As such, Compliant in Azure Policy refers only to the policy definitions themselves; this doesn't ensure you're fully compliant with all requirements of a control. In addition, the compliance standard includes controls that aren't addressed by any Azure Policy definitions at this time. Therefore, compliance in Azure Policy is only a partial view of your overall compliance status. The associations between compliance domains, controls, and Azure Policy definitions for this compliance standard may change over time. To view the change history, see the GitHub Commit History.
1 Identity and Access Management
Ensure that multi-factor authentication is enabled for all privileged users
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 1.1 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accounts with owner permissions on Azure resources should be MFA enabled | Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) should be enabled for all subscription accounts with owner permissions to prevent a breach of accounts or resources. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 1.0.0 |
| Accounts with write permissions on Azure resources should be MFA enabled | Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) should be enabled for all subscription accounts with write privileges to prevent a breach of accounts or resources. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 1.0.0 |
Ensure that multi-factor authentication is enabled for all non-privileged users
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 1.2 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accounts with read permissions on Azure resources should be MFA enabled | Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) should be enabled for all subscription accounts with read privileges to prevent a breach of accounts or resources. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 1.0.0 |
Ensure guest users are reviewed on a monthly basis
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 1.3 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guest accounts with owner permissions on Azure resources should be removed | External accounts with owner permissions should be removed from your subscription in order to prevent unmonitored access. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 1.0.0 |
| Guest accounts with read permissions on Azure resources should be removed | External accounts with read privileges should be removed from your subscription in order to prevent unmonitored access. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 1.0.0 |
| Guest accounts with write permissions on Azure resources should be removed | External accounts with write privileges should be removed from your subscription in order to prevent unmonitored access. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 1.0.0 |
2 Security Center
Ensure that Azure Defender is set to On for Servers
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 2.1 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Azure Defender for servers should be enabled | Azure Defender for servers provides real-time threat protection for server workloads and generates hardening recommendations as well as alerts about suspicious activities. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 1.0.3 |
Ensure 'Additional email addresses' is configured with a security contact email
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 2.13 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subscriptions should have a contact email address for security issues | To ensure the relevant people in your organization are notified when there is a potential security breach in one of your subscriptions, set a security contact to receive email notifications from Security Center. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 1.0.1 |
Ensure that 'Notify about alerts with the following severity' is set to 'High'
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 2.14 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Email notification for high severity alerts should be enabled | To ensure the relevant people in your organization are notified when there is a potential security breach in one of your subscriptions, enable email notifications for high severity alerts in Security Center. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 1.0.1 |
Ensure that Azure Defender is set to On for Azure SQL database servers
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 2.3 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Azure Defender for Azure SQL Database servers should be enabled | Azure Defender for SQL provides functionality for surfacing and mitigating potential database vulnerabilities, detecting anomalous activities that could indicate threats to SQL databases, and discovering and classifying sensitive data. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 1.0.2 |
Ensure that Azure Defender is set to On for Storage
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 2.5 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Defender for Storage (Classic) should be enabled | Microsoft Defender for Storage (Classic) provides detections of unusual and potentially harmful attempts to access or exploit storage accounts. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 1.0.4 |
Ensure that Azure Defender is set to On for Kubernetes
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 2.6 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Defender for Containers should be enabled | Microsoft Defender for Containers provides hardening, vulnerability assessment and run-time protections for your Azure, hybrid, and multi-cloud Kubernetes environments. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 1.0.0 |
Ensure that Azure Defender is set to On for Container Registries
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 2.7 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Defender for Containers should be enabled | Microsoft Defender for Containers provides hardening, vulnerability assessment and run-time protections for your Azure, hybrid, and multi-cloud Kubernetes environments. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 1.0.0 |
3 Storage Accounts
Ensure that 'Secure transfer required' is set to 'Enabled'
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 3.1 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Secure transfer to storage accounts should be enabled | Audit requirement of Secure transfer in your storage account. Secure transfer is an option that forces your storage account to accept requests only from secure connections (HTTPS). Use of HTTPS ensures authentication between the server and the service and protects data in transit from network layer attacks such as man-in-the-middle, eavesdropping, and session-hijacking | Audit, Deny, Disabled | 2.0.0 |
Ensure default network access rule for Storage Accounts is set to deny
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 3.6 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Storage accounts should restrict network access | Network access to storage accounts should be restricted. Configure network rules so only applications from allowed networks can access the storage account. To allow connections from specific internet or on-premises clients, access can be granted to traffic from specific Azure virtual networks or to public internet IP address ranges | Audit, Deny, Disabled | 1.1.1 |
| Storage accounts should restrict network access using virtual network rules | Protect your storage accounts from potential threats using virtual network rules as a preferred method instead of IP-based filtering. Disabling IP-based filtering prevents public IPs from accessing your storage accounts. | Audit, Deny, Disabled | 1.0.1 |
Ensure 'Trusted Microsoft Services' is enabled for Storage Account access
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 3.7 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Storage accounts should allow access from trusted Microsoft services | Some Microsoft services that interact with storage accounts operate from networks that can't be granted access through network rules. To help this type of service work as intended, allow the set of trusted Microsoft services to bypass the network rules. These services will then use strong authentication to access the storage account. | Audit, Deny, Disabled | 1.0.0 |
Ensure storage for critical data are encrypted with Customer Managed Key
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 3.9 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Storage accounts should use customer-managed key for encryption | Secure your blob and file storage account with greater flexibility using customer-managed keys. When you specify a customer-managed key, that key is used to protect and control access to the key that encrypts your data. Using customer-managed keys provides additional capabilities to control rotation of the key encryption key or cryptographically erase data. | Audit, Disabled | 1.0.3 |
4 Database Services
Ensure that 'Auditing' is set to 'On'
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 4.1.1 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auditing on SQL server should be enabled | Auditing on your SQL Server should be enabled to track database activities across all databases on the server and save them in an audit log. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 2.0.0 |
Ensure that 'Data encryption' is set to 'On' on a SQL Database
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 4.1.2 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transparent Data Encryption on SQL databases should be enabled | Transparent data encryption should be enabled to protect data-at-rest and meet compliance requirements | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 2.0.0 |
Ensure that 'Auditing' Retention is 'greater than 90 days'
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 4.1.3 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| SQL servers with auditing to storage account destination should be configured with 90 days retention or higher | For incident investigation purposes, we recommend setting the data retention for your SQL Server' auditing to storage account destination to at least 90 days. Confirm that you are meeting the necessary retention rules for the regions in which you are operating. This is sometimes required for compliance with regulatory standards. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 3.0.0 |
Ensure that Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) on a SQL server is set to 'Enabled'
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 4.2.1 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Azure Defender for SQL should be enabled for unprotected Azure SQL servers | Audit SQL servers without Advanced Data Security | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 2.0.1 |
| Azure Defender for SQL should be enabled for unprotected SQL Managed Instances | Audit each SQL Managed Instance without advanced data security. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 1.0.2 |
Ensure that Vulnerability Assessment (VA) is enabled on a SQL server by setting a Storage Account
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 4.2.2 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vulnerability assessment should be enabled on SQL Managed Instance | Audit each SQL Managed Instance which doesn't have recurring vulnerability assessment scans enabled. Vulnerability assessment can discover, track, and help you remediate potential database vulnerabilities. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 1.0.1 |
| Vulnerability assessment should be enabled on your SQL servers | Audit Azure SQL servers which do not have vulnerability assessment properly configured. Vulnerability assessment can discover, track, and help you remediate potential database vulnerabilities. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 3.0.0 |
Ensure 'Enforce SSL connection' is set to 'ENABLED' for PostgreSQL Database Server
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 4.3.1 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enforce SSL connection should be enabled for PostgreSQL database servers | Azure Database for PostgreSQL supports connecting your Azure Database for PostgreSQL server to client applications using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). Enforcing SSL connections between your database server and your client applications helps protect against 'man in the middle' attacks by encrypting the data stream between the server and your application. This configuration enforces that SSL is always enabled for accessing your database server. | Audit, Disabled | 1.0.1 |
Ensure 'Enforce SSL connection' is set to 'ENABLED' for MySQL Database Server
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 4.3.2 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enforce SSL connection should be enabled for MySQL database servers | Azure Database for MySQL supports connecting your Azure Database for MySQL server to client applications using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). Enforcing SSL connections between your database server and your client applications helps protect against 'man in the middle' attacks by encrypting the data stream between the server and your application. This configuration enforces that SSL is always enabled for accessing your database server. | Audit, Disabled | 1.0.1 |
Ensure server parameter 'log_checkpoints' is set to 'ON' for PostgreSQL Database Server
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 4.3.3 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Log checkpoints should be enabled for PostgreSQL database servers | This policy helps audit any PostgreSQL databases in your environment without log_checkpoints setting enabled. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 1.0.0 |
Ensure server parameter 'log_connections' is set to 'ON' for PostgreSQL Database Server
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 4.3.4 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Log connections should be enabled for PostgreSQL database servers | This policy helps audit any PostgreSQL databases in your environment without log_connections setting enabled. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 1.0.0 |
Ensure server parameter 'log_disconnections' is set to 'ON' for PostgreSQL Database Server
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 4.3.5 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Disconnections should be logged for PostgreSQL database servers. | This policy helps audit any PostgreSQL databases in your environment without log_disconnections enabled. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 1.0.0 |
Ensure server parameter 'connection_throttling' is set to 'ON' for PostgreSQL Database Server
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 4.3.6 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Connection throttling should be enabled for PostgreSQL database servers | This policy helps audit any PostgreSQL databases in your environment without Connection throttling enabled. This setting enables temporary connection throttling per IP for too many invalid password login failures. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 1.0.0 |
Ensure that Azure Active Directory Admin is configured
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 4.4 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| An Azure Active Directory administrator should be provisioned for SQL servers | Audit provisioning of an Azure Active Directory administrator for your SQL server to enable Azure AD authentication. Azure AD authentication enables simplified permission management and centralized identity management of database users and other Microsoft services | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 1.0.0 |
Ensure SQL server's TDE protector is encrypted with Customer-managed key
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 4.5 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| SQL managed instances should use customer-managed keys to encrypt data at rest | Implementing Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) with your own key provides you with increased transparency and control over the TDE Protector, increased security with an HSM-backed external service, and promotion of separation of duties. This recommendation applies to organizations with a related compliance requirement. | Audit, Deny, Disabled | 2.0.0 |
| SQL servers should use customer-managed keys to encrypt data at rest | Implementing Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) with your own key provides increased transparency and control over the TDE Protector, increased security with an HSM-backed external service, and promotion of separation of duties. This recommendation applies to organizations with a related compliance requirement. | Audit, Deny, Disabled | 2.0.1 |
5 Logging and Monitoring
Ensure the storage account containing the container with activity logs is encrypted with BYOK (Use Your Own Key)
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 5.1.4 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Storage account containing the container with activity logs must be encrypted with BYOK | This policy audits if the Storage account containing the container with activity logs is encrypted with BYOK. The policy works only if the storage account lies on the same subscription as activity logs by design. More information on Azure Storage encryption at rest can be found here https://aka.ms/azurestoragebyok. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 1.0.0 |
Ensure that logging for Azure KeyVault is 'Enabled'
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 5.1.5 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Resource logs in Key Vault should be enabled | Audit enabling of resource logs. This enables you to recreate activity trails to use for investigation purposes when a security incident occurs or when your network is compromised | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 5.0.0 |
Ensure that Activity Log Alert exists for Create Policy Assignment
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 5.2.1 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| An activity log alert should exist for specific Policy operations | This policy audits specific Policy operations with no activity log alerts configured. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 3.0.0 |
Ensure that Activity Log Alert exists for Delete Policy Assignment
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 5.2.2 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| An activity log alert should exist for specific Policy operations | This policy audits specific Policy operations with no activity log alerts configured. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 3.0.0 |
Ensure that Activity Log Alert exists for Create or Update Network Security Group
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 5.2.3 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| An activity log alert should exist for specific Administrative operations | This policy audits specific Administrative operations with no activity log alerts configured. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 1.0.0 |
Ensure that Activity Log Alert exists for Delete Network Security Group
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 5.2.4 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| An activity log alert should exist for specific Administrative operations | This policy audits specific Administrative operations with no activity log alerts configured. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 1.0.0 |
Ensure that Activity Log Alert exists for Create or Update Network Security Group Rule
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 5.2.5 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| An activity log alert should exist for specific Administrative operations | This policy audits specific Administrative operations with no activity log alerts configured. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 1.0.0 |
Ensure that activity log alert exists for the Delete Network Security Group Rule
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 5.2.6 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| An activity log alert should exist for specific Administrative operations | This policy audits specific Administrative operations with no activity log alerts configured. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 1.0.0 |
Ensure that Activity Log Alert exists for Create or Update Security Solution
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 5.2.7 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| An activity log alert should exist for specific Security operations | This policy audits specific Security operations with no activity log alerts configured. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 1.0.0 |
Ensure that Activity Log Alert exists for Delete Security Solution
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 5.2.8 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| An activity log alert should exist for specific Security operations | This policy audits specific Security operations with no activity log alerts configured. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 1.0.0 |
Ensure that Activity Log Alert exists for Create or Update or Delete SQL Server Firewall Rule
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 5.2.9 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| An activity log alert should exist for specific Administrative operations | This policy audits specific Administrative operations with no activity log alerts configured. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 1.0.0 |
Ensure that Diagnostic Logs are enabled for all services which support it.
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 5.3 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| App Service apps should have resource logs enabled | Audit enabling of resource logs on the app. This enables you to recreate activity trails for investigation purposes if a security incident occurs or your network is compromised. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 2.0.1 |
| Resource logs in Azure Data Lake Store should be enabled | Audit enabling of resource logs. This enables you to recreate activity trails to use for investigation purposes; when a security incident occurs or when your network is compromised | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 5.0.0 |
| Resource logs in Azure Stream Analytics should be enabled | Audit enabling of resource logs. This enables you to recreate activity trails to use for investigation purposes; when a security incident occurs or when your network is compromised | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 5.0.0 |
| Resource logs in Batch accounts should be enabled | Audit enabling of resource logs. This enables you to recreate activity trails to use for investigation purposes; when a security incident occurs or when your network is compromised | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 5.0.0 |
| Resource logs in Data Lake Analytics should be enabled | Audit enabling of resource logs. This enables you to recreate activity trails to use for investigation purposes; when a security incident occurs or when your network is compromised | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 5.0.0 |
| Resource logs in Event Hub should be enabled | Audit enabling of resource logs. This enables you to recreate activity trails to use for investigation purposes; when a security incident occurs or when your network is compromised | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 5.0.0 |
| Resource logs in Key Vault should be enabled | Audit enabling of resource logs. This enables you to recreate activity trails to use for investigation purposes when a security incident occurs or when your network is compromised | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 5.0.0 |
| Resource logs in Logic Apps should be enabled | Audit enabling of resource logs. This enables you to recreate activity trails to use for investigation purposes; when a security incident occurs or when your network is compromised | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 5.1.0 |
| Resource logs in Search services should be enabled | Audit enabling of resource logs. This enables you to recreate activity trails to use for investigation purposes; when a security incident occurs or when your network is compromised | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 5.0.0 |
| Resource logs in Service Bus should be enabled | Audit enabling of resource logs. This enables you to recreate activity trails to use for investigation purposes; when a security incident occurs or when your network is compromised | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 5.0.0 |
6 Networking
Ensure that Network Watcher is 'Enabled'
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 6.5 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Network Watcher should be enabled | Network Watcher is a regional service that enables you to monitor and diagnose conditions at a network scenario level in, to, and from Azure. Scenario level monitoring enables you to diagnose problems at an end to end network level view. It is required to have a network watcher resource group to be created in every region where a virtual network is present. An alert is enabled if a network watcher resource group is not available in a particular region. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 3.0.0 |
7 Virtual Machines
Ensure Virtual Machines are utilizing Managed Disks
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 7.1 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Audit VMs that do not use managed disks | This policy audits VMs that do not use managed disks | audit | 1.0.0 |
Ensure that only approved extensions are installed
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 7.4 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Only approved VM extensions should be installed | This policy governs the virtual machine extensions that are not approved. | Audit, Deny, Disabled | 1.0.0 |
8 Other Security Considerations
Ensure the key vault is recoverable
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 8.4 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Key vaults should have deletion protection enabled | Malicious deletion of a key vault can lead to permanent data loss. You can prevent permanent data loss by enabling purge protection and soft delete. Purge protection protects you from insider attacks by enforcing a mandatory retention period for soft deleted key vaults. No one inside your organization or Microsoft will be able to purge your key vaults during the soft delete retention period. Keep in mind that key vaults created after September 1st 2019 have soft-delete enabled by default. | Audit, Deny, Disabled | 2.1.0 |
Enable role-based access control (RBAC) within Azure Kubernetes Services
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 8.5 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) should be used on Kubernetes Services | To provide granular filtering on the actions that users can perform, use Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) to manage permissions in Kubernetes Service Clusters and configure relevant authorization policies. | Audit, Disabled | 1.0.4 |
9 AppService
Ensure App Service Authentication is set on Azure App Service
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 9.1 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| App Service apps should have authentication enabled | Azure App Service Authentication is a feature that can prevent anonymous HTTP requests from reaching the web app, or authenticate those that have tokens before they reach the web app. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 2.0.1 |
| Function apps should have authentication enabled | Azure App Service Authentication is a feature that can prevent anonymous HTTP requests from reaching the Function app, or authenticate those that have tokens before they reach the Function app. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 3.0.0 |
Ensure FTP deployments are disabled
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 9.10 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| App Service apps should require FTPS only | Enable FTPS enforcement for enhanced security. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 3.0.0 |
| Function apps should require FTPS only | Enable FTPS enforcement for enhanced security. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 3.0.0 |
Ensure web app redirects all HTTP traffic to HTTPS in Azure App Service
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 9.2 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| App Service apps should only be accessible over HTTPS | Use of HTTPS ensures server/service authentication and protects data in transit from network layer eavesdropping attacks. | Audit, Disabled, Deny | 4.0.0 |
Ensure web app is using the latest version of TLS encryption
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 9.3 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| App Service apps should use the latest TLS version | Periodically, newer versions are released for TLS either due to security flaws, include additional functionality, and enhance speed. Upgrade to the latest TLS version for App Service apps to take advantage of security fixes, if any, and/or new functionalities of the latest version. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 2.1.0 |
| Function apps should use the latest TLS version | Periodically, newer versions are released for TLS either due to security flaws, include additional functionality, and enhance speed. Upgrade to the latest TLS version for Function apps to take advantage of security fixes, if any, and/or new functionalities of the latest version. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 2.1.0 |
Ensure the web app has 'Client Certificates (Incoming client certificates)' set to 'On'
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 9.4 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| [Deprecated]: Function apps should have 'Client Certificates (Incoming client certificates)' enabled | Client certificates allow for the app to request a certificate for incoming requests. Only clients with valid certificates will be able to reach the app. This policy has been replaced by a new policy with the same name because Http 2.0 doesn't support client certificates. | Audit, Disabled | 3.1.0-deprecated |
| App Service apps should have Client Certificates (Incoming client certificates) enabled | Client certificates allow for the app to request a certificate for incoming requests. Only clients that have a valid certificate will be able to reach the app. This policy applies to apps with Http version set to 1.1. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 1.0.0 |
Ensure that Register with Azure Active Directory is enabled on App Service
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 9.5 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| App Service apps should use managed identity | Use a managed identity for enhanced authentication security | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 3.0.0 |
| Function apps should use managed identity | Use a managed identity for enhanced authentication security | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 3.0.0 |
Ensure that 'HTTP Version' is the latest, if used to run the web app
ID: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations Benchmark recommendation 9.9 Ownership: Shared
| Name (Azure portal) |
Description | Effect(s) | Version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|
| App Service apps should use latest 'HTTP Version' | Periodically, newer versions are released for HTTP either due to security flaws or to include additional functionality. Using the latest HTTP version for web apps to take advantage of security fixes, if any, and/or new functionalities of the newer version. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 4.0.0 |
| Function apps should use latest 'HTTP Version' | Periodically, newer versions are released for HTTP either due to security flaws or to include additional functionality. Using the latest HTTP version for web apps to take advantage of security fixes, if any, and/or new functionalities of the newer version. | AuditIfNotExists, Disabled | 4.0.0 |
Next steps
Additional articles about Azure Policy:
- Regulatory Compliance overview.
- See the initiative definition structure.
- Review other examples at Azure Policy samples.
- Review Understanding policy effects.
- Learn how to remediate non-compliant resources.