Azure security baseline for Azure Managed Applications

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

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

Security profile

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

Service Behavior Attribute Value
Product Category
Customer can access HOST / OS Full 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 True Microsoft

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

Reference: Use existing virtual network with Azure Managed Applications

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

Feature notes: Managed application resources themselves do not rely on any other resource type, but deploy underlying resources and their features that make up the managed app. A publisher can offer customization and configuration for apps but are not required to.

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.

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

Feature notes: Managed application resources themselves do not rely on any other resource type, but deploy underlying resources and their features that make up the managed app. A publisher can offer customization and configuration for apps but are not required to.

Configuration Guidance: Deploy private endpoints for all Azure resources that support the Private Link feature, to establish a private access point for the resources.

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

Feature notes: Managed application resources themselves do not rely on any other resource type, but deploy underlying resources and their features that make up the managed app. A publisher can offer customization and configuration for apps but are not required to.

Configuration Guidance: Disable public network access either using the service-level IP ACL filtering rule or a toggling switch for public network access.

Identity management

For more information, see the Microsoft cloud security benchmark: Identity management.

IM-1: Use centralized identity and authentication system

Features

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: The publisher of the managed application may implement local authentication methods as part of the solution. 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 Customer

Feature notes: Managed application resources themselves do not rely on any other resource type, but deploy underlying resources and their features that make up the managed app. A publisher can offer customization and configuration for apps but are not required to.

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 Managed Application with Managed Identity

Service Principals

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

Supported Enabled By Default Configuration Responsibility
True False Customer

Feature notes: Managed application resources themselves do not rely on any other resource type, but deploy underlying resources and their features that make up the managed app. A publisher can offer customization and configuration for apps but are not required to.

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.

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

Feature notes: Managed application resources themselves do not rely on any other resource type, but deploy underlying resources and their features that make up the managed app. A publisher can offer customization and configuration for apps but are not required to.

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.

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
True False Customer

Feature notes: Managed application resources themselves do not rely on any other resource type, but deploy underlying resources that make up the managed app. A publisher can offer customization and configuration for apps but are not required to.

Configuration Guidance: Ensure that secrets and credentials are stored in secure locations such as Azure Key Vault, instead of embedding them into code or configuration files.

Reference: Access Key Vault secret when deploying Azure Managed Applications

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
False Not Applicable Not Applicable

Feature notes: Managed application resources themselves do not have a dataplane. They deploy underlying resources and their features that make up the managed app. A publisher can offer customization and configuration for apps but are not required to.

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

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
False Not Applicable Not Applicable

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

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
True False Customer

Feature notes: Managed application resources themselves do not rely on any other resource type, but deploy underlying resources and their features that make up the managed app. A publisher can offer customization and configuration for apps but are not required to.

Configuration Guidance: Use tools such as Azure Purview, Azure Information Protection, and Azure SQL Data Discovery and Classification to centrally scan, classify and label any sensitive data that resides in Azure, on-premises, Microsoft 365, or other locations.

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
True False Customer

Feature notes: Depending on the resources that are included within the managed resource group, DLP solutions may be supported. For example, Defender for Storage may be used to protect a storage resource contained within the managed resource group.

Configuration Guidance: If required for compliance of data loss prevention (DLP), you can use a host based DLP solution from Azure Marketplace or a Microsoft 365 DLP solution to enforce detective and/or preventative controls to prevent data exfiltration.

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

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: The customer may choose to use their own storage account as part of the managed application stack and may encrypt that storage account with a customer-managed key.

For more information relating to using your own storage, please visit: Bring your own storage for the managed application definition.

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.

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
True False Customer

Feature notes: Managed application resources themselves do not rely on any other resource type, but deploy underlying resources and their features that make up the managed app. A publisher can offer customization and configuration for apps but are not required to.

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.

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

Feature notes: Managed application resources themselves do not rely on any other resource type, but deploy underlying resources and their features that make up the managed app. A publisher can offer customization and configuration for apps but are not required to.

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.

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

Feature notes: Managed application resources themselves do not rely on any other resource type, but deploy underlying resources and their features that make up the managed app. A publisher can offer customization and configuration for apps but are not required to.

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.

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
True False Customer

Feature notes: Managed application resources themselves do not rely on any other resource type, but deploy underlying resources that make up the managed app. A publisher can offer customization and configuration for apps but are not required to.

Configuration Guidance: Use Microsoft Defender for Cloud adaptive application controls to discover applications running on virtual machines (VMs) and generate an application allow list to mandate which approved applications can run in the VM environment.

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

Feature notes: Though there is not a Defender offering specific to Managed Applications, Microsoft Defender solutions may be used to protect the underlying resources contained within the managed resource group.

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 resource logs for the service. For example, Key Vault supports additional resource logs for actions that get a secret from a key vault or and Azure SQL has resource logs that track requests to a database. The content of resource logs varies by the Azure service and resource type.

Posture and vulnerability management

For more information, see the Microsoft cloud security benchmark: Posture and vulnerability management.

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
True False Customer

Feature notes: Managed application resources themselves do not rely on any other resource type, but deploy underlying resources and their features that make up the managed app. A publisher can offer customization and configuration for apps but are not required to.

Configuration Guidance: Use Azure Automation State Configuration to maintain the security configuration of the operating system.

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
True False Customer

Feature notes: Managed application resources themselves do not rely on any other resource type, but deploy underlying resources and their features that make up the managed app. A publisher can offer customization and configuration for apps but are not required to.

Configuration Guidance: Use Microsoft Defender for Cloud and Azure Policy guest configuration agent to regularly assess and remediate configuration deviations on your Azure compute resources, including VMs, containers, and others.

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 Customer

Configuration Guidance: 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.

Custom Containers Images

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 Customer

Feature notes: Managed apps can deploy VMs and other resources that support referencing an offer or SKU from marketplace when deploying via an ARM template.

Configuration Guidance: Use a pre-configured hardened image from a trusted supplier such as Microsoft or build the desired secure configuration baseline into the container image template.

PV-5: Perform vulnerability assessments

Features

Vulnerability Assessment using Microsoft Defender

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
True False Customer

Feature notes: Managed application resources themselves do not rely on any other resource type, but deploy underlying resources and their features that make up the managed app. A publisher can offer customization and configuration for apps but are not required to.

Configuration Guidance: Follow recommendations from Microsoft Defender for Cloud for performing vulnerability assessments on your Azure virtual machines, container images, and SQL servers.

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
True False Customer

Feature notes: Managed application resources themselves do not rely on any other resource type, but deploy underlying resources and their features that make up the managed app. A publisher can offer customization and configuration for apps but are not required to.

Configuration Guidance: Use Azure Automation Update Management or a third-party solution to ensure that the most recent security updates are installed on your Windows and Linux VMs. For Windows VMs, ensure Windows Update has been enabled and set to update automatically.

Endpoint security

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

ES-1: Use Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)

Features

EDR Solution

Description: Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) feature such as Azure Defender for servers can be deployed into the endpoint. Learn more.

Supported Enabled By Default Configuration Responsibility
True False Customer

Feature notes: Managed application resources themselves do not rely on any other resource type, but deploy underlying resources and their features that make up the managed app. A publisher can offer customization and configuration for apps but are not required to.

Configuration Guidance: Azure Defender for servers (with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint integrated) provides EDR capability to prevent, detect, investigate, and respond to advanced threats. Use Microsoft Defender for Cloud to deploy Azure Defender for servers for your endpoint and integrate the alerts to your SIEM solution such as Azure Sentinel.

ES-2: Use modern anti-malware software

Features

Anti-Malware Solution

Description: Anti-malware feature such as Microsoft Defender Antivirus, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint can be deployed on the endpoint. Learn more.

Supported Enabled By Default Configuration Responsibility
True False Customer

Feature notes: Managed application resources themselves do not rely on any other resource type, but deploy underlying resources and their features that make up the managed app. A publisher can offer customization and configuration for apps but are not required to.

Configuration Guidance: For Windows Server 2016 and above, Microsoft Defender for Antivirus is installed by default. For Windows Server 2012 R2 and above, customers can install SCEP (System Center Endpoint Protection). For Linux, customers can have the choice of installing Microsoft Defender for Linux. Alternatively, customers also have the choice of installing third-party anti-malware products.

ES-3: Ensure anti-malware software and signatures are updated

Features

Anti-Malware Solution Health Monitoring

Description: Anti-malware solution provides health status monitoring for platform, engine, and automatic signature updates. Learn more.

Supported Enabled By Default Configuration Responsibility
True False Customer

Feature notes: A publisher can offer customization and configuration for apps but are not required to.

Configuration Guidance: Configure your anti-malware solution to ensure the platform, engine and signatures are updated rapidly and consistently and their status can be monitored.

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
True False Customer

Feature notes: Managed application resources themselves do not rely on any other resource type, but deploy underlying resources and their features that make up the managed app. A publisher can offer customization and configuration for apps but are not required to.

Configuration Guidance: Enable Azure Backup and configure the backup source (such as Azure Virtual Machines, SQL Server, HANA databases, or File Shares) on a desired frequency and with a desired retention period. For Azure Virtual Machines, you can use Azure Policy to enable automatic backups.

Next steps