Azure security baseline for Azure Migrate

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

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

Security profile

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

Service Behavior Attribute Value
Product Category Migration
Customer can access HOST / OS No Access
Service can be deployed into customer's virtual network True
Stores customer content at rest True

Network security

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

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: The customer is able to configure Azure Migrate to require Private Link.

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

Azure Migrate Private Link support allows customers to securely discover, assess, and migrate servers over a private network while offering protection against data exfiltration risks and enabling greater migration velocity.

You can connect privately and securely to Azure Migrate over an Azure ExpressRoute private peering or a site-to-site (S2S) VPN connection by using Private Link.

Reference: Using Azure Migrate with Azure Private Link

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: The customer may configure Azure Migrate with Private Link, thereby disabling public endpoint access.

Configuration Guidance: Disable public network access using by toggling the switch for public network access.

You can configure the connectivity method for your Azure Migrate project and choose to enable or disable public network access to the Migrate project.

Reference: Using Azure Migrate with private endpoints

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: Azure Migrate leverages managed identities and service principals in Azure AD for certain data plane operations. Azure Migrate also supports Azure AD for user access of the control plane through the Azure Portal.

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

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 Microsoft

Feature notes: Azure Migrate uses managed identity to securely access migrated data that is kept in a storage account. This is currently used in a scenario where private endpoint is configured.

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.

Service Principals

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

Supported Enabled By Default Configuration Responsibility
True False Customer

Feature notes: The discovery and assessment services within Azure Migrate do not use service principals, however the migration service does use service principals in a public endpoint scenario to connect to the customer’s key vault using Hyper-V recovery manager app.

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-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 True Microsoft

Feature notes: The Azure Migrate appliance leverages Key Vault to manage connection strings for the service bus, and access keys for the storage accounts are used for replication.

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

Data protection

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

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

Feature notes: Encryption of data-in-transit is enabled by default. Azure Migrate supports data encryption in transit with TLS v1.2 or greater.

While this is optional for traffic on private networks, this is critical for traffic on external and public networks. For HTTP traffic, ensure that any clients (including the Azure Migrate appliance and other machines on which you’ve installed Azure Migrate software) connecting to your Azure resources can negotiate TLS v1.2 or greater. For remote management, use SSH (for Linux) or RDP/TLS (for Windows) instead of an unencrypted protocol. Obsoleted SSL, TLS, and SSH versions and protocols, and weak ciphers should be disabled.

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: All data persisted in Azure Migrate is encrypted at rest with Microsoft-managed keys.

The Server Migration tool in Azure Migrate replicates data from the disks of servers being migrated to storage accounts and managed disks in your Azure subscription. Data handling is transient until it is written to storage accounts or managed disks in the subscription and is not persisted in Azure Migrate. Replicated data on the storage account and managed disks is encrypted at rest with Microsoft-managed keys. For highly sensitive data, you have options to implement additional encryption at rest with customer-managed keys on the storage account and managed disks.

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: Enable and implement data at rest encryption for your replicated data using customer-managed keys.

To replicate VMs with CMK, you'll need to create a disk encryption set under the target Resource Group. A disk encryption set object maps Managed Disks to a Key Vault that contains the CMK to use for SSE.

Reference: Migrate VMware VMs to Azure (agentless)

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 True Microsoft

Feature notes: The Azure Migrate appliance leverages Key Vault to manage connection strings for the service bus, and access keys for the storage accounts are used for replication.

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

Reference: Set up the Azure Migrate appliance

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: Azure Migrate may leverage Azure Policy, however it must be configured by the customer to be enforced.

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: Azure Policy built-in definitions for Azure Migrate

Logging and threat detection

For more information, see the Microsoft cloud security benchmark: Logging and threat detection.

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
False Not Applicable Not Applicable

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

Next steps