8.2.2 (L1) Ensure communication with unmanaged Teams users is disabled

Information

This policy setting controls chats and meetings with external unmanaged Teams users (those not managed by an organization, such as Microsoft Teams (free)).

The recommended state is: People in my organization can communicate with unmanaged Teams accounts set to Off

Allowing users to communicate with unmanaged Teams users presents a potential security threat as little effort is required by threat actors to gain access to a trial or free Microsoft Teams account.

Some real-world attacks and exploits delivered via Teams over external access channels include:

- DarkGate malware
- Social engineering / Phishing attacks by "Midnight Blizzard"
- GIFShell
- Username enumeration

Solution

To remediate using the UI:

- Navigate to Microsoft Teams admin center

https://admin.teams.microsoft.com/

.
- Click to expand Users select External access
- Select the Policies tab
- Click on the Global (Org-wide default) policy.
- Set People in my organization can communicate with unmanaged Teams accounts to Off
- Click Save

To remediate using PowerShell:

- Connect to Teams PowerShell using Connect-MicrosoftTeams
- Run the following command:

Set-CsExternalAccessPolicy -Identity Global -EnableTeamsConsumerAccess $false

Note: Configuring the organization settings to block communication is also in compliance with this control.

Impact:

Users will be unable to communicate with Teams users who are not managed by an organization.

Organizations may choose create additional policies for specific groups needing to communicating with unmanaged external users.

Note: The settings that govern chats and meetings with external unmanaged Teams users aren't available in GCC, GCC High, or DOD deployments, or in private cloud environments.

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/20006

Item Details

Category: CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

References: 800-53|CM-7b.

Plugin: microsoft_azure

Control ID: 129e0ca5399c5a9d286c2f091903257073651bccf0d21e329f7b86a473c7dcc5