8.2.1 (L2) Ensure external domains are restricted in the Teams admin center

Information

This policy controls whether external domains are allowed, blocked or permitted based on an allowlist or denylist. When external domains are allowed, users in your organization can chat, add users to meetings, and use audio video conferencing with users in external organizations.

The recommended state is Allow only specific external domains or Block all external domains

Allowlisting external domains that an organization is collaborating with allows for stringent controls over who an organization's users are allowed to make contact with.

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 Teams and Skype for Business users in external organizations to Off
- Click Save

To remediate using PowerShell:

- Connect to Teams PowerShell using Connect-MicrosoftTeams
- Run the following command to configure the Global (Org-wide default)` policy.

Set-CsExternalAccessPolicy -Identity Global -EnableFederationAccess $false

Note: Configuring the organization settings to block external access or to use a domain allowlist is also ni compliance with this control.

Impact:

The impact in terms of the type of collaboration users are allowed to participate in and the I.T. resources expended to manage an allowlist will increase. If a user attempts to join the inviting organization's meeting they will be prevented from joining unless they were created as a guest in EntraID or their domain was added to the allowed external domains list.

Note Organizations may choose create additional policies for specific groups needing external access.

See Also

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

Item Details

Category: CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

References: 800-53|CM-7b.

Plugin: microsoft_azure

Control ID: 01814a5760b4cfcf57df0ffb640d4fb35a33b025daa285b4e3423bf09bf39e46