Detections
Analytics
2.1.13 Ensure that Microsoft Cloud Security Benchmark policies are not set to 'Disabled'
Information
The Microsoft Cloud Security Benchmark (or 'MCSB') is an Azure Policy Initiative containing many security policies to evaluate resource configuration against best practice recommendations. If a policy in the MCSB is set with effect type Disabled, it is not evaluated and may prevent administrators from being informed of valuable security recommendations.Rationale:
A security policy defines the desired configuration of resources in your environment and helps ensure compliance with company or regulatory security requirements. The MCSB Policy Initiative a set of security recommendations based on best practices and is associated with every subscription by default. When a policy 'Effect' is set to Audit, policies in the MCSB ensure that Defender for Cloud evaluates relevant resources for supported recommendations. To ensure that policies within the MCSB are not being missed when the Policy Initiative is evaluated, none of the policies should have an Effect of Disabled.
Impact:
Policies within the MCSB default to an effect of Audit and will evaluate - but not enforce - policy recommendations. Ensuring these policies are set to Audit simply ensures that the evaluation occurs to allow administrators to understand where an improvement may be possible. Administrators will need to determine if the recommendations are relevant and desirable for their environment, then manually take action to resolve the status if desired.
Solution
From Azure PortalPart A - List all disabled policies
From Azure Home select the Portal Menu
Select Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Then Environment Settings
Select the appropriate Subscription
Click on Security Policy in the left column.
Click on Microsoft Cloud Security Benchmark
Click Add Filter and select Effect
Check the Disabled box to search for all disabled policies
Click Apply
Part B - Remediate Policy Effect
For each policy that remains in the list:
Click the blue ellipses ... to the right of the policy name
Click Manage effect and parameters
Under Policy Effect, select the Audit radio button
Click Save
Click Refresh
Repeat 'Part B - Remediate Policy Effect' until no more policies are listed.
Default Value:
By default, the MCSB policy initiative is associated to all subscriptions and most policies will have an effect of Audit. Some policies will have a default effect of Disabled.
See Also
Item Details
Audit Name: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations v2.1.0 L1
Category: ACCESS CONTROL, CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT, SYSTEM AND SERVICES ACQUISITION
References: 800-53|AC-18, 800-53|AC-18(1), 800-53|AC-18(3), 800-53|CM-1, 800-53|CM-2, 800-53|CM-6, 800-53|CM-7, 800-53|CM-7(1), 800-53|CM-9, 800-53|SA-3, 800-53|SA-8, 800-53|SA-10, CSCv7|5.1, CSCv7|5.5
Plugin: microsoft_azure
Control ID: b2ed8037808de4b2767c7d48262993caedb1e4ac76f2a9fc59f812fcc223e454