Detections
Analytics

9.1.11 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.

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

NOTE: Nessus has not performed this check. Please review the benchmark to ensure target compliance.

Solution

Remediate from Azure Portal

 - From Azure Home select the Portal Menu.
 - Select Microsoft Defender for Cloud
 - Under Management select Environment settings
 - Click on the appropriate Management Group or Subscription.
 - Click on Security policies 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
 - Click the blue ellipsis.. to the right of a policy name.
 - Click Manage effect and parameters
 - Under Policy effect select the radio button next to Audit
 - Click Save
 - Click Refresh
 - Repeat steps 10-14 until all disabled policies are updated.
 - Repeat steps 1-15 for each Management Group or Subscription requiring remediation.

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.

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/19304

Item Details

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-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: a85faf32505c5c6da227bacfd7c98c1663fffe26bda2feae35648a2c55b3a290