Cis Azure Foundations 5.14

Ensure 'Users can register applications' is set to 'No'

Description

Require administrators or appropriately delegated users to register third-party applications.

Rationale

It is recommended to only allow an administrator to register custom-developed applications. This ensures that the application undergoes a formal security review and approval process prior to exposing Microsoft Entra ID data. Certain users like developers or other high-request users may also be delegated permissions to prevent them from waiting on an administrative user. Your organization should review your policies and decide your needs.

Impact

Enforcing this setting will create additional requests for approval that will need to be addressed by an administrator. If permissions are delegated, a user may approve a malevolent third party application, potentially giving it access to your data.

Audit Procedure

Using Azure Portal

1. From Azure Home select the Portal Menu
2. Select Microsoft Entra ID
3. Under Manage, select Users
4. Under Manage, select User settings
5. Ensure that Users can register applications is set to No

Using PowerShell

(Get-MgPolicyAuthorizationPolicy).DefaultUserRolePermissions | Format-List AllowedToCreateApps

Command should return the value of False.

Expected Result

Users can register applications should be set to No. PowerShell should return AllowedToCreateApps: False.

Remediation

Using Azure Portal

1. From Azure Home select the Portal Menu
2. Select Microsoft Entra ID
3. Under Manage, select Users
4. Under Manage, select User settings
5. Set Users can register applications to No
6. Click Save

Using PowerShell

$param = @{ AllowedToCreateApps = "$false" }
Update-MgPolicyAuthorizationPolicy -DefaultUserRolePermissions $param

Default Value

By default, Users can register applications is set to "Yes".

References

1. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity/role-based-access-control/delegate-app-roles#restrict-who-can-create-applications
2. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity-platform/how-applications-are-added#who-has-permission-to-add-applications-to-my-azure-ad-instance
3. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/security/benchmark/azure/mcsb-governance-strategy#gs-6-define-and-implement-identity-and-privileged-access-strategy
4. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/security/benchmark/azure/mcsb-privileged-access#pa-1-separate-and-limit-highly-privilegedadministrative-users
5. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.graph.identity.signins/get-mgpolicyauthorizationpolicy?view=graph-powershell-1.0

CIS Controls

Profile

Level 1 | Automated