Cis Azure Foundations 8.1.1.1

8.1.1.1 Ensure Microsoft Defender CSPM is set to 'On' (Automated)

Description

Enable Microsoft Defender CSPM to continuously assess cloud resources for security misconfigurations, compliance risks, and exposure to threats.

Rationale

Microsoft Defender CSPM provides detailed visibility into the security state of assets and workloads and offers hardening guidance to help improve security posture.

Impact

Enabling Microsoft Defender CSPM incurs hourly charges for each billable compute, database, and storage resource. This can lead to significant costs in larger environments. Careful planning and cost analysis are recommended before enabling the service.

Audit Procedure

From Azure Portal:

1. Go to Microsoft Defender for Cloud.
2. Under Management, click Environment settings.
3. Click the name of a subscription.
4. Select the Defender plans blade.
5. Under Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM), in the row for Defender CSPM, ensure Status is set to On.

From Azure CLI:

az security pricing show --name CloudPosture --query pricingTier

Ensure "Standard" is returned.

From PowerShell:

Get-AzSecurityPricing -Name CloudPosture | Select-Object PricingTier

Ensure Standard is returned.

From Azure Policy:

• Policy ID: 1f90fc71-a595-4066-8974-d4d0802e8ef0 - Name: 'Microsoft Defender CSPM should be enabled'

Expected Result

The pricing tier for CloudPosture should be Standard.

Remediation

From Azure Portal:

1. Go to Microsoft Defender for Cloud.
2. Under Management, click Environment settings.
3. Click the name of a subscription.
4. Select the Defender plans blade.
5. Under Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM), in the row for Defender CSPM, set the toggle switch for Status to On.
6. Click Save.

From Azure CLI:

az security pricing create --name CloudPosture --tier Standard --extensions name=ApiPosture isEnabled=true

From PowerShell:

Set-AzSecurityPricing -Name CloudPosture -PricingTier Standard -Extension '[{"name":"ApiPosture","isEnabled":"True"}]'

Default Value

Defender CSPM is disabled by default.

References

1. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/defender-for-cloud/concept-cloud-security-posture-management
2. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/defender-for-cloud/tutorial-enable-cspm-plan
3. https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/defender-for-cloud/#pricing
4. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/security/pricing
5. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/az.security/get-azsecuritypricing
6. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/az.security/set-azsecuritypricing

Profile

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