Cis Azure Foundations 8.1.2.1

8.1.2.1 Ensure Microsoft Defender for APIs is set to 'On' (Automated)

Description

Microsoft Defender for APIs offers full lifecycle protection, detection, and response coverage for APIs. Due to its potentially high cost, Microsoft Defender for APIs may not be suitable for all environments and should be evaluated carefully before implementation.

Rationale

Microsoft Defender for APIs helps provide visibility into business-critical APIs, assess and improve their security posture, prioritize vulnerability remediation, and detect threats in real time.

Impact

Microsoft Defender for APIs uses a tiered pricing model, billed per subscription per hour, with each tier allowing a set limit of API calls. In high-traffic environments, this may result in significant or prohibitive costs.

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 Workload Protection (CWP), in the row for APIs, ensure the Status is set to On.

From Azure CLI:

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

Ensure "Standard" is returned.

From PowerShell:

Get-AzSecurityPricing -Name Api | Select-Object PricingTier

Ensure Standard is returned.

From Azure Policy:

• Policy ID: 7926a6d1-b268-4586-8197-e8ae90c877d7 - Name: 'Microsoft Defender for APIs should be enabled'

Expected Result

The pricing tier for Api 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 Workload Protection (CWP), in the row for APIs, set the toggle switch for Status to On.
6. Select a plan.
7. Click Save to save the plan selection.
8. Click Save to enable Defender for APIs.

From Azure CLI:

az security pricing create --name Api --tier Standard --subplan <subplan>

Valid subplan values: P1, P2, P3, P4, and P5.

From PowerShell:

Set-AzSecurityPricing -Name Api -PricingTier Standard -SubPlan <subplan>

Valid SubPlan values: P1, P2, P3, P4, and P5.

Default Value

Defender for APIs is disabled by default.

References

1. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/defender-for-cloud/defender-for-apis-introduction
2. https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/defender-for-cloud/#pricing
3. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/security/pricing
4. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/az.security/get-azsecuritypricing
5. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/az.security/set-azsecuritypricing

Profile

• Level 2