Cis Azure Foundations 8.1.4.1

8.1.4.1 Ensure That Microsoft Defender for Containers Is Set To 'On' (Automated)

Description

Microsoft Defender for Containers helps improve, monitor, and maintain the security of containerized assets--including Kubernetes clusters, nodes, workloads, container registries, and images--across multi-cloud and on-premises environments. By default, when enabling the plan through the Azure Portal, Microsoft Defender for Containers automatically configures: Agentless scanning for machines, Defender sensor for runtime protection, Azure Policy for enforcing security best practices, K8S API access for monitoring and threat detection, and Registry access for vulnerability assessment.

Rationale

Enabling Microsoft Defender for Containers enhances defense-in-depth by providing advanced threat detection, vulnerability assessment, and security monitoring for containerized environments, leveraging insights from the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC).

Impact

Microsoft Defender for Containers incurs a charge per vCore. Refer to https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/defender-for-cloud/ to estimate potential 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. Under Settings, click Defender plans.
5. Under Cloud Workload Protection (CWP), in the row for Containers, ensure that the Status is set to On and Monitoring coverage displays Full.
6. Repeat steps 1-5 for each subscription.

From Azure CLI:

az security pricing show --name "Containers" --query [pricingTier,extensions[*].[name,isEnabled]]

Ensure that the command returns Standard, and that each of the extensions returns True.

From Azure Policy:

• Policy ID: 1c988dd6-ade4-430f-a608-2a3e5b0a6d38 - Name: 'Microsoft Defender for Containers should be enabled'

Expected Result

The pricing tier for Containers should be Standard with all extensions enabled.

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. Under Settings, click Defender plans.
5. Under Cloud Workload Protection (CWP), in the row for Containers, click On in the Status column.
6. If Monitoring coverage displays Partial, click Settings under Partial.
7. Set the status of each of the components to On.
8. Click Continue.
9. Click Save.
10. Repeat steps 1-9 for each subscription.

From Azure CLI:

az security pricing create -n 'Containers' --tier 'standard' --extensions name=ContainerRegistriesVulnerabilityAssessments isEnabled=True --extensions name=AgentlessDiscoveryForKubernetes isEnabled=True --extensions name=AgentlessVmScanning isEnabled=True --extensions name=ContainerSensor isEnabled=True

Default Value

The Microsoft Defender for Containers plan is disabled by default.

References

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

Profile

• Level 2