Cis Azure Foundations 8.1.8.1

8.1.8.1 Ensure That Microsoft Defender for Key Vault Is Set To 'On' (Automated)

Description

Enable Microsoft Defender for Key Vault to provide an additional layer of protection and security intelligence for detecting unusual and potentially harmful attempts to access or exploit Key Vault accounts.

Rationale

Microsoft Defender for Key Vault detects anomalous and potentially harmful access attempts or exploitation of Azure Key Vault. It uses advanced threat detection capabilities and Microsoft Threat Intelligence data to surface contextual security alerts, enabling organizations to identify and respond to threats targeting their secrets, keys, and certificates stored in Key Vault.

Impact

Enabling Microsoft Defender for Key Vault incurs additional costs based on the pricing tier. Organizations should evaluate the number of Key Vault transactions in their environment to estimate costs 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. Locate Key Vault in the list and ensure the Status is set to On.

From Azure CLI:

az security pricing show -n KeyVaults --query pricingTier

Ensure "Standard" is returned.

From PowerShell:

Get-AzSecurityPricing -Name KeyVaults | Select-Object PricingTier

Ensure Standard is returned.

Expected Result

The pricing tier for KeyVaults 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. In the row for Key Vault, set the Status toggle to On.
6. Click Save.

From Azure CLI:

az security pricing create -n KeyVaults --tier Standard

From PowerShell:

Set-AzSecurityPricing -Name KeyVaults -PricingTier Standard

Default Value

Microsoft Defender for Key Vault is disabled (Free tier) by default.

References

1. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/defender-for-cloud/defender-for-key-vault-introduction
2. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/defender-for-cloud/enable-enhanced-security
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/set-azsecuritypricing

Profile

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