Architecting and Building Hybrid Cloud Apps for Azure and Azure Stack.
With Filippo Seracini @pipposeraand Ricardo Mendes @rifmendesfrom the AzureStack Team
The “Secure DevOps Kit for Azure” (will be referred to as ‘AzSDK’ henceforth) is a collection of scripts, tools, extensions, automations, etc. that caters to the end to end Azure subscription and resource security needs for dev ops teams using extensive automation and smoothly integrating security into native dev ops workflows helping accomplish secure dev ops with these 6 focus areas: 1. Secure the subscription: A secure cloud subscription provides a core foundation upon which subsequent development and deployment activities can be conducted. An engineering team should have the capabilities to deploy and configure security in the subscription including elements such as alerts, ARM policies, RBAC, Security Center policies, JEA, Resource Locks, etc. Likewise, it should be possible to check that all settings are in conformance to a secure baseline. 2. Enable secure development: During the coding and early development stages, developers should have the ability to write secure code and to test the secure configuration of their cloud applications. Just like build verification tests (BVTs), we introduce the concept of security verification tests (SVTs) which can check for security of various resource types in Azure. 3. Integrate security into CICD: Test automation is a core tenet of devops. We emphasize this by providing the ability to run SVTs as part of the VSTS CICD pipeline. These SVTs can be used to ensure that the target subscription used to deploy a cloud application and the Azure resources the application is built upon are all setup in a secure manner. 4. Continuous Assurance: In the constantly changing dev ops environment, it is important to move away from the mindset of security being a milestone. We have to treat security as a continuously varying state of a system. This is made possible through capabilities that enable continuous assurance using a combination of automation runbooks, schedules, etc. 5. Alerting & Monitoring: Visibility of security status is important for individual application teams and also for central enterprise teams. We provide solutions that cater to the needs of both. Moreover, the solution spans across all stages of dev ops in effect bridging the gap between the dev team and the ops team from a security standpoint through the single, integrated views it generates. 6. Cloud Risk Governance: Lastly, underlying all activities in the kit is a telemetry framework that generates events capturing usage, adoption, evaluation results, etc. This allows us to make measured improvements to security targeting areas of high risk and maximum usage before others.
Security Verification Tests (SVTs) in VSTS pipeline
Security Verification Tests (SVTs) in Jenkins pipeline (Preview)
The AzSDK contains Security Verification Tests (SVTs) for multiple PaaS and IaaS services of the Azure platform. As we have seen so far, these SVTs can be manually run against one or more target resources held in resource groups or tagged via a {tagName, tagValue} pair. While it is invaluable to run these SVTs periodically from a PS console (to ensure that the subscription and the different resources that comprise your application are in a secure state), a key aspect of dev ops is to be able to automate such tests and integrate them as part of the dev ops workflows and release pipelines. In other words, while checking that SVTs pass in an ad hoc manner is a good practice, it is important to be able to also ensure that security control configuration remains intact in higher environments.
The CICD extensions feature of AzSDK makes automated security configuration enforcement possible by making SVTs available as a Visual Studio Extension in the Marketplace so that engineering teams can run them within build/release pipeline. Once the build/release task is configured, SVTs run against a target deployment in an Azure subscription. Upon completion, SVTs will report the pass/fail status for controls along with aggregate control results. Hereafter, all the different ‘out-of-box’ build/release workflow options from the CICD engine (e.g., VSTS) can be used as ‘next steps’ based on the outcomes of SVTs. (For instance, one can decide whether to fail the release outright or to continue despite failures while sending an email to the build/release owners or to hold progress until someone manually approves, etc. Furthermore, if all SVTs pass in the pre-prod environment, then a release can be ‘promoted’ to prod.)
Outcomes of the SVT execution can also be routed to an OMS workspace configured to receive various events generated by the AzSDK.
Leveraging other OMS Solutions from the Solutions Gallery
The Alerting & Monitoring features of AzSDK empower dev ops teams with the following capabilities:
a single pane of glass view of cloud security across dev ops stages
visibility to control status for their Azure subscription and critical enterprise/application resources
pre-configured search queries for creating alerts to facilitate action on security drift
Out of the box, these capabilities can be leveraged via the Operations Management Suite (OMS) solution in AzSDK.
However, a dev ops team can equally easily leverage a different system for log analytics (e.g., Splunk) and view the AzSDK control evaluation events in the alternate system. This can be accomplished by using via connectors for Event Hubs or Webhooks in the AzSDK.
The Secure DevOps Kit generates telemetry events from all stages of dev ops. That is, events are generated when an engineer runs a scan ad hoc or when SVTs are run in CICD or subscriptions are scanned via Continuous Assurance (CA). The telemetry can be collected and aggregated across an organization. When combined with other organization metadata (e.g., a mapping of subscriptions to applications or service lines or business groups), this can yield a powerful platform for supporting a data-driven approach cloud risk governance and allow organizations to drive measured and targeted security improvement initiatives in a continuous and incremental fashion (just like the rest of dev ops). The telemetry data from AzSDK can be leveraged in two key ways:
Application Insights based – called Control Telemetry (will be renamed to Org Telemetry soon). There are two ways possible. One, configure it centrally, two, configure it specifically in end-user’s machine
API based – this is a custom solution using WebAPI and SQL to collect events and enrich it with organizational metadata. This lets an organization track and drive adoption and usage of the AzSDK and provides a window into the org’s DevSecOps Maturity. API based telemetry will be release in coming months when we release documents for how organization can customize AzSDK for their needs
This command provides overall information about the AzSDK which includes subscription information (alert/policies/ASC/CA version etc.), security controls information (severity, description, rationale etc.), attestation information (statistics, attestation justification, expiry etc.), host information (AzSDK settings/configuration, AzureRM Context etc.). ‘Get-AzSDKInfo’ command can be used with ‘InfoType’ parameter to fetch information.
Microsoft Azure Security Center provides unified security management and advanced threat protection across hybrid cloud workloads. With Security Center, you can apply security policies across your workloads, limit your exposure to threats, and detect and respond to attacks.
You can select an existing Log Analytics workspace to store datacollected by Security Center. To use your existing Log Analytics workspace:
• The workspace must be associated with your selected Azure subscription.
• At a minimum, you must have read permissions to access the workspace.
You can edit the default security policy for each of your Azure subscriptions in Security Center. To modify a security policy, you must be an owner, contributor, or security administrator of the subscription. To configure security policies in Security Center, do the following:
1. Sign in to the Azure portal.
2. On the Security Center dashboard, under General, select Security policy.
3. Select the subscription that you want to enable a security policy for.
4. In the Policy Components section, select Security policy.
This is the default policy that’s assigned by Security Center. You can turn on or off the available security recommendations.
5. When you finish editing, select Save.
Azure Security Center provides unified security management and advanced threat protection for workloads running in Azure, on-premises, and in other clouds. It delivers visibility and control over hybrid cloud workloads, active defenses that reduce your exposure to threats, and intelligent detection to help you keep pace with rapidly evolving cyber attacks.
Pricing tiers Security Center is offered in two tiers:
• The Free tier is automatically enabled on all Azure subscriptions, and provides security policy, continuous security assessment, and actionable security recommendations to help you protect your Azure resources.
• The Standard tier extends the capabilities of the Free tier to workloads running in private and other public clouds, providing unified security management and threat protection across your hybrid cloud workloads. The Standard tier also adds advanced threat detection capabilities, which uses built-in behavioral analytics and machine learning to identify attacks and zero-day exploits, access and application controls to reduce exposure to network attacks and malware, and more. The Standard tier is free for the first 60 days. Read here more…….
What are OS Security Configurations?
Azure Security Center monitors security configurations using a set of over 150 recommended rules for hardening the OS, including rules related to firewalls, auditing, password policies, and more. If a machine is found to have a vulnerable configuration, a security recommendation is generated.
Customization of the rules can help organizations to control which configuration options are more appropriate for their environment. This feature enables users to set a customized assessment policy and apply it on all applicable machines in the subscription.
Note • Currently OS Security Configuration customization is available for Windows Server 2008, 2008R2, 2012, 2012R2 operating systems only. • The configuration applies to all VMs and computers connected to all workspaces under the selected subscription. • OS Security Configuration customization is available only on Security Center’s Standard tier.
Download the Baseline configuration JSON file
You can make a Custom Baseline with Visual Studio Code and Upload to Azure
Planning guide
This guide covers a set of steps and tasks that you can follow to optimize your use of Security Center based on your organization’s security requirements and cloud management model. To take full advantage of Security Center, it is important to understand how different individuals or teams in your organization use the service to meet secure development and operations, monitoring, governance, and incident response needs. The key areas to consider when planning to use Security Center are:
Security Roles and Access Controls
Security Policies and Recommendations
Data Collection and Storage
Ongoing non-Azure resources
Ongoing Security Monitoring
Incident Response
Integrated Azure security solutions
Security Center makes it easy to enable integrated security solutions in Azure. Benefits include:
Simplified deployment: Security Center offers streamlined provisioning of integrated partner solutions. For solutions like antimalware and vulnerability assessment, Security Center can provision the needed agent on your virtual machines, and for firewall appliances, Security Center can take care of much of the network configuration required.
Integrated detections: Security events from partner solutions are automatically collected, aggregated, and displayed as part of Security Center alerts and incidents. These events also are fused with detections from other sources to provide advanced threat-detection capabilities.
Unified health monitoring and management: Customers can use integrated health events to monitor all partner solutions at a glance. Basic management is available, with easy access to advanced setup by using the partner solution.
Identity and Access Overview in Azure Security Center
Application Whitelisting
Just in time virtual machine (VM) access can be used to lock down inbound traffic to your Azure VMs, reducing exposure to attacks while providing easy access to connect to VMs when needed.
Attack scenario
Brute force attacks commonly target management ports as a means to gain access to a VM. If successful, an attacker can take control over the VM and establish a foothold into your environment.
One way to reduce exposure to a brute force attack is to limit the amount of time that a port is open. Management ports do not need to be open at all times. They only need to be open while you are connected to the VM, for example to perform management or maintenance tasks. When just in time is enabled, Security Center uses Network Security Group (NSG) rules, which restrict access to management ports so they cannot be targeted by attackers.
Azure Security Center’s advanced detection capabilities, helps you identify active threats targeting your Microsoft Azure resources and provides you with the insights needed to respond quickly
Security Center has a set of predefined security alerts, which are triggered when a threat, or suspicious activity takes place. In some scenarios, you may want to create a custom alert to address specific needs of your environment.
Custom alert rules in Security Center allow you to define new security alerts based on data that is already collected from your environment. You can create queries, and the result of these queries can be used as criteria for the custom rule, and once this criteria is matched, the rule is executed. You can use computers security events, partner’s security solution logs or data ingested using APIs to create your custom queries.
What is security playbook in Security Center?
Security playbook is a collection of procedures that can be executed from Security Center once a certain playbook is triggered from selected alert. Security playbook can help to automate and orchestrate your response to a specific security alert detected by Security Center. Security Playbooks in Security Center are based on Azure Logic Apps, which means you can use the templates that are provided under the security category in Logic Apps templates, you can modify them based on your needs, or you can create new playbooks using Azure Logic Apps workflow, and using Security Center as your trigger.
Overview Azure Virtual Datacenter is an approach to making the most of the Azure cloud platform’s capabilities while respecting your existing security and networking policies. When deploying enterprise workloads to the cloud, IT organizations and business units must balance governance with developer agility. Azure Virtual Datacenter provides models to achieve this balance with an emphasis on governance. Deploying workloads to the cloud introduces the need to develop and maintain trust in the cloud to the same degree you trust your existing datacenters. The first model of Azure Virtual Datacenter guidance is designed to bridge that need through a locked-down approach to virtual infrastructures. This approach isn’t for everyone. It’s specifically designed to guide enterprise IT groups in extending their on-premises infrastructure to the Azure public cloud. We call this approach the trusted datacenter extension model. Over time, several other models will be offered, including those that allow secure Internet access directly from a virtual datacenter.
In the Azure Virtual Datacenter model, you can apply isolation policies, make the cloud more like the physical datacenters you know, and achieve the levels of security and trust you need. Four components any enterprise IT team would recognize make it possible: software-defined networking, encryption, identity management, and the Azure platform’s underlying compliance standards and certifications. These four are key to making a virtual datacenter a trusted extension of your existing infrastructure investment. Central to this model is the idea that your cloud infrastructure has isolation boundaries that can be thought of as your corporate namespace. Think of it as your isolated cloud within Azure. Within this virtual boundary, security controls, network policies, and compliance come together, providing you with an IT infrastructure on Azure capable of securely integrating cloud resources with your existing on-premises datacenter. You can deploy new virtual workspaces in the virtual datacenter much as you would deploy additional capacity to your physical datacenter. These virtual workspaces are self-contained
Environments where workloads can run independently, and workload teams can get workspace specific access. Workspaces enable teams to build solutions and manage workloads with great freedom while adhering to the overall access and security policies defined in the central IT infrastructure. This guide is intended for enterprise IT architects and executives. Using the lens of the physical datacenter, the guide discusses an approach to designing secure, trusted virtual datacenters on the Azure platform. Azure Virtual Datacenter is not a specific product or service but rather a way to think about cloud infrastructures. It offers proven practices and guidance to help smooth your migration to the cloud. At the end of this guide, you can learn about the upcoming Virtual Datacenter Automation guidance. This guidance includes a collection of scripts and Azure Resource Manager templates that will help you build an Azure Virtual Datacenter using the trusted extension model.
With Microsoft Azure Cloud Services you can make a lot of resources using for your Business. Think about Storage, Compute, Databases, Networks and
applications. Microsoft Azure Security is there to keep your resources and data as save as possible against cybercrime.
