lacework-global-518

Ensure that A Multi-factor Authentication Policy Exists for Administrative Groups (Manual)

Profile Applicability

• Level 1

Description

For designated users, they must use their Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) process on login.

Rationale

Enabling multi-factor authentication is a recommended setting to limit the use of Administrative accounts to authenticated personnel.

Impact

There is an increased cost, as Conditional Access policies require Azure AD Premium. Similarly, MFA may require additional overhead to maintain. There is also a potential scenario in which the multi-factor authentication method can be lost, and administrative users are no longer able to log in. For this scenario, there should be an emergency access account. Please see References for creating this.

Audit

From Azure Portal

1. From Azure Home open the Portal Menu in the top left, and select Azure Active Directory.
2. Scroll down in the menu on the left, and select Security.
3. Select on the left side Conditional Access.
4. Select the policy you wish to audit.
5. View under Users and Groups the corresponding users and groups to whom the policy is applied. Be certain the emergency access account is not in the list.
6. View under Exclude to determine which Users and groups to whom the policy is not applied.

Remediation

From Azure Portal

1. From Azure Home open the Portal Menu in top left, and select Azure Active Directory.
2. Select Security.
3. Select Conditional Access.
4. Click + New policy.
5. Enter a name for the policy.
6. Select Users or workload identities.
7. Under Include, select Select users and groups.
8. Check Users and groups.
9. Select administrative groups this policy should apply to and click Select.
10. Under Exclude, select Users and groups.
11. Select users this policy not should apply to and click Select.
12. Select Cloud apps or actions.
13. Select All cloud apps.
14. Select Grant.
15. Under Grant access, select Require multi-factor authentication and click Select.
16. Set Enable policy to Report-only.
17. Click Create.

After testing the policy in report-only mode, update the Enable policy setting from Report-only to On.

References

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/conditional-access/howto-conditional-access-policy-admin-mfa
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/roles/security-emergency-access
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/conditional-access/troubleshoot-conditional-access-what-if
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/conditional-access/howto-conditional-access-insights-reporting
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/conditional-access/plan-conditional-access
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/security/benchmark/azure/security-controls-v3-identity-management#im-7-restrict-resource-access-based-on--conditions

Additional Information

Test these policies by using the What If tool in the References. Setting these can create issues with logging in for users until they use an MFA device linked to their accounts. You can perform further testing via the insights and reporting resource in References which monitors Azure sign ins.