Exempt - Azure CSPM Recommendation" (Terraform exemption
The reason you're not finding a standalone policyAssignmentId/policyDefinitionId for this specific recommendation is that it isn't a standalone assignment — it's one control inside the built-in CSPM initiative (the "ASC Default" / Microsoft Cloud Security Benchmark assignment). That initiative does have an assignment ID; you just need to target the specific control within it, not look for a separate one. In azurerm_resource_policy_exemption (or the subscription/resource-group variants), the relevant fields are: policy_assignment_id → the ID of the initiative assignment (ASC Default / MCSB), not a per-recommendation assignment policy_definition_reference_ids → an array scoping the exemption to just this one control instead of the whole initiative resource "azurerm_resource_policy_exemption" "function_app_network_exemption" { name = "exempt-function-network-restriction" resource_id = azurerm_linux_function_app.example.id policy_assignment_id = data.azurerm_subscription_policy_assignment.asc_default.id policy_definition_reference_ids = [ "<reference-id-for-the-specific-control>" ] exemption_category = "Waiver" # or "Mitigated" if an equivalent control exists expires_on = "2026-12-31T00:00:00Z" } To find the policy_definition_reference_id for this specific control: in the Azure Portal, go to Policy → Definitions, search for "Restricted network access should be configured on Internet exposed Function app" to get its definition ID, then open the initiative definition (ASC Default) and find the matching entry in its policyDefinitions[].policyDefinitionReferenceId array — that string is what goes in the array above. Two things worth deciding upfront before automating this: Waiver vs Mitigated — if you've genuinely restricted access another way (e.g., Private Endpoint), use Mitigated so it's distinguishable from accepted risk in reporting. Consider whether the exemption belongs at the resource scope (just this Function App) vs resource group/subscription — narrower is safer, but if you have a pattern of similar apps, a tagged-based resourceSelectors block can scale this without per-resource blocks.
Defending Container Runtime from Malware with Microsoft Defender for Containers
In cloud-native environments, malware protection is no longer traditional antivirus — it is runtime workload security, ensuring containerized applications remain safe throughout their lifecycle. Many organizations focus on scanning container images before deployment. While image scanning is important, this does not stop runtime attacks. Image scanning protects before deployment, but malware detection protects during execution. Malware can enter cloud environments through container images, compromised CI/CD pipelines, exposed services, or misuse of legitimate administrative tools, making runtime malware detection an essential security control rather than an optional enhancement. Runtime Malware detection and Prevention acts as the last line of defence when preventive controls fail. If malware executes successfully inside a container, it may attempt Privilege escalation, Container escape and Host compromise. Antimalware in Defender for Containers Defender for Containers antimalware, powered by Microsoft Defender Antivirus cloud protection, near-real-time malware detection directly into container environments. The antimalware feature is available via Helm with sensor version 0.10.2 for AKS, GKE, and EKS. Defender for Containers Sensor Defender for Containers Antimalware provides: Runtime monitoring of container activity Malware detection on Container Workloads Malware detection for Kubernetes nodes Alerts integrated into Defender XDR Anti-malware detection and blocking - Microsoft Defender for Cloud | Microsoft Learn Container antimalware protection in Defender for Containers is powered by three main components: 1) Defender Sensor - version 0.10.2 installed via Helm or arc-extension The Defender sensor runs inside the Kubernetes cluster and monitors workload activity in real time. It provides: Runtime visibility into container processes Binary execution monitoring Behavioral inspection Alert and Block Malware execution Multicloud Support (Azure Kubernetes Service, AWS EKS, GCP GKE) Prerequisites: Ensure the following components of the Defender for containers plan are enabled: Defender sensor Security findings Registry access Kubernetes API access To Install Defender Sensor for Antimalware, ensure there are sufficient resources on your Kubernetes Cluster and outbound connectivity. In addition to the core sensor memory and CPU requirements, you need: Component Request Limit CPU 50m 300m Memory 128Mi 500Mi All sensor components use outbound-only connectivity (no inbound access required). To install Defender for Containers sensor follow the guidance here To Verify the sensor deployed successfully on all nodes, use the commands as screenshot below: You should see the collectors pods in Running state with 3/3 containers. 2) Antimalware Policy Engine Policies define what happens when malware is detected: Alert only Block execution Ignore (allowlisted cases) Policies can be scoped to Azure subscriptions, AWS Accounts and GCP Projects and also to Specific clusters, Namespaces, Pods, Images, Labels or workloads. This allows organizations to reduce false positives while enforcing strict security where needed. Host vs Workload Protection — How Sensor Covers Both Antimalware Rules can be applied to Resource scopes: Scope What Is Protected Workload (Container) Processes inside containers Host (Node) Kubernetes node OS and runtime Default rules include: Default antimalware workload rule Default antimalware host rule This matters because attackers often escape containers and target kubelet, container runtime, and node filesystem. Blocking malware at both workload and host layers prevents cluster takeover. To configure the Antimalware policy follow the guidance here To verify the antimalware policy is deployed to the cluster, login to your K8s cluster and use the commands as screenshot below: 3) Cloud Protection (Microsoft Defender Antivirus Cloud) Defender for Containers Sensor integrates with Microsoft Defender Antivirus cloud protection, which provides Global threat intelligence, Machine learning classification, Reputation scoring, Zero-day detection. When suspicious binaries appear, cloud analysis determines whether they should be allowed or blocked. To test Malware detection and blocking, upload an EICAR file to a running Container on your cluster. If policy action = Block Malware, the sensor performs enforcement. Blocking actions include, Killing malicious process and Generates Defender for Cloud alert as below: The malware is detected and execution is blocked. Defender for Cloud Alerts are also available in Defender XDR portal. Security Operations teams can further investigate the infected file by navigating to the Incidents and Alerts section in the Defender portal. When a container or pod is determined to be compromised, Defender XDR enables Security Operations Team to take response actions. For more details : Investigate and respond to container threats in the Microsoft Defender portal Binary Drift Detection and Prevention : Containers are expected to be immutable. Running containers should only execute binaries that came from the original container image. This is extremely important because most container attacks involve Curl/wget downloading malware, Crypto miners dropped post-compromise, Attack tools installed dynamically. For more details refer Binary drift detection and blocking Defender detects runtime drift, such as New binaries downloaded after deployment Files written into container filesystem Tools installed via reverse shell Payloads dropped by attackers To Configure drift detection and prevention policy follow the guidance here . When a drift is detected on a container workload, Defender for Container sensor detects drift and prevents it from being drifted. To test drift prevention, deploy a container and introduce a drift in the running container. The drift will be detected by the sensor and prevents drift, and alert is generated as shown in the screenshot below: References: Anti-malware detection and blocking Install Defender for Containers sensor using Helm Binary drift detection and blocking Investigate and respond to container threats in the Microsoft Defender portal Reviewed by: Eyal Gur, Principal Product Manager, Microsoft Defender for CloudDefender for servers (P1)
Hey guys, I enabled my Defender for cloud trial licens (P1) for my Windows servers. They are onboarded and i can see them visually in the (security.microsoft.com) EDR Portal. My enforcement scope is set to Intune - so all my AV policies etc are created there. I want to create a AV Policy for my Windows servers but i can't see the objects in Entra. What is best practice. To register them in Entra manually or should it automaticlly create a object in Entra during the onboarding process? Can't create & assign a AV policy etc until i create a group and put all my servers into that group. Any ideas? Also might be worth mentioning i see that they are managed by "unknown" and not Microsoft Sense? Should i point back the scope to the Defender portal? Whilst my endpoints are managed by Intune.Updating SDK for Java used by Defender for Server/CSPM in AWS
Hi, I have a customer who is Defender for Cloud/CSPM in AWS. Last week, Cloud AWS Health Dashboard lit up with a recommendation around the use of AWS SDK for Java 1.x in their organization. This version will reach end of support on December 31, 2025. The recommendation is to migrate to AWS SDK for Java 2.x. The issue is present in all of AWS workload accounts. They found that a large amount of these alerts is caused by the Defender CSPM service, running remotely, and using AWS SDK for Java 1.x. Customer attaching a couple of sample events that were gathered from the CloudTrail logs. Please note that in both cases: assumed-role: DefenderForCloud-Ciem sourceIP: 20.237.136.191 (MS Azure range) userAgent: aws-sdk-java/1.12.742 Linux/6.6.112.1-2.azl3 OpenJDK_64-Bit_Server_VM/21.0.9+10-LTS java/21.0.9 kotlin/1.6.20 vendor/Microsoft cfg/retry-mode/legacy cfg/auth-source#unknown Can someone provide guidance about this? How to find out if DfC is going to leverage AWS SDK for Java 2.x after Dec 31, 2025? Thanks, Terru
Automate Defender for Cloud settings: FIM, Vulnerability Assessment, and Guest Configuration Agent
I’m working on automating the configuration of Microsoft Defender for Cloud – Server Plans across multiple subscriptions (100+), including any newly deployed subscriptions. The goal is to avoid manual changes and ensure compliance from day one. Current Setup: I’ve used the built-in policy: Configure Microsoft Defender for Servers plan, which successfully enables: Defender for Cloud Plan P2 Endpoint Protection Agentless scanning I attempted to copy this policy and add parameters for Vulnerability Assessment, but the assignment fails with an error. What I’ve Tried: For File Integrity Monitor: Policy name → Configure ChangeTracking Extension for Windows virtual machines For Vulnerability Assessment: Policy name → Configure machines to receive a vulnerability assessment provider Assigning these policies works on my non-prod subscription, but the toggle in Defender for Cloud → Environment Settings remains No. Challenge: How can I ensure these options (File Integrity Monitoring, Vulnerability Assessment, and preferably Guest Configuration Agent) are automatically enabled for: All existing subscriptions Any new subscriptions created in the future Goal: No manual intervention in Defender for Cloud portal Fully automated via Azure Policy or another recommended approach uestions: Is there a way to extend the built-in policy or create a custom initiative that enforces these settings at the subscription level? Are there ARM templates, Bicep modules, Powershell scripts or REST API calls that can toggle these settings programmatically? Any best practices for ensuring compliance across multiple subscriptions? Any help is much appreciated and looking forward to your expertise! Thank you in advance. Best Regards, Pascal SlotMicrosoft Defender for Cloud expands U.S. Gov Cloud support for CSPM and server security
U.S. government organizations face unique security and compliance challenges as they migrate essential workloads to the cloud. To help meet these needs, Microsoft Defender for Cloud has expanded support in the Government Cloud with Defender cloud security posture management (CSPM) and Defender for Servers Plan 2. This expansion helps strengthen security posture with advanced threat protection, vulnerability management, and contextual risk insights across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. Defender CSPM and Defender for Servers are available in the following Microsoft Government Clouds: Microsoft Azure Government (MAG) – FedRamp High, DISA IL4, DISA IL5 Government Community Cloud High (GCCH) – FedRamp High, DISA IL4 Defender for Cloud offers support for CSPM in U.S. Government Cloud First, Defender CSPM is generally available for U.S. Government cloud customers. This expansion brings advanced cloud security posture management capabilities to U.S. federal and government agencies—including the Department of Defense (DoD) and civilian agencies—helping them strengthen their security posture and compliance in the cloud. Defender CSPM empowers agencies to continuously discover, assess, monitor, and improve their cloud security posture, including the ability to monitor and correct configuration drift, ensuring they meet regulatory requirements and proactively manage risk in highly regulated environments. Additional benefits for government agencies: Continuous Compliance Assurance Unlike static audits, Defender CSPM provides real-time visibility into the security posture of cloud environments. This enables agencies to demonstrate ongoing compliance with federal standards—anytime, not just during audit windows Risk-Based Prioritization Defender CSPM uses contextual insights and attack path analysis to help security teams focus on the most critical risks first—maximizing impact while optimizing limited resources Agentless Monitoring With agentless scanning, agencies can assess workloads without deploying additional software—ideal for sensitive or legacy systems Security recommendations in Defender CSPM To learn more about Defender CSPM, visit our technical documentation. Defender for Cloud now offers full feature parity for server security in U.S. Government Cloud In addition to Defender CSPM, we’re also expanding our support for server security in the U.S. GovCloud. Government agencies face mounting challenges in securing the servers that support their critical operations and sensitive data. As server environments expand across on-premises, hybrid, and multicloud platforms, maintaining consistent security controls and compliance with federal standards like FedRAMP and NIST SP 800-53 becomes increasingly difficult. Manual processes and periodic audits can’t keep up with configuration drift, unpatched vulnerabilities, and evolving threats—leaving agencies exposed to breaches and compliance risks. Defender for Servers provides continuous, automated threat protection, vulnerability management, and compliance monitoring across all server environments, enabling agencies to safeguard their infrastructure and maintain a strong security posture. We are excited to share that all capabilities in Defender for Servers Plan 2 are now available in U.S. GovCloud, including these newly added capabilities: Agent-based and agentless vulnerability assessment recommendations Secrets detection recommendations EDR detection recommendations Agentless malware detection File integrity monitoring Baseline recommendations Customers can start using all capabilities of Defender for Servers Plan 2 in U.S. Government Cloud starting today. To learn more about Defender for Servers, visit our technical documentation. Get started today! To gain access to the robust capabilities provided by Defender CSPM and Defender for Servers, you need to enable the plans on your subscription. To enable the Defender CSPM and Defender for Servers plans on your subscription: Sign in to the Azure portal. Search for and select Microsoft Defender for Cloud. In the Defender for Cloud menu, select Environment settings. Select the relevant Azure subscription On the Defender plans page, toggle the Defender CSPM plan and/or Defender for Servers to On. Select Save.File Integrity Monitoring - Agentless Issues in Detecting Changes to Files
Hello! Looks like there have been some recent updates made to File Integrity Monitoring. After reviewing the MS documentation https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/defender-for-cloud/file-integrity-monitoring-overview#recommended-items-to-monitor it looks like you can now create custom Rules for Files and for custom Registry keys. From what I can gather from the documentation, agentless scans are used for custom rules that you create and an agentless scan occurs once every 24 hours. I have created several custom rules to detect if a file has been Deleted, Added, Modified or Renamed and Defender for Cloud is still not detecting any changes. I have made changes to these files 3 days ago, and no changes have been reported back. Any ideas why this might not be working. I have already confirmed that the appropriate RBAC Roles have been assigned to my Key Vaults where CMK Disks are being used. I also wanted to know if the Agentless FIM can monitor Folders / Directories as well. I haven't seen anything about this in the documentation. Is this even supported?
Unable to resolve - A vulnerability assessment solution should be enabled on your virtual machines
We currently have a mix of approximately 45 Windows / Linux Servers and AVD machines which are not successfully being marked as compliant with the Defender recommendation "A vulnerability assessment solution should be enabled on your virtual machines". On the subscription level we have Defender for Servers Plan 2 enabled and Agentless Scanning CSPM enabled. Within a subscription some of the of these VMs are compliant and others are not. Their compliance state doesn't appear to have any relevance to if the Qualys or MDE extensions are installed. We have servers that are healthy that have Qualys, MDE, or none installed and are healthy. Our VMs are not using the full feature set of Defender Plan 2 as we use CrowdStrike so the Defender for Endpoint functionality of the Defender for Servers Plan 2 has been disabled, but to my knowledge this shouldn't impact Vulnerability assessments. In Security Portal it does seem that generally all the VMs that healthy for this recommendation are visible in the devices section. Whereas these 45 that are not, are either not searchable or have sensor health state "inactive". We have an Azure Policy generated to onboard devices to Vulnerability assessment using MDE.Tvm and it seems to be generally working but not for these 45 devices. The Microsoft Documentation is really unclear, what do we need to make these systems compliant?Guidance for handling CVE-2025-31324 using Microsoft Security capabilities
Short Description Recently, a CVSS 10 vulnerability, CVE-2025-31324, affecting the "Visual Composer" component of the SAP NetWeaver application server, has been published, putting organizations at risk. In this blog post, we will show you how to effectively manage this CVE if your organization is affected by it. Exploiting this vulnerability involves sending a malicious POST request to the "/developmentserver/metadatauploader" endpoint of the SAP NetWeaver application server, which allows allow arbitrary file upload and execution. Impact: This vulnerability allows attackers to deploy a webshell and execute arbitrary commands on the SAP server with the same permissions as the SAP service. This specific SAP product is typically used in large organizations, on Linux and Windows servers across on-prem and cloud environments - making the impact of this vulnerability significant. Microsoft have already observed active exploits of this vulnerability in the wild, highlighting the urgency of addressing this issue. Mapping CVE-2025-31324 in Your Organization The first step in managing an incident is to map affected software within your organization’s assets. Using the Vulnerability Page Information on this CVE, including exposed devices and software in your organization, is available from the vulnerability page for CVE-2025-31324. Using Advanced Hunting This query searches software vulnerable to the this CVE and summarizes them by device name, OS version and device ID: DeviceTvmSoftwareVulnerabilities | where CveId == "CVE-2025-31324" | summarize by DeviceName, DeviceId, strcat(OSPlatform, " ", OSVersion), SoftwareName, SoftwareVersion To map the presence of additional, potentially vulnerable SAP NetWeaver servers in your environment, you can use the following Advanced Hunting query: *Results may be incomplete due to reliance on activity data, which means inactive instances of the application - those installed but not currently running, might not be included in the report. DeviceProcessEvents | where (FileName == "disp+work.exe" and ProcessVersionInfoProductName == "SAP NetWeaver") or FileName == "disp+work" | distinct DeviceId, DeviceName, FileName, ProcessVersionInfoProductName, ProcessVersionInfoProductVersion Where available, the ProcessVersionInfoProductVersion field contains the version of the SAP NetWeaver software. Optional: Utilizing software inventory to map devices is advisable even when a CVE hasn’t been officially published or when there’s a specific requirement to upgrade a particular package and version. This query searches for devices that have a vulnerable versions installed (you can use this link to open the query in your environment): DeviceTvmSoftwareInventory | where SoftwareName == "netweaver_application_server_visual_composer" | parse SoftwareVersion with Major:int "." Minor:int "." BuildDate:datetime "." rest:string | extend IsVulnerable = Minor < 5020 or BuildDate < datetime(2025-04-18) | project DeviceId, DeviceName, SoftwareVendor, SoftwareName, SoftwareVersion, IsVulnerable Using a dedicated scanner You can leverage Microsoft’s lightweight scanner to validate if your SAP NetWeaver application is vulnerable. This scanner probes the vulnerable endpoint without actively exploiting it. Recommendations for Mitigation and Best Practices Mitigating risks associated with vulnerabilities requires a combination of proactive measures and real-time defenses. Here are some recommendations: Update NetWeaver to a Non-Vulnerable Version: All NetWeaver 7.x versions are vulnerable. For versions 7.50 and above, support packages SP027 - SP033 have been released and should be installed. Versions 7.40 and below do not receive new support packages and should implement alternative mitigations. JIT (Just-In-Time) Access: Cloud customers using Defender for Servers P2 can utilize our "JIT" feature to protect their environment from unnecessary ports and risks. This feature helps secure your environment by limiting exposure to only the necessary ports. The Microsoft research team has identified common ports that are potential to be used by these components, so you can check or use JIT for these. It is important to mention that JIT can be used for any port, but these are the most common ones. Learn more about the JIT capability Ports commonly used by the vulnerable application as observed by Microsoft: 80, 443, 50000, 50001, 1090, 5000, 8000, 8080, 44300, 44380 Active Exploitations To better support our customers in the event of a breach, we are expanding our detection framework to identify and alert you about the exploitation of this vulnerability across all operating systems (for MDE customers). These detectors, as all Microsoft detections, are also connected to Automatic Attack Disruption, our autonomous protection vehicle. In cases where these alerts, alongside other signals, will allow for high confidence of an ongoing attack, automatic actions will be taken to contain the attack and prevent further progressions of the attack. Coverage and Detections Currently, our solutions support coverage of CVE-2025-31324 for Windows and Linux devices that are onboarded to MDE (in both MDE and MDC subscriptions). To further expand our support, Microsoft Defender Vulnerability management is currently deploying additional detection mechanisms. This blog will be updated with any changes and progress. Conclusion By following these guidelines and utilizing end-to-end integrated Microsoft Security products, organizations can better prepare for, prevent and respond to attacks, ensuring a more secure and resilient environment. While the above process provides a comprehensive approach to protecting your organization, continual monitoring, updating, and adapting to new threats are essential for maintaining robust security.Cost Calculator for Defender for Cloud (Public Preview)
Did you know Microsoft Defender for Cloud has a built-in cost calculator to easily calculate the costs of protected resources in your cloud environment? No? Well, I didn’t either until I stumbled upon the button in the MDC portal myself. Apparently, Microsoft announced the preview for the MDC cost calculator last month, on February 19, 2025. With this post, I’m sharing my experience with this new cost calculator for Microsoft Defender for Cloud, providing guidance and comparing available options to calculate the costs. https://myronhelgering.com/cost-calculator-for-defender-for-cloud/
