Enhancements for protecting hosted SQL servers across clouds and hybrid environments
Introduction We are releasing an architecture upgrade for the Defender for SQL Servers on Machines plan. This upgrade is designed to simplify the onboarding experience and improve protection coverage. In this blog post, we will discuss details about the architecture upgrade and the key steps customers using the Defender for SQL Servers on Machine plan should take to adopt an optimal protection strategy following this update. Overview of Defender for Cloud database security and the Defender for SQL Servers on Machines plan Databases are an essential part of building modern applications. Microsoft Defender for Cloud, a Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP), provides comprehensive database security capabilities to assist security and infrastructure administrators in identifying and mitigating security posture risks, and help Security Operation Center (SOC) analysts detect and respond to database cyberattacks. As organizations advance their digital transformation, a comprehensive database security strategy that covers hybrid and multicloud scenarios is essential. The Defender for SQL Servers on Machines plan delivers this by protecting SQL Server instances hosted on Azure, AWS, GCP, and on-premises machines. It provides database security posture management capabilities and threat protection capabilities to help you start secure and stay secure when building applications. More specifically, it helps to: Centralize discovery of managed and shadow databases across clouds and hybrid environments. Reduce database risks using risk-based recommendations and attack path analysis. Detect and respond to database threats including SQL injections, access anomaly, and suspicious queries. SOC teams can also detect and investigate attacks on databases using built-in integration with Microsoft Defender XDR. Benefits of the agent upgrade for the Defender for SQL Servers on Machine plan Starting from April 28, 2025, we began a gradual rollout of an upgraded agent architecture for the Defender for SQL Servers on Machines plan. This upgraded architecture is designed to simplify the onboarding process and improve protection coverage. This upgrade will eliminate the Azure Monitor framework dependency and replace it with a proven, native SQL extension infrastructure. Azure SQL VMs and Azure Arc-enabled SQL Servers will automatically migrate to the updated architecture. Actions required after the upgrade Although the agent architecture upgrade will be automatic, customers the have enabled the Defender for SQL Servers on Machines plan before April 28th, will need to take action to ensure they adopt optimal plan configurations to help detect and protect unregistered SQL Servers. 1) Update the Defender for SQL Servers on Machines plan configuration for optimal protection coverage To automatically discover unregistered SQL Servers, customers are required to update the plan configurations using this guide. This will ensure Defender for SQL Servers on Machines plan can detect and protect all SQL Server instances. Click the Enable button to update the agent configuration setting: 2) Verify the protection status of SQL virtual machines or Arc-enabled SQL servers Defender for Cloud provides a recommendation titled "The status of Microsoft SQL Servers on Machines should be protected” to help customers assess the protection status of all registered SQL Servers hosted on Azure, AWS, GCP, and on-premises machines within a specified Azure subscription and presents the protection status of each SQL Server instance. Technical context on the architecture upgrade Historically, the Defender for SQL Servers on Machines plan relied on the Azure Monitor agent framework (MMA/AMA) to deliver its capabilities. However, this architecture has proven to be sensitive to diverse customer environmental factors, often introducing friction during agent installation and configuration. To address these challenges, we are introducing an upgraded agent architecture designed to reduce complexity, improve reliability, and streamline onboarding across varied infrastructures. Simplifying enablement with a new agent architecture The SQL extension is a management tool that is available on all Azure SQL virtual machines and SQL servers connected through Azure Arc. It plays a key role in helping simplify the migration process to Azure, enabling large-scale management of your SQL environments and enhancing the security posture of your databases. With the new agent architecture, Defender for SQL utilizes the SQL extension as a backchannel to streamline the data from SQL server instances to the Defender for Cloud portal. Product performance implications Our assessments confirm that the new architecture does not negatively impact performance. For more information, please refer to Common Questions - Defender for Databases. Learn more To learn more about the Defender for SQL Servers on Machines architecture upgrade designed to simplify the onboarding experience and enhance protection coverage, please visit our documentation and review the actions needed to adopt optimal plan configurations after the agent upgrade.
Defender for SQL for on-prem Azure Arc connected SQL servers
I am having trouble using the Azure Built-In policy "Configure Arc-enabled SQL Servers with DCR Association to Microsoft Defender for SQL user-defined DCR". I would assume a newly created DCR would work just fine, but I am unsure as when I use the policy that will automatically create a DCR and LA workspace, it works fine. Does my DCR need to be configured with a special data source and destination? (Similarly how Azure Monitor needs a special DCR for Arc machines)Microsoft Defender for Cloud PoC Series – Microsoft Defender for SQL
[Post updated on 8/22/2024] by Yura Lee Introduction This article is a continuation of Microsoft Defender PoC Series which provides you guidelines on how to perform a proof of concept for a specific Microsoft Defender plan. For a more holistic approach where you need to validate Microsoft Defender for Cloud, please read How to Effectively Perform a Microsoft Defender for Cloud PoC article. There can be many security vulnerabilities in databases that are sometimes taken advantage of by malicious actors. According to the Github 2020 report, a vulnerability typically goes undetected for 218 weeks (just over four years) before being disclosed and fixed. Injection attacks, such as those on SQL and NoSQL, are among the most popular types of cyberattacks for web applications (as per OWASP Top 10). SQL Injection attacks, brute-force attacks, SQL shell OS attacks leading to crypto-mining and ransomware, can be detected and remediated by the Microsoft Defender for SQL plan. Microsoft Defender for SQL has two main capabilities that together will protect your SQL environments from cyberattacks. These capabilities are: Vulnerability Assessment, which is a service that helps you identify and remediate vulnerabilities in your database environments to improve your security posture Advanced Threat Protection, which detects suspicious activities related to your databases and alerts you with details and recommended actions. There are other types of databases that will be protected via the advanced threat protection feature. Planning So, what actually gets protected through Microsoft Defender for SQL? There are two Microsoft Defender plans that are comprised as part of Microsoft Defender for SQL: Microsoft Defender for Azure SQL database servers protects: Azure SQL Database Azure SQL Managed Instance Dedicated SQL pool in Azure Synapse. Microsoft Defender for SQL servers on machines extends the protections for your to fully support hybrid environments and protects SQL servers hosted in Azure, other cloud environments, and even on-premises machines. It does this by protecting: SQL Server on Virtual Machines, On-premises SQL servers of Azure Arc enabled SQL Server SQL Server running on Windows machines without Azure Arc There is a third plan called Microsoft Defender for open-source relational databases that brings threat protection for: Azure Database for PostgreSQL Azure Database for MySQL Azure Database for MariaDB The final plan, Defender for Cosmos DB provides advanced threat detection capabilities for: Azure Cosmos DB, NoSQL API. Preparation You will need to first enable Microsoft Defender for SQL, and for this you need to have the role of Security Admin. For more information about roles and privileges, visit this article. You can enable the three plans for Microsoft for SQL (for Azure SQL database servers, SQL servers on machines, and open-source relational databases) by following the instructions here. If you are conducting this PoC in partnership with the SOC Team, make sure they are familiar with the alerts that may appear once you enable this plan. Review all alerts available at our Alerts Reference Guide. From the readiness perspective, make sure to review the following resources to better understand Microsoft Defender for SQL: Microsoft Defender for SQL Documentation Defender for SQL and the Vulnerability Assessment | Defender for Cloud in the Field #1 Microsoft Defender for Cloud webinar: Microsoft Defender for SQL Anywhere (new!) Enhancements in Defender for SQL Vulnerability Assessment | Defender for Cloud in the Field #24 - YouTube Special Note for Defender for SQL servers on machines Microsoft Defender for SQL servers on machines requires Azure Montior Agent (AMA) installed, as well as a SQL Iaas extension for discovery and registration and it should report to a workspace to hold data collection rules (DCR). This workspace can be specified or you can allow MDC to create a default one for you. For machines that are not in Azure, all the above are required in addition to Arc installation. Read more about Arc-enabled servers here. Workspace configuration and automatic SQL server instance registration (recommended) can be done in Settings & monitoring. Make sure that Log analytics deployment is turned OFF, and AMA for SQL server on machines is turned ON. Implementation and Validation There are two ways to validate alerts. First, you can use the out of box sample alert feature to validate. To create these sample alerts, you will need to have the role Security Admin or Subscription Contributor. To create sample alerts for Defender for SQL, go to Microsoft Defender for Cloud in the Security alerts section, click Sample alerts. Select your subscription, choose Azure SQL Database and SQL Server on machines on the Microsoft Defender plans, and click Create sample alerts. The other way is to run simulations against the server itself. Instructions for this is available on Github, as part of MDC labs here. Prevention Microsoft Defender for SQL allows you to remediate SQL vulnerabilities and prevent SQL incidents and alerts using SQL vulnerability assessment. To configure it on your Azure SQL databases and Azure SQL Managed Instance, go to the Recommendations page in Microsoft Defender for Cloud, and select one of the following recommendations under the control Remediate security configurations: For Azure SQL databases, select the recommendation Vulnerability assessment should be enabled on your SQL servers. For Azure SQL Manage Instances, select the recommendation Vulnerability assessment should be enabled on your SQL managed instances. When Microsoft Defender for SQL is enabled on your SQL Server on machines, SQL vulnerability assessment does not require initial configuration, as it is included with SQL Server. In this article, we will demo SQL vulnerability assessment for Azure SQL database. Select the recommendation SQL servers should have vulnerability assessment configured. From here, select the unhealthy resource that you’d like to configure vulnerability assessment on, and click Fix. In the pane that appears, click Fix 1 resource. Next, to remediate vulnerability findings from your SQL databases and SQL Server on machines, go to the Recommendations page in Microsoft Defender for Cloud. Under the control Remediate security configurations, select one of the following recommendations: For Azure SQL databases and Azure SQL Manage Instances, select the recommendation SQL databases should have vulnerability findings resolved. For SQL Server on machine, select the recommendation SQL servers on machines should have vulnerability findings resolved. In this article, we will demo SQL databases should have vulnerability findings resolved. From here, select any of the unhealthy resources. Then select the finding you wish to remediate. In this example, we’ll be selecting Auditing should be enabled at the server level. Then select the database. Once again, click the finding you wish to remediate, which in our case is Auditing should be enabled at the server level. Select Click here to remediate. Alternatively, you may decide that this finding does not pose a security risk for your environment. In this case, you should create an acceptable baseline, which is essentially a customisation that tells the Vulnerability Assessment what is expected in your environment. To do this, select Approve as Baseline, and follow the subsequent instructions. Vulnerability Assessment recurring scans in your environment, and in upcoming scans after this, any results that match the baseline you established are considered as passes. Only reports on deviations from this baseline will appear as findings in the Vulnerability Assessment dashboard. This allows you to focus your attention only on the relevant issues. Learn more about this here. Continue remediating and/or setting baselines across all the findings and databases to improve your SQL security posture. Automations Instead of following the manual process above to remediate recommendations on SQL databases, you can use the automated ways to remediate recommendations related to SQL like, Vulnerability assessment should be enabled on your SQL servers, Enable auditing on SQL server, Enable transparent data encryption on SQL databases and many more like these in our Microsoft Defender for Cloud Github repository. This repository gives you access to numerous sample security playbooks that will help in automating remediation for a recommendation. You can also utilize workflow automation feature in Microsoft Defender for Cloud which can trigger Logic Apps on Security alerts, recommendations, and changes to regulatory compliance. For example, when Microsoft Defender for Cloud detects a brute force attack, you may want this to be automatically taken care off, you can use this playbook as a starting point. To understand how to remediate security alerts using Microsoft Defender, make sure you check out this chapter from SC-200 certification exam learning guide. You can also create an automatic response to a specific security alert using an ARM template, read more about it in our documentation. Further Resources How Microsoft Defender for SQL can protect SQL servers anywhere - YouTube (new!) Defender for Open-Source Relational Databases Multicloud | Defender for Cloud in the Field #51 (youtube.com) Latest Updates (new!) Microsoft Defender for Open-Source Relational Databases Now Supports Multicloud (AWS RDS) (new!)Microsoft Defender for Cloud Adds Full Coverage for Azure Open-Source Relational Databases - Microsoft Community Hub (new!) Better Together = Defender CSPM + Database Protections - Microsoft Community Hub (new!) Microsoft Defender for SQL is now available on the SQL Virtual Machine blade. - Microsoft Tech Community Conclusion By the end of this PoC you should be able to determine the value proposition of Microsoft Defender for SQL and the importance to have this level of threat detection to your workloads. Stay tuned for more Microsoft Defender for Cloud PoC Series! P.S. Subscribe to our Microsoft Defender for Cloud Newsletter to stay up to date on helpful tips and new releases and join our Tech Community where you can be one of the first to hear the latest Microsoft Defender for Cloud news, announcements and get your questions answered by Azure Security experts. Reviewers Special Thanks to Yuri Diogenes, Safeena Begum, David Trigano and Michael Makhlevich for reviewing this article.Microsoft Defender for Open-Source Relational Databases Now Supports Multicloud (AWS RDS)
Introduction: Many organizations use multiple cloud providers today, which makes security misconfigurations more likely due to the solution scale and complexity. Moreover, different practices and concepts among each cloud provider’s implementation create bigger internal knowledge gaps. No matter how many cloud providers an organization uses, a database is the core of each application, storing the organization’s most valuable data: PII, financial and payment information, medical information, and other sensitive data. This makes databases the most attractive attack target for any threat actor – from inside or outside. Even though there is more awareness of exposure misconfigurations (thanks to cybersecurity education and posture management products that reveal these issues), public datasets show that the most risky database misconfiguration - exposing databases to the internet is not going down. This fact emphasizes the importance of threat protection that will act as a last line of defense and help detect, in near real-time, attacks that endanger databases and the critical data they contain. Internet exposed databases count through time. (Source: Time series · General statistics · The Shadowserver Foundation) Announcement: Microsoft Defender for open-source relational databases have been long focusing on providing comprehensive protection for Azure databases. Today, we're excited to announce another significant milestone in our cloud database security journey: Microsoft Defender for open-source relational databases plans now extend their protection to multicloud environments, starting with Amazon RDS on AWS. The workloads supported in AWS RDS are: Aurora PostgreSQL Aurora MySQL PostgreSQL MySQL MariaDB This release includes full parity with the alert types of support for managed Azure OSS databases: Anomalous database access and query patterns - For example, a logon from a suspicious location or from a domain not seen in the past 60 days. Suspicious database activities - For example, a user accessing a database service from a breached computer which communicated with a crypto-mining C&C server. Brute-force attacks – With the ability to separate simple brute force attempt from a successful brute force. Under public preview, you can turn on the Defender for open-source relational databases plan for AWS RDS at no cost. This marks a pivotal moment in our commitment to securing your business-critical data across cloud environments. This announcement makes Microsoft the sole major security provider offering multicloud database protection, a significant step forward in building an end-to-end multicloud & Cloud native application protection platform (CNAPP). Defender for Cloud stands out with its comprehensive approach, covering a diverse range of databases and leveraging Microsoft's dual role as a cloud and security provider. This integration enables us to provide unparalleled scanning depth and real-time threat detection capabilities, enhancing security across multicloud environments. This multicloud database protection announcement is part of Microsoft's commitment to build a comprehensive Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP). CNAPP integrates advanced data threat intelligence, , and data threat protection to provide in depth cloud data security insight and breadth of data security protection across various cloud platforms. Microsoft's CNAPP infographic Features You will now have full flexibility to mix and match the protection on your multicloud databases: Protection layers for multicloud database protection Foundational CSPM – Free out of the box (OOTB) control plane recommendations are generated once you connect your account to Microsoft Defender for Cloud. Recommendations are evaluated and generated OOTB for all connected cloud environments. Advanced posture management with Defender CSPM (DCSPM) - Discovers your databases, what types of sensitive data they contain and assesses risk to that data based on context gathered across all the clouds in the customer’s scope. Misconfigurations and sensitive data are discovered and displayed as part of an attack path Advanced threat protection with Defender for open-source relational databases – Provides threat protection by generating near real-time alerts based on suspicious and anomalous access patterns to your databases. Attack path also highlights active attack on the vulnerable resources MDC lists the alert history on the resource we can see brute force attacks, connections from harmful applications and more Brute force attack detected from an IP that was reported as a Tor exit node Finally, Microsoft Defender for Cloud offers seamless integration with Defender XDR, which offers enhanced threat detection and response capabilities. It's crucial for organizations to adopt both Defender for Cloud and Defender XDR personas to effectively manage and mitigate security risks across their multicloud environments. Defender XDR identified an incident where the same IP tried to brute force cloud databases in AWS and Azure Sensitive data discovery is built-in! Defender for open-source databases on AWS will be the first database threat protection plan to bundle sensitive data discovery as part of its core value, without depending on other plans (such as DCSPM) or incur additional costs. Once the plan is enabled the discovery process will be scheduled weekly and you will be able to consume the findings in all the main MDC experiences: Alerts - filter alerts by resources with findings, alert page enrichment Inventory – filter resources with findings Resource health – enrichment with findings Security explorer (new!) – You will also be able to query the findings using security explorer even without enabling DCSPM. Only findings’ data will be queryable – other pieces of context require enabling DCSPM. Conclusion In conclusion, Microsoft Defender for open-source relational databases now support multicloud database protections in AWS RDS environments. This change signifies a pivotal advancement in cloud security. Through its holistic approach embodied by CNAPP, Microsoft empowers organizations to safeguard their critical data assets consistently across diverse cloud platforms. Resources: To learn more about Defender for Cloud, click here. Read about Defender for open-source relational databases documentation here. Read about sensitive data discovery. Defender for open-source relational databases alerts reference. Start free trial here.
Unleashing the Power of Microsoft Defender for Cloud – Unique Capabilities for Robust Protection
So you have implemented a non-native Cloud Security Posture Management solution but there are security gaps that you might not have considered. How Defender for Cloud is uniquely positioned to secure your cloud attack surface.New express configuration for Vulnerability Assessment in Microsoft Defender for SQL- Public Preview
Users of Microsoft Defender for SQL can enjoy full database protection from two components: Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) for real-time detection of attacks and Vulnerability Assessment (VA) that scans, flags, and reports on database misconfigurations that may result in vulnerabilities for attackers to exploit. We are pleased to announce the public preview of the new express configuration experience for Vulnerability Assessment in Microsoft Defender for SQL that provides security teams with streamlined configuration experience on Azure SQL Databases and Azure Synapse Dedicated SQL Pools (formerly SQL DW). Benefits of Microsoft Defender for SQL Vulnerability Assessment express configuration Until now, the Vulnerability Assessment within Defender for SQL requires a customer-managed Azure storage account for correct configuration to store scan results and baseline settings. With the new express configuration experience for vulnerability assessments, security teams can: Configure vulnerability assessment with one click (within the SQL resource UI in Defender for Cloud blade), without any additional settings or dependencies on customer-managed storage accounts. Microsoft Defender for SQL Settings Blade • Apply baselines without rescanning a database - once you select “Add all results as baseline”, the status of that finding will change from Unhealthy to Healthy immediately Status becomes healthy immediately • Set baselines at scale (multiple rules at once, can also be based on latest scan results) • Enable the vulnerability assessment capability for all Azure SQL Servers when turning on the Microsoft Defender for SQL bundle at the subscription-level Get Started The new configuration experience is available through the Microsoft Defender for Cloud blade under your Azure SQL Server resource at no extra cost for Microsoft Defender for SQL customers, or when configuring the Defender for SQL bundle at the subscription level. For the purpose of the public preview, express configuration will only support server-level policies on logical servers containing: Azure SQL Databases and Azure Synapse Dedicated SQL Pools (formerly SQL DW). Express configuration will be applied in the following scenarios: The Microsoft Defender for SQL plan is enabled on the SQL Server (this is the new default configuration for vulnerability assessment). Microsoft Defender for SQL plan was turned on the subscription level after the public preview release date (available December 22). Customer chose to switch from the SQL Server/Database Microsoft Defender for Cloud blade or the server settings blade. Microsoft Defender for Cloud blade: SQL vulnerability assessment is not configured warning Settings blade: SQL vulnerability assessment is not configured warning in Settings blade Common Questions Q: What else do I need to know before switching to express configuration? A: Not all classic configuration features are available in express configuration so please review the full comparison in the official documentation. Also, be aware that switching from classic to express configuration during the preview will not migrate existing baselines and scan history. Q: What happens to the Azure storage accounts currently configured for VA after switching to express configuration? A: Express configuration doesn’t change the data in the storage accounts, it just stops writing baselines and scan results to those accounts. You are not required to maintain these files for SQL vulnerability assessment to work after switching to express configuration, but you may want to keep your old baseline definitions in case you’ll need them for reference in the future. Q: Where are the scan results and baselines stored now with the express configuration of VA? A: On internal storage accounts that comply with our data residency standards. Customers will no longer have direct access to these files. Q: Does express configuration change scan behaviour? A: No, express configuration provides the same scanning behaviour and performance. Q: Does express configuration have any effect on pricing? A: Enabling or switching to express configuration comes at no extra cost. Since you are no longer required to maintain a storage account, you will no longer have to pay additional storage fees (if you choose to delete old scan and baseline data) Additional Resources Microsoft Docs: SQL vulnerability assessment - Azure SQL Database & SQL Managed Instance & Azure Synapse Analytics | Microsoft Docs Supplemental Terms of Use for Microsoft Azure Previews Huge thanks to the reviewers of this post: @Dick Lake, Senior Product Manager, Microsoft Defender for Cloud @Linnet Kariuki, Program Manager, Microsoft Defender for Cloud
