Description

Turning on Microsoft Defender for Azure SQL Databases enables threat detection for Managed Instance Azure SQL databases, providing threat intelligence, anomaly detection, and behavior analytics in Microsoft Defender for Cloud.

Rationale

Enabling Microsoft Defender for Azure SQL Databases allows for greater defense-in-depth, includes functionality for discovering and classifying sensitive data, surfacing and mitigating potential database vulnerabilities, and detecting anomalous activities that could indicate a threat to your database.

Impact

Turning on Microsoft Defender for Azure SQL Databases incurs an additional cost per resource.

Audit

From Azure Portal

1. Go to Microsoft Defender for Cloud.
2. Under Management, select Environment Settings.
3. Click on the subscription name.
4. Select the Defender plans blade.
5. Click Select types > in the row for Databases.
6. Ensure the toggle switch next to Azure SQL Databases is set to On.

From Azure CLI

Run the following command:

az security pricing show -n SqlServers

Ensure PricingTier is set to Standard.

From PowerShell

Run the following command:

Get-AzSecurityPricing -Name 'SqlServers' | Select-Object Name,PricingTier

Ensure the PricingTier is set to Standard.

From Azure Policy

If referencing a digital copy of this Benchmark, clicking a Policy ID will open a link to the associated Policy definition in Azure.

• Policy ID: 7fe3b40f-802b-4cdd-8bd4-fd799c948cc2 - Name: Azure Defender for Azure SQL Database servers should be enabled

• Policy ID: abfb7388-5bf4-4ad7-ba99-2cd2f41cebb9 - Name: Azure Defender for SQL should be enabled for unprotected SQL Managed Instances

Default Value

By default, Microsoft Defender plan is off.

References

1. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/security-center/security-center-detection-capabilities
2. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/securitycenter/pricings/list
3. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/securitycenter/pricings/update
4. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/az.security/get-azsecuritypricing
5. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/security/benchmark/azure/mcsb-data-protection#dp-2-monitor-anomalies-and-threats-targeting-sensitive-data
6. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/security/benchmark/azure/mcsb-logging-threat-detection#lt-1-enable-threat-detection-capabilities