Skip to main content

πŸ“ Azure Virtual Machine Unapproved Extensions are installed 🟒

  • Contextual name: πŸ“ Unapproved Extensions are installed 🟒
  • ID: /ce/ca/azure/virtual-machine/uninstall-unapproved-extensions
  • Located in: πŸ“ Azure Virtual Machines

Flags​

Our Metadata​

  • Policy Type: COMPLIANCE_POLICY
  • Policy Category:
    • SECURITY

Similar Policies​

Description​

Open File

Description​

For added security, only install organization-approved extensions on VMs.

Rationale​

Azure virtual machine extensions are small applications that provide post-deployment configuration and automation tasks on Azure virtual machines. These extensions run with administrative privileges and could potentially access anything on a virtual machine. The Azure Portal and community provide several such extensions. Each organization should carefully evaluate these extensions and ensure that only those that are approved for use are actually implemented.

Impact​

Functionality by unsupported extensions will be disabled.

Audit​

From Azure Portal​
  1. Go to Virtual machines.
  2. For each virtual machine, click on the server name to select it go to.
  3. In the new column menu, under Settings Click on Extensions + applications.
  4. Ensure that all the listed extensions are approved by your organization for use.
From Azure CLI​

Use the below command to list the extensions attached to a VM, and ensure the listed extensions are approved for use:

... see more

Remediation​

Open File

Remediation​

From Azure Portal​

  1. Go to Virtual machines.
  2. For each virtual machine, go to Settings.
  3. Click on Extensions + applications.
  4. If there are unapproved extensions, uninstall them.

From Azure CLI​

From the audit command identify the unapproved extensions, and use the below CLI command to remove an unapproved extension attached to VM:

az vm extension delete --resource-group <resourceGroupName> --vm-name <vmName> --name <extensionName>

From PowerShell​

For each VM and each insecure extension from the Audit Procedure run the following command:

Remove-AzVMExtension -ResourceGroupName <ResourceGroupName> -Name <ExtensionName> -VMName <VirtualMachineName>

policy.yaml​

Open File

Linked Framework Sections​

SectionSub SectionsInternal RulesPoliciesFlags
πŸ’Ό CIS Azure v2.1.0 β†’ πŸ’Ό 7.5 Ensure that Only Approved Extensions Are Installed - Level 1 (Manual)1
πŸ’Ό CIS Azure v3.0.0 β†’ πŸ’Ό 8.7 Ensure that Only Approved Extensions Are Installed (Manual)1
πŸ’Ό Cloudaware Framework β†’ πŸ’Ό Threat Protection25