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8.6 Enable Role Based Access Control for Azure Key Vault (Automated)​

note

This rule has been changed to automated, see Automated Rules for CIS Azure 1.5.0 for details.

Profile Applicability​

• Level 2

Description​

The recommended way to access Key Vaults is to use the Azure role-based access control (RBAC) permissions model.

Azure RBAC is an authorization system built on Azure Resource Manager that provides fine-grained access management of Azure resources. It allows users to manage Key, Secret, and Certificate permissions. It provides one place to manage all permissions across all key vaults.

Rationale​

The new RBAC permissions model for Key Vaults enables a much finer grained access control for key vault secrets, keys, certificates, etc., than the vault access policy. This in turn will permit the use of privileged identity management over these roles, thus securing the key vaults with JIT Access management.

Impact​

Implementation needs to be properly designed from the ground up, as this is a fundamental change to the way key vaults are accessed/managed. Changing permissions to key vaults will result in loss of service as permissions are re-applied. For the least amount of downtime, map your current groups and users to their corresponding permission needs.

Audit​

From Azure Portal​

  1. From Azure Home open the Portal Menu in the top left corner.
  2. Select Key Vaults
  3. View the Key Vaults within your subscription.
  4. Open every Key Vault you wish to audit.
  5. Select Access Policies
  6. The Permission Model radio button should be set to Azure role-based control.

Remediation​

From Azure Portal​

Key Vaults on creation can be set to use Azure role-based control.

For already create Key Vaults :

  1. From Azure Home open the Portal Menu in the top left corner.
  2. Select Key Vaults
  3. View the Key Vaults within your subscription.
  4. Open every Key Vault you wish to audit.
  5. Select Access Policies
  6. Set the Permission Model radio button should be set to Azure role-based control.
  7. In the screen note the warning message, then click save if you have determined the impact.
  8. Select Access Control (IAM).
  9. Select the Role Assignments in the horizontal row.
  10. Reapply permissions as needed to groups or users.

References​

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/azure/key-vault/general/rbac-migration#vault-access-policy-to-azure-rbac-migration-steps
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/azure/role-based-access-control/role-assignments-portal?tabs=current
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/azure/role-based-access-control/overview
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/security/benchmark/azure/security-controls-v3-data-protection#dp-8-ensure-security-of-key-and-certificate-repository