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Introduction:
Traditional cloud security assessments often drown Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and consultants in a sea of data, generating 300-page reports that collect dust instead of driving change. The modern approach, leveraging automation and strategic context, shifts the focus from simply identifying issues to prioritizing and remediating the critical vulnerabilities that matter most to the client’s business.
Learning Objectives:
- Learn how to leverage Azure and Microsoft Entra ID automation tools to drastically reduce assessment time.
- Understand the methodology for mapping technical findings to business risk and exposure paths.
- Acquire the practical commands and scripts to operationalize findings into security-hardening projects.
You Should Know:
1. Automating the Initial Entra ID Security Assessment
Gathering a baseline of your identity security posture is the first critical step. Instead of manual checks, use Microsoft Graph API to quickly identify critical misconfigurations.
` PowerShell: Connect to Microsoft Graph and fetch risky user data
Connect-MgGraph -Scopes “User.Read.All”,”IdentityRiskEvent.Read.All”
Get-MgRiskDetection -All | Where-Object {$_.RiskLevel -eq “high”} | Select-Object Id, UserDisplayName, RiskDetail, DetectedDateTime`
Step 1: Install the Microsoft Graph PowerShell module (Install-Module Microsoft.Graph).
Step 2: Use `Connect-MgGraph` with the necessary scopes to authenticate.
Step 3: The `Get-MgRiskDetection` cmdlet fetches risk detections. Filtering for `”high”` risk levels immediately prioritizes the most vulnerable user accounts, providing a clear starting point for remediation.
2. Assessing Conditional Policies for Excessive Privileges
Overly permissive Conditional Access policies are a primary lateral movement path. This command lists all policies for analysis.
` PowerShell: Export all Conditional Access policies
Get-MgIdentityConditionalAccessPolicy | Select-Object DisplayName, State, GrantControls | Ft -AutoSize`
Step 1: Run the `Get-MgIdentityConditionalAccessPolicy` cmdlet.
Step 2: Review the DisplayName, `State` (enabled/disabled), and `GrantControls` (the access rules).
Step 3: Focus on enabled policies where `GrantControls` are overly broad, like granting access without requiring multi-factor authentication (MFA) from untrusted locations.
3. Identifying Privileged Roles with Cloud Shell Script
Privileged Identity Management (PIM) is key, but you must first know who holds privileged roles.
` Bash in Azure Cloud Shell: List all permanent global administrators
az ad user list –query “[?contains(assignedPlans,'[{\”capabilityStatus\”:\”Enabled\”}]’) && memberOf.roleDisplayName -eq ‘Global Administrator’]”.{DisplayName:displayName, UserPrincipalName:userPrincipalName} –output table`
Step 1: Open Azure Cloud Shell and ensure you are authenticated.
Step 2: This Azure CLI command queries for users who are permanently assigned the ‘Global Administrator’ role.
Step 3: Any permanent Global Admin is a critical finding. The goal is to have zero permanent admins, with all elevated access requiring PIM activation.
4. Hardening Storage Accounts Against Public Access
Misconfigured Azure Storage Accounts are a leading cause of data breaches. This command checks for anonymous read access.
Azure CLI: Check for storage accounts allowing anonymous blob public accesstrue
az storage account list --query "[?allowBlobPublicAccess==].{Name:name, ResourceGroup:resourceGroup}" --output table
Step 1: Run the command in your Azure CLI environment.
Step 2: It will list all storage accounts in your subscriptions where `allowBlobPublicAccess` is set to true.
Step 3: For each account listed, this should be a high-priority item to investigate and disable unless there is a specific, justified business requirement.
- Auditing Network Security Groups for Overly Permissive Rules
Open management ports to the internet are a direct line for attackers. This script audits NSG rules for critical vulnerabilities.
PowerShell: Find NSG rules allowing RDP/SSH from the internet
<h2 style="color: yellow;">Get-AzNetworkSecurityGroup | ForEach-Object {</h2>
<h2 style="color: yellow;">$nsgName = $_.Name</h2>
<h2 style="color: yellow;">$_.SecurityRules | Where-Object {</h2>
<h2 style="color: yellow;">($_.Direction -eq "Inbound") -and</h2>
<h2 style="color: yellow;">($_.Access -eq "Allow") -and</h2>
($_.SourceAddressPrefix -eq "Internet" -or $_.SourceAddressPrefix -eq "0.0.0.0/0" -or $_.SourceAddressPrefix -eq "") -and
<h2 style="color: yellow;">($_.DestinationPortRange -contains "3389" -or $_.DestinationPortRange -contains "22")</h2>
<h2 style="color: yellow;">} | Select-Object @{Name='NSG';Expression={$nsgName}}, Name, Protocol, SourceAddressPrefix, DestinationPortRange</h2>
<h2 style="color: yellow;">}
Step 1: Ensure you are connected to your Azure subscription with Connect-AzAccount.
Step 2: The script loops through all NSGs, looking for inbound `Allow` rules where the source is the internet and the destination ports are for RDP (3389) or SSH (22).
Step 3: Any findings should be treated as critical and remediated immediately by either removing the rule or restricting the source to a specific, trusted IP range.
- Leveraging the Azure Resource Graph for Cloud-Scale Querying
To move from days to minutes, you need to query your entire Azure estate at once. The Azure Resource Graph is designed for this.
Kusto Query Language (KQL) in Resource Graph Explorer: Find all VMs with public IPs but no associated NSG
<h2 style="color: yellow;">Resources</h2>
<h2 style="color: yellow;">| where type =~ 'microsoft.compute/virtualmachines'</h2>
<h2 style="color: yellow;">| extend nsg = properties.networkProfile.networkInterfaces[bash].id</h2>
| join kind=leftouter (Resources | where type =~ 'microsoft.network/networkinterfaces') on $left.nsg == $right.id
<h2 style="color: yellow;">| extend hasNSG = isnotempty(properties.networkSecurityGroup.id)</h2>
<h2 style="color: yellow;">| where isempty(hasNSG) or hasNSG == false</h2>
<h2 style="color: yellow;">| project vmName=name, resourceGroup, hasNetworkSecurityGroup=hasNSG
Step 1: Navigate to the Azure Resource Graph Explorer in the Azure Portal.
Step 2: Paste and run this KQL query.
Step 3: The results show Virtual Machines with a public exposure (network interface) that lack the basic protection of a Network Security Group. This directly maps to a high-risk exposure path.
7. Contextualizing Findings with the MITRE ATT&CK Framework
The final step is contextualization. Map a finding like “User with outdated MFA methods” to a real-world attack technique.
` This is a conceptual mapping, not a command.
Finding: “User with legacy MFA (SMS) enabled.”
MITRE ATT&CK Technique: T1111 – Multi-Factor Authentication Interception.
Risk: An attacker can intercept SMS codes via SIM-swapping attacks.
Action: Create a project to migrate all users from SMS/Voice MFA to the Microsoft Authenticator app or FIDO2 security keys.`
Step 1: For each high-priority finding, research its corresponding technique in the MITRE ATT&CK for Enterprise or ICS matrix.
Step 2: Document the potential impact and the steps an attacker would take (the exposure path).
Step 3: This context transforms a technical note into a compelling business risk statement, justifying the project to fix it.
What Undercode Say:
- Clarity Drives Action: A 10-page report with three prioritized projects based on exposure and business context will always be more effective than a 300-page list of every possible misconfiguration. Consultants are paid for enabling fixes, not just finding flaws.
- Automation is Non-Negotiable: The “days to run” assessment model is obsolete. Leveraging tools like Microsoft Graph, Azure Resource Graph, and targeted scripts is the only way to achieve the speed and scale required for modern cloud security, freeing up expert time for analysis and client consultation.
The core insight from the field is that the value of a security assessment is not measured by its page count but by the remediation projects it spawns. The shift from comprehensive-but-overwhelming to concise-and-actionable is fundamental. By using automation to handle data collection and a risk-based framework for prioritization, consultants can stop being reporters of problems and start being valued partners in solving them. This aligns security directly with business outcomes, which is what clients are truly paying for.
Prediction:
The future of cloud security consulting will be dominated by AI-driven platforms that automatically correlate findings, map them to attacker playbooks in real-time, and generate pre-scoped remediation work items in DevOps tools like Azure Boards or Jira. The human consultant’s role will evolve from manual assessor to strategic advisor, interpreting the AI’s output and guiding the business through the risk-based decision-making process of what to fix first and why. This will render the traditional, manual audit report completely obsolete.
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IT/Security Reporter URL:
Reported By: Obrien David – Hackers Feeds
Extra Hub: Undercode MoN
Basic Verification: Pass ✅
