Detections
Analytics
2.8 Ensure that a Custom Bad Password List is set to 'Enforce' for your Organization
Information
Microsoft Azure provides a Global Banned Password policy that applies to Azure administrative and normal user accounts. This is not applied to user accounts that are synced from an on-premise Active Directory unless Microsoft Entra ID Connect is used and you enable EnforceCloudPasswordPolicyForPasswordSyncedUsers. Please see the list in default values on the specifics of this policy. To further password security, it is recommended to further define a custom banned password policy.Rationale:
Enabling this gives your organization further customization on what secure passwords are allowed. Setting a bad password list enables your organization to fine-tune its password policy further, depending on your needs. Removing easy-to-guess passwords increases the security of access to your Azure resources.
Impact:
Increasing needed password complexity might increase overhead on administration of user accounts. Licensing requirement for Global Banned Password List and Custom Banned Password list requires Microsoft Entra ID P1 or P2. On-premises Active Directory Domain Services users that are not synchronized to Microsoft Entra ID also benefit from Microsoft Entra ID Password Protection based on existing licensing for synchronized users.
NOTE: Nessus has not performed this check. Please review the benchmark to ensure target compliance.
Solution
Remediate from Azure PortalFrom Azure Home select the Portal Menu
Select Microsoft Entra ID
Under Manage, select Security.
Under Manage, select Authentication methods.
Under Manage, select Password protection.
Set the Enforce custom list option to Yes.
Click in the Custom banned password list text box to add a string.
Click Save.
Default Value:
By default the custom bad password list is not 'Enabled'. Organizational-specific terms can be added to the custom banned password list, such as the following examples:
Brand names
Product names
Locations, such as company headquarters
Company-specific internal terms
Abbreviations that have specific company meaning
Months and weekdays with your company's local languages
The default Azure bad password policy is already applied to your resources which applies the following basic requirements:
Characters allowed:
Uppercase characters (A - Z)
Lowercase characters (a - z)
Numbers (0 - 9)
Symbols:
@ # $ % ^ & * - _ ! + = [ ] { } | \ : ' , . ? / ' ~ ' ( ) ; < >
blank space
Characters not allowed:
Unicode characters
Password length Passwords require
A minimum of eight characters
A maximum of 256 characters
Password complexity: Passwords require three out of four of the following categories:
Uppercase characters
Lowercase characters
Numbers
Symbols Note: Password complexity check isn't required for Education tenants.
Password not recently used:
When a user changes or resets their password, the new password can't be the same as the current or recently used passwords.
Password isn't banned by Entra ID Password Protection.
The password can't be on the global list of banned passwords for Azure AD Password Protection, or on the customizable list of banned passwords specific to your organization.
See Also
Item Details
Audit Name: CIS Microsoft Azure Foundations v3.0.0 L1
Category: ACCESS CONTROL, IDENTIFICATION AND AUTHENTICATION
References: 800-53|AC-2(1), 800-53|AC-3, 800-53|IA-5(1), CSCv7|4.4
Plugin: microsoft_azure
Control ID: 05560cc18a16adf821a348d4e22862342034413b52885988977fe3d66956d196