AZ-305 Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions Exam

Recommend a solution for authorizing access to Azure resources

Assess Identity-Driven Access Models and Governance Controls

Identity-driven access models in Azure are essential for ensuring that only the right individuals have access to the right resources at the right time. This involves using a combination of Azure Identity and Access Management (IAM) services, custom roles, and policy-driven controls to enforce the principles of least-privilege and compliance across cloud-native workloads.

Azure Role-Based Access Control

Azure RBAC helps manage who has access to Azure resources, what they can do with those resources, and what areas they have access to. By leveraging custom roles, organizations can create finely-tuned permissions tailored to specific needs, ensuring least-privileged access. For example, a custom role can be designed to grant permissions only for managing storage accounts but not for altering resource configurations.

Key features include:

• Defining roles based on specific needs: Ensures minimum permissions are granted.
• Using audit logs: Monitors role usage to mitigate risks of excessive privileges.

Privileged Identity Management (PIM)

Microsoft Entra Privileged Identity Management (PIM) allows for just-in-time role activation, reducing the time that privileged roles are active and decreasing security risks. Important aspects of PIM include:

• No standing access: Privileges are activated only when needed.
• Approval workflow: Role activation requires additional approval, adding a layer of security.
• Define access duration: Ensures access is limited to only what is necessary.

Conditional Access Policies

Conditional access policies enhance security by implementing controls based on various conditions such as user location, device compliance status, and risk levels. For instance, you might restrict access to certain resources based on the location or require multi-factor authentication (MFA) for sensitive operations.

Main features include:

• Location-based access control: Restricts access depending on geographical location.
• Device compliance policies: Ensure that only compliant devices can access certain resources.
• Risk-based policies: Require additional verification steps for operations deemed risky.

Azure Policy

Azure Policy is used to enforce organizational standards and ensure compliance across Azure environments by evaluating resources against rules. This can include policies to enforce certain configurations or to block the creation of non-compliant resources.

Notable benefits include:

• Granular compliance enforcement: Applies specific rules to resource properties.
• Automated remediation: Automatically bring non-compliant resources back into compliance.
• Policy initiatives: Group related policies into a set for comprehensive governance.

Managed Identities

Managed identities for Azure resources provide an identity in Azure Active Directory automatically managed by Azure. Applications can use this identity to authenticate to any service that supports Azure AD authentication without credentials in code.

Advantages include:

• Credential management elimination: Secure authentication without the need for managing credentials.
• Improved security: Reduces the attack surface related to credential management.
• Ease of use: Simplifies authentication processes.

Conclusion

Incorporating identity-driven access models and governance controls in your Azure environment enhances security by ensuring that only necessary privileges are provided and enforced via strategic means like RBAC, PIM, conditional access policies, Azure Policy, and managed identities. These tools work together to uphold the principles of least-privilege and compliance, adapting flexibly to the specific needs of the organization.