AZ-500 Microsoft Azure Security Technologies Exam

TLS Configuration and Certificate Management

Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a cryptographic protocol that protects data in transit between clients and services. In Azure, both App Service and API Management rely on TLS to ensure end-to-end encryption and guard against eavesdropping. Enforcing the right TLS settings helps prevent attacks that exploit weak or outdated algorithms. By managing TLS carefully, you make sure connections remain secure and compliant.

Configuring supported TLS versions and cipher suites is key to maintaining a strong security posture. You should always set the minimum TLS version to TLS 1.2 or higher and disable older versions like TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1. In Azure, you can use:

• Azure Portal or Azure CLI to adjust the minimum TLS version.
• Custom cipher suites to include only strong options such as ECDHE-based suites.
• Regular reviews to update settings as industry standards evolve.

Importing and binding certificates from Azure Key Vault ensures your services use valid keys without manual updates. The typical steps are:

• Create or import the certificate in Azure Key Vault.
• Enable a managed identity for App Service or API Management.
• Grant the Key Vault Certificates User role to that identity.
• Bind the certificate in your App Service’s TLS/SSL settings or API Management’s custom domain panel. This process maintains automated certificate rotation and reduces the risk of expired certificates.

Enforcing client certificate validation and mutual TLS (mTLS) adds an extra layer of security in API Management. With mTLS, both client and server authenticate each other before data is exchanged. You can:

• Implement an API Management policy to require client certificates.
• Store and trust specific client CA certificates in Azure Key Vault.
• Use libraries like spring-cloud-azure-starter-keyvault-jca for container apps to build mTLS bundles. These steps ensure that only trusted clients connect, strengthening the entire communication channel.

Conclusion

In this section, you learned how to secure Azure App Service and API Management with TLS Configuration, proper cipher suite selection, and certificate binding from Key Vault. You also saw how to enforce mutual TLS to authenticate both clients and services. Together, these practices ensure that data moving through your applications stays encrypted, trusted, and compliant with modern security standards. By mastering these steps, you’ll be well-prepared to protect your Azure workloads on the AZ-500 exam.