Implement Azure Security Cheatsheet

By Saeed Salehi

3 min read

Authors

Part of series

Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure (AZ-204) certification exam Cheatsheets

  1. Part 1:

    Introduction to (AZ-204) certification exam Cheatsheets

  2. Part 2:

    Implement IaaS in Azure Cheatsheets

  3. Part 3:

    Azure Functions Cheatsheets

  4. Part 4:

    Azure App Service Cheatsheets

  5. Part 5:

    Develop solutions that use Blob storage Cheatsheets

  6. Part 6:

    Develop solutions that use Azure Cosmos DB Cheatsheets

  7. Part 7:

    Implement Azure Security Cheatsheet

  8. Part 8:

    Microsoft Identity platform Cheatsheet

  9. Part 9:

    Monitoring And logging in Azure Cheatsheets

  10. Part 10:

    Azure Cache for Redis Cheatsheets

  11. Part 11:

    Develop message-based solutions Cheatsheets

  12. Part 12:

    Develop event-based solutions Cheatsheets

  13. Part 13:

    API Management in Azure Cheatsheets

Azure Key Vault

Supports vaults and managed hardware security module(HSM) pools

service tiers:

  • Standard: encrypts with a software key
  • Premium: hardware security module(HSM)-protected keys

Authentication

To do any operations with Key Vault, you first need to authenticate to it

  • Managed identities for Azure resources
  • Service principal and certificate
  • Service principal and secret

Create a key vault

az keyvault create --name $myKeyVault --resource-group az204-vault-rg --location $myLocation

Create a secret

az keyvault secret set --vault-name $myKeyVault --name "ExamplePassword" --value "hVFkk965BuUv"

retrieve the secret

az keyvault secret show --name "ExamplePassword" --vault-name $myKeyVault

Managed identities

Types of managed identities:

  • system-assigned managed identity
  • user-assigned managed identity (independent lifecycle than a Azure resource)

Create System-assigned managed identity

during creation of an resources by specifying these parameters:

 --assign-identity \
    --role contributor \
    --scope mySubscription \

system-assigned identity to an existing virtual machine:

az vm identity assign -g myResourceGroup -n myVm

Create User-assigned managed identity

create identity az identity create -g myResourceGroup -n myUserAssignedIdentity

assign to a resource by specifying these parameters:

--assign-identity <USER ASSIGNED IDENTITY NAME> \
--role <ROLE> \
--scope <SUBSCRIPTION>

or to an existing resource:

az vm identity assign \
    -g <RESOURCE GROUP> \
    -n <VM NAME> \
    --identities <USER ASSIGNED IDENTITY>

Azure App Configuration

Azure App Configuration encrypts sensitive information at rest using a 256-bit AES encryption key provided by Microsoft.

*, ,, and \. These characters are reserved

Key values in App Configuration can optionally have a label attribute

Version key values

App Configuration doesn't version key values automatically as they're modified. Use labels as a way to create multiple versions of a key value.

Query key values

Each key value is uniquely identified by its key plus a label that can be null

Values

Values assigned to keys are also unicode strings.

Manage application features

  • Feature flag: A feature flag is a variable with a binary state of on or off
  • Feature manager: A feature manager is an application package that handles the lifecycle of all the feature flags in an application
  • Filter: A filter is a rule for evaluating the state of a feature flag.

Secure app configuration data

Encrypt configuration data by using customer-managed keys

Requirements:

  • Standard tier Azure App Configuration instance
  • Azure Key Vault with soft-delete and purge-protection features enabled
  • An RSA or RSA-HSM key within the Key Vault: The key must not be expired, it must be enabled, and it must have both wrap and unwrap capabilities enabled

Allow Azure App Configuration to use the Key Vault key:

  1. Assign a managed identity to the Azure App Configuration instance
  2. Grant the identity GET, WRAP, and UNWRAP permissions in the target Key Vault's access policy.

Use private endpoints for Azure App Configuration

Allow clients on a virtual network (VNet) to securely access data over a private link.

Managed identities

A managed identity from Azure Active Directory (AAD) allows Azure App Configuration to easily access other AAD-protected resources, such as Azure Key Vault.

The identity is managed by the Azure platform. It does not require you to provision or rotate any secrets.

Add a system-assigned identity

az appconfig identity assign

Assign the new user-assigned identity to the myTestAppConfigStore configuration store:

az appconfig identity assign --name myTestAppConfigStore \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --identities /subscriptions/[subscription id]/resourcegroups/myResourceGroup/providers/Microsoft.ManagedIdentity/userAssignedIdentities/myUserAssignedIdentity

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    Worstelen jij en je team met automated testing en performance? Kom naar onze meetup waar ervaren sprekers hun inzichten en ervaringen delen over het bouwen van robuuste en efficiënte applicaties. Schrijf je in voor een avond vol kennis, heerlijk eten en een mix van creativiteit en technologie! 🚀 18:00 – 🚪 Deuren open 18:15 – 🍕 Food & drinks 19:00 – 📢 Talk 1 20:00 – 🍹 Kleine pauze 20:15 – 📢 Talk 2 21:00 – 🙋‍♀️ Drinks 22:00 – 🍻 Tot de volgende keer? Tijdens deze meetup gaan we dieper in op automated testing en performance. Onze sprekers delen heel wat praktische inzichten en ervaringen. Ze vertellen je hoe je effectieve geautomatiseerde tests kunt schrijven en onderhouden, en hoe je de prestaties van je applicatie kunt optimaliseren. Houd onze updates in de gaten voor meer informatie over de sprekers en hun specifieke onderwerpen. Over iO Wij zijn iO: een groeiend team van experts die end-to-end-diensten aanbieden voor communicatie en digitale transformatie. We denken groot en werken lokaal. Aan strategie, creatie, content, marketing en technologie. In nauwe samenwerking met onze klanten om hun merken te versterken, hun digitale systemen te verbeteren en hun toekomstbestendige groei veilig te stellen. We helpen klanten niet alleen hun zakelijke doelen te bereiken. Samen verkennen en benutten we de eindeloze mogelijkheden die markten in constante verandering bieden. De springplank voor die visie is talent. Onze campus is onze broedplaats voor innovatie, die een omgeving creëert die talent de ruimte en stimulans geeft die het nodig heeft om te ontkiemen, te ontwikkelen en te floreren. Want werken aan de infinite opportunities van morgen, dat doen we vandaag.

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  • Mastering Event-Driven Design

    PLEASE RSVP SO THAT WE KNOW HOW MUCH FOOD WE WILL NEED Are you and your team struggling with event-driven microservices? Join us for a meetup with Mehmet Akif Tütüncü, a senior software engineer, who has given multiple great talks so far and Allard Buijze founder of CTO and founder of AxonIQ, who built the fundaments of the Axon Framework. RSVP for an evening of learning, delicious food, and the fusion of creativity and tech! 🚀 18:00 – 🚪 Doors open to the public 18:15 – 🍕 Let’s eat 19:00 – 📢 Getting Your Axe On Event Sourcing with Axon Framework 20:00 – 🍹 Small break 20:15 – 📢 Event-Driven Microservices - Beyond the Fairy Tale 21:00 – 🙋‍♀️ drinks 22:00 – 🍻 See you next time? Details: Getting Your Axe On - Event Sourcing with Axon Framework In this presentation, we will explore the basics of event-driven architecture using Axon Framework. We'll start by explaining key concepts such as Event Sourcing and Command Query Responsibility Segregation (CQRS), and how they can improve the scalability and maintainability of modern applications. You will learn what Axon Framework is, how it simplifies implementing these patterns, and see hands-on examples of setting up a project with Axon Framework and Spring Boot. Whether you are new to these concepts or looking to understand them more, this session will provide practical insights and tools to help you build resilient and efficient applications. Event-Driven Microservices - Beyond the Fairy Tale Our applications need to be faster, better, bigger, smarter, and more enjoyable to meet our demanding end-users needs. In recent years, the way we build, run, and operate our software has changed significantly. We use scalable platforms to deploy and manage our applications. Instead of big monolithic deployment applications, we now deploy small, functionally consistent components as microservices. Problem. Solved. Right? Unfortunately, for most of us, microservices, and especially their event-driven variants, do not deliver on the beautiful, fairy-tale-like promises that surround them.In this session, Allard will share a different take on microservices. We will see that not much has changed in how we build software, which is why so many “microservices projects” fail nowadays. What lessons can we learn from concepts like DDD, CQRS, and Event Sourcing to help manage the complexity of our systems? He will also show how message-driven communication allows us to focus on finding the boundaries of functionally cohesive components, which we can evolve into microservices should the need arise.

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