Where Are Policies in Azure and How to Manage Them

Policies in Azure can be found in the Azure portal under the "Policies" tab, which is located in the "Security" section. This is where you can manage and assign policies to your Azure resources.

To access policies, navigate to the Azure portal and sign in with your account credentials. From there, click on the "Security" section and select "Policies" from the drop-down menu.

Policies are organized into categories, such as "Azure Policy" and "Azure Blueprints", making it easy to find and manage specific policies. Each policy has its own set of settings and attributes that define its behavior.

Azure Policy provides a way to manage access, policy, and compliance across multiple Azure subscriptions through management groups, acting as overarching security guardrails.

Management groups can be organized to reflect your business, such as regional units or teams, or deployment stages like development, testing, and production.

You can set the scope of Azure policies to "management group" to ensure security practices are enforced across subscriptions, allowing you to manage multiple subscriptions alike without implementing controls at the individual subscriptions.

This ensures that security practices are inherited by all subscriptions within that management group, making it a good way to build far-reaching security guardrails.

Azure Policy evaluates resources and actions in Azure by comparing their properties to business rules, which are described in JSON format as policy definitions.

Policy definitions can be grouped together to form a policy initiative, which simplifies management by allowing multiple business rules to be applied together.

Azure Policy uses a JSON format to form the logic used to determine whether a resource is compliant or not, including metadata and the policy rule.

The policy rule can use functions, parameters, logical operators, conditions, and property aliases to match exactly the scenario you want, determining which resources in the scope of the assignment get evaluated.

By setting the scope of Azure policies to "management group", you can ensure that security practices are enforced across multiple subscriptions, making it easier to manage access, policy, and compliance across your Azure environment.

This approach allows you to build far-reaching security guardrails, protecting your data and resources across your entire organization.

Policy Creation is a straightforward process in Azure. You can create a policy definition using Azure PowerShell with the New-AzPolicyDefinition cmdlet, passing the path to a file or using an inline rule.

Azure Policy uses a JSON format to form the logic for evaluation, which includes metadata and the policy rule. The defined rule can use functions, parameters, logical operators, conditions, and property aliases to match exactly the scenario you want.

To create a policy definition, you'll need to add details such as definition location, policy rule, and resource selectors. You can use the built-in policy rule or create your own. Resource selectors help in evaluating resources on multiple conditions and rolling out the policy only when these conditions are satisfied.

Here are the steps to create a policy definition:

Azure Policy uses a JSON format to form the logic the evaluation uses to determine whether a resource is compliant or not.

Definitions in Azure Policy include metadata and the policy rule, which can use functions, parameters, logical operators, conditions, and property aliases to match exactly the scenario you want.

The policy rule determines which resources in the scope of the assignment get evaluated.

Azure Policy can be grouped together with several business rules to form a policy initiative, also known as a policySet.

Policy definitions or initiatives can be assigned to any scope of resources that Azure supports, such as management groups, subscriptions, resource groups, or individual resources.

Subscopes can be excluded if necessary, and the assignment applies to all resources within the Resource Manager scope of that assignment.

Resources at the subscription or resource group level are evaluated, although a policy can be assigned at the management group level.

For certain resource providers, such as Machine configuration, Azure Kubernetes Service, and Azure Key Vault, there's a deeper integration for managing settings and objects.

To create a custom policy definition, you can use the Azure portal, Azure PowerShell, or Azure CLI.

You can add a policy definition by selecting the + Policy definition option in the Policy blade.

To create a policy definition, you need to add the definition location, policy rule, and non-compliance messages.

The definition location can be a management group or a subscription.

You can use a built-in policy rule or create your own.

Resource selectors help in evaluating resources on multiple conditions and can be used to roll out the policy only when these conditions are satisfied.

Here's a list of common effects used in Azure Policy:

You can also use policy parameters to provide flexibility and reduce policy definition redundancy.

Policies in Azure can be applied at multiple levels, giving you flexibility in how you manage your resources. You can assign policies at the management group level.

At the management group level, only resources at the subscription or resource group level are evaluated. This means you can enforce security practices across subscriptions, but only those that exist within the management group.

Management groups are a way to group together Azure subscriptions, making it easier to manage access, policy, and compliance. You can organize different management groups to reflect your business or deployment stages.

Policies can also be applied at the resource group level, affecting all resources within the group. This provides a middle ground between the broad management group level and the individual subscription level.

Policies in Azure are a complex beast, and it's easy to lose visibility and control with multiple overlapping policies. This can lead to unintended access for identities, and even inherited privileges that can create opportunities for lateral movement within your network.

Azure Policy and Azure RBAC are two separate tools, but they work together to provide full scope control in Azure. Azure Policy focuses on ensuring resource state is compliant with business rules, while Azure RBAC manages user actions at different scopes.

Implementing an overly conservative strategy with strict denial through Azure Policy can disrupt development and create inefficient request processes.

Role-Based Access Control helps manage user actions at different scopes. It's the tool to use when control of an action is required based on user information.

Azure RBAC focuses on controlling what users can do with existing resources. This includes assigning roles to management groups, which inherit down the hierarchy.

Any role can be assigned to a group and it will inherit down the hierarchy, for example a role 'vm contributor' assigned to a resource group will lead all virtual machines in the group to inherit the role.

Even if an individual has access to perform an action, if the result is a non-compliant resource, Azure Policy still blocks the create or update. This is because Azure Policy and Azure RBAC provide full scope control in Azure.

Managing multiple overlapping policies in Azure can lead to a lack of visibility and control.

This complexity can result in identities having access that was never intended, making it difficult to track and control.

Without proper visibility, hidden privileges can create opportunities for lateral movement within your network, which malicious attackers could exploit.

Implementing an overly conservative strategy with strict denial through Azure Policy may face development disruptions and inefficient request processes.

Managing multiple overlapping policies in Azure can lead to a lack of visibility and control, making it difficult to track and control identities and their access.

In the cloud, privileges can be inherited in ways that are not immediately apparent, making it difficult to track them 'on paper'.

Azure policies offer several advantages that make them a valuable tool for managing resources in Azure. Enforcing rules and compliance with Azure policies allows you to ensure that your resources are in line with your organization's standards.

Azure policies can be applied at scale, giving you a comprehensive umbrella of coverage for your entire organization. This means you can apply multiple policies and aggregate policy states with the policy initiative.

Here are some specific ways Azure policies can benefit your organization:

Managing multiple overlapping policies in Azure can lead to a lack of visibility and control. This can result in identities having access that was never intended.

Without proper visibility, it's difficult to track inherited privileges, making it hard to understand who has what access. This can create opportunities for malicious attackers to exploit.

Implementing an overly conservative strategy with strict denial through Azure Policy can face development disruptions and inefficient request processes.

Azure policies offer numerous advantages that make them a valuable tool for any organization.

Enforcing rules and compliance is one of the key benefits of Azure policies. This allows you to ensure that your resources in Azure are always in line with your organization's policies. Azure policies can be used for real-time policy evaluation, making it easier to test and refine your policies before enforcing them.

Azure policies can be applied at scale, giving you a comprehensive cover for all your subscriptions and resources under your organization. This is achieved by applying policies to a management group, which allows you to aggregate policy states with the policy initiative.

Remediation is another significant advantage of Azure policies. With real-time remediation capabilities, you can quickly fix non-compliant resources, ensuring that your environment remains secure and compliant.

Azure policies also enable governance tasks, such as policy assignment to multiple engineering teams and managing multiple subscriptions. This helps standardize and enforce cloud resource configurations across your organization, ensuring compliance, cost control, security, and design consistency.

Azure policies can be used to apply multiple policies and define an exclusion scope, giving you flexibility and control over your environment. This is particularly useful when making periodic changes to your policies or testing new policies before enforcing them.

Policy definitions are the foundation of Azure Policy. A policy definition expresses what to evaluate and what action to take, with a set of conditions under which it's enforced and an accompanying effect that takes place if the conditions are met.

The effect of a policy can be one of several types, including Deny, Audit, Append, Disabled, and DeployIfNotExists. These effects are what happen when the conditions are met.

Policy parameters provide flexibility and reduce policy definition redundancy. They allow you to reuse the policy definition for different scenarios, making it easier to apply policies at scale.

Here are some common Azure Policy effects:

Policy assignments are the application of a policy or initiative to a specific scope, such as a subscription or management group.

Creating assignments in Azure is a crucial step in managing policies. An assignment is a policy definition or initiative that has been assigned to a specific scope, which can range from a management group to an individual resource.

The scope of an assignment refers to all the resources, resource groups, subscriptions, or management groups that the definition is assigned to. Assignments are inherited by all child resources.

You can exclude a subscope from the assignment, allowing you to refine the resources affected by the policy assignment. For example, at the subscription scope, you can assign a definition that prevents the creation of networking resources, while excluding a resource group intended for networking infrastructure.

Policy assignments always use the latest state of their assigned definition or initiative when evaluating resources. If a policy definition that's already assigned is changed, all existing assignments of that definition will use the updated logic when evaluating.

Here's a step-by-step guide to creating a policy assignment:

1. Select Assign Policy from the Policy Assignments pane.

2. Configure the scope by selecting a subscription and a resource group.

3. Select the policy definition and version.

4. Configure the assignment name, description, and policy enforcement mode.

5. Review and create the policy assignment.

Note that policy enforcement mode defaults to Enabled, and you can create a managed identity for remediation purposes.

As you navigate Azure policies, you may encounter situations where a resource is denied due to non-compliance with a policy or initiative. In such cases, you can exclude the non-compliant resource from the policy scope.

To resolve a denied request to create a resource, you can create an exclusion on a single resource group. This prevents enforcement of the policy on that resource group. An exclusion can apply to a subscription, a resource group, or an individual resource.

To view deployments prevented by an assigned policy or initiative, select Deployments in the left side of the page, then select the Deployment Name of the failed deployment. The resource that was denied is listed with a status of Forbidden.

You can determine the policy or initiative and assignment that denied the resource by selecting Failed on the Deployment Overview page. A window opens on the right side of the page with the error information, including the GUIDs of the related policy objects.

To create an exclusion, you need to grant an exception to the policy assignment. This can be done by creating a new resource group and assigning an exception to the policy assignment.

Management groups in Azure Policy provide a way to manage access, policy, and compliance across multiple Azure subscriptions, acting as overarching security guardrails.

Management groups allow you to manage multiple subscriptions alike, without having to implement controls at the individual subscriptions, making it a powerful tool when used correctly.

You can set the scope of Azure policies to "management group" to ensure security practices are enforced across subscriptions, inheriting role-based access control, for example, across all subscriptions within that management group.

Organizing different management groups can reflect your business, such as regional units or teams, or deployment stages, like development, testing, and production.

You can control the response to an evaluation in Azure Policy by applying effects to the policy rule portion of the policy definition. Effects determine how the platform responds to non-compliant resources.

Business rules for handling non-compliant resources vary widely between organizations. You can choose from a range of possible responses, including denying the resource change or logging the change to the resource.

These business responses are made possible through the application of effects. You can deny the resource change, log the change to the resource, alter the resource before the change, alter the resource after the change, deploy related compliant resources, or block actions on resources.

Here are some examples of possible responses:

Policy goals are specific objectives that a policy aims to achieve, such as reducing poverty or improving public health.

A policy framework is a set of principles and guidelines that shape the development and implementation of policies, often established by government agencies or international organizations.

Policy instruments are the tools used to achieve policy goals, including laws, regulations, taxes, and social programs.

The policy cycle is a process that involves identifying problems, setting policy goals, developing and implementing policies, and evaluating their effectiveness.

Policy analysis is a systematic and objective examination of policies to determine their strengths and weaknesses, often involving data collection and statistical analysis.

A policy assignment in Azure is a policy definition or initiative assigned to a specific scope. This scope can range from a management group to an individual resource.

You can exclude a subscope from the assignment, which means a definition applied to a resource group is also applied to resources in that group, but you can exclude certain resources or groups from the assignment.

Policy assignments always use the latest state of their assigned definition or initiative when evaluating resources. If a policy definition that's already assigned is changed, all existing assignments of that definition will use the updated logic when evaluating.

You can assign a policy definition at the subscription scope, and then exclude a resource group in that subscription that is intended for networking infrastructure.

Here's a step-by-step process to create a policy assignment:

1. Sign in to the Azure portal.

2. Search for policy and select it from the list.

3. Select Assignments on the Policy pane.

4. Select Assign Policy from the Policy Assignments pane.

5. Configure the scope, policy definition, and other options as needed.

Note that policy assignments are inherited by all child resources, and you can't assign a more permissive policy on a child management group or subscription if it's already assigned at a higher level.