Table of Contents
Azure Active Directory is the primary method for identity management in Azure. It provides access control through roles and built-in policies. For managing access with Azure AD, you will be utilizing Role-Based Access Control (RBAC).
Best Practices:
To grant a user read-only access to a virtual machine:
A shared access signature (SAS) is a URI that grants restricted access rights to Azure Storage resources. It’s used for providing fine-grained access control to containers, blobs, queues, and tables.
SAS Types:
Best Practices:
Creating a Service SAS for a blob container:
Access to Azure Storage accounts is secured with two 512-bit storage account access keys. These keys control access to everything in the storage account.
Best Practices:
Rotating storage account keys:
Service Principals provide a way for applications to login with an identity separate from a user’s and is typical when an application needs to access resources or perform actions in Azure.
Best Practices:
Creating a service principal with Azure CLI:
az ad sp create-for-rbac –name MyApp –role contributor –scopes /subscriptions/{SubID}/resourceGroups/{ResourceGroup1}
This command creates a new service principal named MyApp with contributor role in the specified subscription and resource group.
Feature | Azure AD | Shared Access Signature | Storage Account Keys | Service Principal |
---|---|---|---|---|
Granularity | Fine | Fine | Coarse | Fine |
Scope | Role-based/Resource scope | Resource level | Account level | Role-based/Resource scope |
Lifetime | Permanent until revoked | Configurable | Permanent until regenerated | Depends on configuration |
Rotation | Not needed | Recommended: After expiration or breach | Recommended periodically | Recommended periodically |
As an Azure Administrator, it is important to ensure that all access keys are managed securely and in accordance with best practices. Regular audits and adherence to the principle of least privilege will greatly reduce the chances of unauthorized access and potential security breaches. Monitoring and logging are also recommended so that you can respond quickly to any irregularities in access patterns, ensuring the ongoing security of your Azure resources.
It is recommended to use Azure Managed Identities instead of shared access keys for service-to-service authentication, as it provides an identity for the service without the need for credentials to be stored in code.
When you regenerate Azure access keys, any applications or services using these keys will need to be updated with the new key, causing a potential disruption in service.
Answer: C) Azure Key Vault
Azure Key Vault is a cloud service that provides a secure store for secrets, keys, and certificates, allowing you to securely manage and control access to these credentials.
Answer: A) Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), B) Access keys, C) Shared Access Signatures (SAS)
RBAC, access keys, and SAS are all used to manage access to Azure resources in different ways. NSGs are used to control inbound and outbound network traffic to Azure resources but not for managing access keys.
Storing access keys in configuration files is not recommended as it can be a security risk; it is better to use Azure Key Vault or environment variables that are not checked into source control.
Azure Managed Identities eliminate the need for developers to manage access keys manually since Azure takes care of the identity management automatically.
Answer: B) One primary and one secondary access key
Each Azure Storage account provides one primary and one secondary access key, which can be used to access the storage account for authentication and access.
Azure does not automatically rotate access keys for Azure Storage Accounts. Users are responsible for rotating these keys periodically for security purposes.
Answer: B) Update the key within the services that use it
After regenerating an access key, it is critical to update the key within any services that use it to avoid interruptions.
Answer: A) SAS provide fine-grained access to resources in a secure manner, B) SAS are tied to the Azure account keys.
SAS grant limited and fine-grained access to Azure resources and are tied to Azure account keys. However, they should have an expiration time set, and generally, Managed Identities are recommended where possible due to their ease of management and enhanced security over shared keys.
Azure provides other authentication methods such as Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) and Shared Access Signatures (SAS) in addition to access keys.
Answer: C) Azure Key Vault with event-driven automation
Azure Key Vault can be combined with event-driven automation, like Azure Functions or Logic Apps, to automatically rotate secrets and keys as required.
Access keys are two 512-bit base64-encoded keys generated by Azure for each storage account that provide a way to authenticate and access the account’s contents.
Managing access keys allows you to control and revoke access to your storage accounts, reducing the risk of unauthorized access and data breaches.
You can view the access keys for a storage account in the Azure portal or by using Azure PowerShell or Azure CLI.
Yes, you can regenerate either the primary or secondary access key for a storage account at any time.
Regenerating an access key invalidates the old key, so any application or user that was using the old key to access the storage account will need to be updated with the new key.
Yes, you can create shared access signatures (SAS) that limit access to specific resources and operations within a storage account. These SAS tokens can be created using stored access policies.
To revoke access for a user or application, you can regenerate the access key for the storage account. This will invalidate the old key and require the user or application to update their credentials.
Yes, you can use access keys to access resources in any storage account that shares the same Azure subscription as the storage account where the access keys were generated.
No, access keys can be any length and can contain any combination of characters.
Yes, you can use managed identities to access storage accounts, which eliminates the need to manage access keys. This approach is recommended for applications running on Azure virtual machines or other Azure services that support managed identities.
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