[Deprecated] Ensure Auto provisioning of 'Log Analytics agent for Azure VMs' is Set to 'On'

From Azure Console

1. Go to Microsoft Defender for Cloud
2. Under Management, select Environment Settings
3. Select a subscription
4. Select Settings & monitoring
5. Set Log Analytics agent/Azure Monitor Agent to On

Repeat the above for any additional subscriptions.

Using Azure Command Line Interface

Use the below command to set Automatic provisioning of monitoring agent to On.

az account get-access-token --query "{subscription:subscription,accessToken:accessToken}" --out tsv | xargs -L1 bash -c 'curl -X PUT -H "Authorization: Bearer $1" -H "Content-Type: application/json" https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/subscriptionID/providers/Microsoft.Security/autoProvisioningSettings/default?api-version=2017-08-01-preview -d@"input.json"'

Where input.json contains the Request body json data as mentioned below.

{
    "id": "/subscriptions/<subscriptionID>/providers/Microsoft.Security/autoProvisioningSettings/default",
    "name": "default",
    "type": "Microsoft.Security/autoProvisioningSettings",
    "properties": {
        "autoProvision": "On"
    }
}

Additional Information

• Excluding any of the entries in input.json may disable the specific setting by default
• Microsoft has recently changed APIs to get and Update Automatic Provisioning Settings. This recommendation is updated accordingly.

References

1. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/security-center/security-center-data-security
2. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/security-center/security-center-enable-data-collection
3. https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt704062.aspx
4. https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt704063.aspx
5. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/securitycenter/autoprovisioningsettings/list
6. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/securitycenter/autoprovisioningsettings/create
7. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/security/benchmark/azure/security-controls-v3-logging-threat-detection#lt-5-centralize-security-log-management-and-analysis
8. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/security/benchmark/azure/security-controls-v3-logging-threat-detection#lt-3-enable-logging-for-security-investigation
9. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/security/benchmark/azure/security-controls-v3-incident-response#ir-2-preparation--setup-incident-notification

Service-wide remediation

Recommended when many resources are affected: fix the platform baseline first so new resources inherit the secure setting, then remediate the existing flagged resources in batches.

Platform

Use the provider or platform baseline, preventive policy, and IaC modules to enforce this setting consistently when many resources are affected.

Operational rollout

1. Fix the baseline first at the account, subscription, project, cluster, or tenant scope that owns this control.
2. Remediate the currently affected resources in batches, starting with internet-exposed and production assets.
3. Re-scan and track approved exceptions with an owner and expiry date.