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Ensure 'Multi-Factor Auth Status' is 'Enabled' for all Non-Privileged Users

If your organization pays for Microsoft Entra ID licensing (included in Microsoft 365 E3, E5, or F5, and EM&S E3 or E5 licenses) and **can** use Conditional Access, ignore the recommendations in this section and proceed to the Conditional Access section.

Category

Controls

Medium

Applies to

Microsoft Entra ID

Coverage

1 queries

Asset types

1 covered

Overview

If your organization pays for Microsoft Entra ID licensing (included in Microsoft 365 E3, E5, or F5, and EM&S E3 or E5 licenses) and can use Conditional Access, ignore the recommendations in this section and proceed to the Conditional Access section.

Enable multi-factor authentication for all non-privileged users.

Rationale

Multi-factor authentication requires an individual to present at least two separate forms of authentication before access is granted. Multi-factor authentication provides additional assurance that the individual attempting to gain access is who they claim to be. With multi-factor authentication, an attacker would need to compromise at least two different authentication mechanisms, increasing the difficulty of compromise and thus reducing the risk.

Impact

Users would require two forms of authentication before access is granted. Enabling multi-factor authentication will require additional administrative time to manage dual forms of authentication.

Default Value

By default, multi-factor authentication is disabled for all users.

References

Remediation guidance

Azure Portal

  1. Open Users
  2. Click on the Per-User MFA button in the top row menu
  3. Check the box next to each user reported by Cyscale
  4. Click Enable MFA
  5. Click Enable

Other Options within the Azure Portal

Follow Microsoft Azure documentation and enable multi-factor authentication in your environment.

Enabling and configuring MFA with a conditional access policy is a multi-step process. Here are some additional resources on the process within Entra ID to enable multifactor authentication for users within your subscriptions with a conditional access policy.

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.

Microsoft Entra ID

Use tenant-wide Conditional Access, role settings, authentication policies, and identity governance baselines so the control is enforced centrally.

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.

Query logic

These are the stored checks tied to this control.

Entra Users Without MFA With Access to Azure

Connectors

Microsoft Entra ID

Covered asset types

User

Expected check: eq []

{
  users(where: { mfaActive: false, NOT: { iamRoleAssignments_SOME: null } }) {
    ...AssetFragment
  }
}
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