Ensure Microsoft Defender for Containers is set to 'On'

Turning on Microsoft Defender for Containers enables threat detection for Container Registries, including Kubernetes, providing threat intelligence, anomaly detection, and behavior analytics in the Microsoft Defender for Cloud. The following services will be enabled for container instances:

Overview

Defender agent in Azure
Azure Policy for Kubernetes
Agentless discovery for Kubernetes
Agentless container vulnerability assessment

Rationale

Enabling Microsoft Defender for Container Registries allows for greater defense-in-depth, with threat detection provided by the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC).

Impact

Turning on Microsoft Defender for Containers incurs an additional cost per resource.

Default Value

By default, Microsoft Defender for Containers is off.

Remediation guidance

Remediate from Azure Portal

Open Microsoft Defender for Cloud | Environment settings
Select a subscription
Select Defender plans.
Set Status to On for Containers.
Click Save.

Remediate from Azure CLI

(Note: 'ContainerRegistry' has been deprecated and is replaced by 'Containers')

Use the command below to enable the standard pricing tier for containers.

az security pricing create -n 'Containers' --tier 'standard'

Remediate from PowerShell

(Note: 'ContainerRegistry' has been deprecated and is replaced by 'Containers')

Use the command below to enable the standard pricing tier for containers.

Set-AzSecurityPricing -Name 'Containers' -PricingTier 'Standard'

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.

Azure

Use management group or subscription Azure Policy assignments, remediation tasks where supported, landing-zone standards, and IaC modules so drift is prevented at scale.

Operational rollout

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

Query logic

These are the stored checks tied to this control.

Azure subscriptions without Microsoft Defender for Containers

Connectors

Microsoft Azure

Covered asset types

Connector

Expected check: eq []

{
  connectors(
    where: { pricing_SOME: { name: "Containers", pricingTier: "Free" } }
  ) {
    ...AssetFragment
  }
}