MDM & GP Tips Blog

It’s a Cloud, Cloud, Cloud, Cloud, Cloud, Cloud world. Except actually most of your stuff is still likely mostly on-prem, or acts that way. Take Windows 10 for instance. Windows 10 has events in the event logs, and maybe you already know about on-prem Event Forwarding.

Tip: If you want to learn more about on-prem Event Forwarding, you can see my Walkthrough of that here video and text.

But how do we take on-prem events from Windows 10 (or Windows Server) and get the up to the cloud for later analysis? If you have 24, 250, or 25,000 domain joined (or even NON-domain joined) machines, say with Windows Intune or PolicyPak Cloud… how can you do the equivalent of event forwarding to some central place?

That is the job of Azure Log Analytics. I’m going to call it “LA” for short.

LA had an original name, OMS which stood for Operations Management Suite, but as near as I can tell, that’s over. But its good to know LA’s original name, because you’ll see OMS pop up from time to time in the walkthrough, docs, and software. Additionally, it’s also good to know that what you’ll see here is build upon the original System Center Microsoft Operations Manager (SCOM); but I won’t be using that function.

The official documentation for LA can be found here; but I had a few stumbles. Some tips o’ the hat to Travis Roberts’ video and blog which also helped give me a leg up. The blog is here and the helpful video series on Azure Log Analytics (though a little old now because of the name and UI changes) can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hgvjgPBNzE&list=PLnWpsLZNgHzVXXyN9a0jm9xNNDrikHf8I

My goal in researching this project was to give some PolicyPak MDM Customers a quick guide to research interesting events that PolicyPak automatically logs to its own event log. But in this guide, I’m also going to show you how to collect some standard and also some extra event logs.

To get started you need a Log Workspace. This is basically a security block between this collection of logs, and say another collection of logs. Each Log Workspace has a GUID based Workspace ID and two keys (Primary and Secondary.) You’ll use these to send, say, YOUR Windows 10 machines’ event logs to your workspace. And the other Azure admins … you know, those SQL server people or Exchange or whatever … they’ll send their event logs to their workspaces.

To get started use the big search thingie to find “Log Analytics workspaces” like what’s seen here.

Then, there’s a little Wizard (not shown) to help you get started. Basically it’s asking you for names and which Azure region you want to keep the data in. Then after it gets going you’ll see “Your deployment is underway” like what’s seen here.

Then you should be thrown into the Advanced settings like what’s seen here. If not, find the Workspace you just created and click Advanced in the left-side menu. It should get you to this place. Note then the “WORKSPACE ID” and “PRIMARY KEY” like what’s seen here. Hang on to those, you’ll need these in a bit. Then also download the Windows Agent 64-bit or 32-bit to get started for your example machines.

In this example, we’ll be installing the LA Agent by hand on a test machine. In real life you could use, say Windows Intune to deploy it with command line options to just chuck in your Workspace ID and Primary Keys and do the whole thing silently and automatically.

Once you have the download, get it over to your test machine. Machine can be real or virtual. Note that you shouldn’t do this (nor do you need to) for WVD virtual machines. Those have a magical connector to accept event logs to LA; and you shouldn’t need to use this method. (Docs: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-desktop/diagnostics-log-analytics and a blog https://www.mdmandgpanswers.com/blogs/view-blog/windows-10-and-server-event-logs-to-azure-log-analytics-walkthru)

Then, Up, Up and away. Launch the agent.. which requires admin rights. (Or, pro tip: Use PolicyPak Scripts to install it automatically where the script is elevated. https://kb.policypak.com/kb/article/901-policypak-scripts-deploy-software-via-vpn-or-with-policypak-cloud/ )

You’ll need to select “Connect the agent to Azure Log Analytics (OMS)” like what’s seen here.

Then, it’s time to chuck in your Workspace ID and Workspace Key. And you’ll likely keep the default of Azure Cloud: Azure Commercial. Pull the pulldown if you have something unusual to select here.

Yes, you want to check for updates when MS Update kicks in….

And.. you’re basically done.

Now let’s make sure we’re talking in both directions. The Microsoft Monitoring Agent is found in Control Panel… which is a weird place, but, hey… that’s okay.

Then click the Azure Log Analytics (OMS) tab and … see you’re talking outbound.

Back in Azure, in the Advanced Settings page, the zero should be one !

Now it’s time to add in the actual event logs you want to capture. Note that the more you capture, the more you pay. Strictly speaking for the PolicyPak customer I made this blog entry for, he only needed to capture the PolicyPak log (which I do last.) But just for completeness and testing, I’ll capture some more too, since you might not have the PolicyPak Log. (And, why don’t you!? Come on over and check out PolicyPak for Pete’s sake. Really, your sake to be honest.)

So just type Application then +. Then System and + and bingo. Those are “well known” logs which LA knows about and pre-populates this list. But PolicyPak? Not as common.. (Yet !) Therefore you could take a guess that our event logs are named PolicyPak (they are…). But how would you know?

The trick is to find the log you want to capture in Windows, and go to its properties and get its Full Name like what’s seen here. Yeah, this one was easy.

But some are harder. I also wanted to capture the MDM event log which has a goofy and weird name. To get it, I went into an Event inside that log and captured its name microsoft-windows-devicemanagement-enterprise-diagnostics-provider/Operational and its brother microsoft-windows-devicemanagement-enterprise-diagnostics-provider/admin.

You can see that second log here…

Once I pasted in all the logs and added them, I clicked Save and got this !

Data.. data? Do we have data ? Click on Logs and close the sample queries. Let’s just see what have. All of it (which shouldn’t be much.)

In the top box, type
SEARCH *
Then click Run. Bingo.. out should pop all the events that have been captured. You can change the Display Time to make sure that you’re getting the right events, right now.

It took a little while for the non-well-known logs to show up. But maybe it will work faster for you than for me. If you want to give it a shot and try your non-well-known logs, like this, give it a go.
Event | where Eventlog == "PolicyPak"
Then click Run again.
Pow! Here come your logs.

Then I can also dig into an event, and … hey look ! EastSalesUser1 ran Procmon, and PolicyPak did the elevation ! Amazeballs !

That’s it. Well, that’s basics anyway.

Remember this blog is a simple walkthrough / getting started. This isn’t “Magic Tricks with Windows Analytics.” But if I had this guide, I would have been up and running about 10x faster. So I hope this helps you out and shows how you can take on-prem or “Always on the go” Windows 10 machines and record their logs, then sort thru them for actionable items and trends.

In Part 1, of our blog series outlining the details of Azure security defaults, we left off on the topic of MFA registration, which utilizes the Microsoft Authenticator app.  While all users MUST register for MFA, MFA is not required for all users every time.  Security defaults does enforce MFA for privileged accounts every time they log on as these accounts have increased access to your environment.  Security defaults requires added authentication for the following nine Azure administrator roles.

• Global administrator
• SharePoint administrator
• Exchange administrator
• Conditional Access administrator
• Security administrator
• Helpdesk administrator or password administrator
• Billing administrator
• User administrator
• Authentication administrator

MFA should be standard policy for all Azure admin account as account takeover attacks are one of the leading types of threats today.  Cybercriminals specifically target privileged accounts so special attention is needed.

Protecting all users

Security defaults is about improving the protection for all users, not just admin accounts.  While MFA is not required of every logon attempt, non-admin users are prompted for additional authentication when connecting from a new device or app.  There may be other instances that trigger MFA for standard users as well.

Limitations of MFA using security defaults

As mentioned, security defaults gives you free access to Azure AD MFA.  Free however, has its limitations.  Some of these shortcomings are listed below.

• Admins have no control over verification methods
• SMS and phone calls are not available as second factors
• You cannot configure trusted IPs for MFA exclusion
• An exclusion account for emergency access
• No MFA reports or fraud alerts

Again, keep in mind that Azure security defaults gives you the bare security minimum.  To obtain more features and control over MFA, you will need to ante up some additional money.  If you have a license for Conditional Access but have not yet enabled it, you can use security defaults as a temporary security band-aid until you are ready to enable Conditional Access policies.

Blocking legacy authentication

The majority of compromising sign-in attempts come from legacy authentication.  These credential stuffing or account takeover attacks tend to be automated and performed by bot nets.  Legacy authentication utilizes protocols that only use basic authentication.  These outdated protocols only require single factor authentication and cannot enforce a second factor as part of the natural authentication flow.  This is in contrast to modern authentication, which does support second factor authentication.  Using legacy authentication, an imposter can simply bypass your active MFA policy.

Client applications or services that use legacy authentication also have a blaring vulnerability in that credentials are collected and then stored until validated against an authority.   Apps or services that utilize modern authentication never store credentials.  Instead, they only present them.  In other words, modern authentication never trusts the app or service that is requesting your credentials. 

For these reasons, it is highly recommended that legacy authentication protocols such as IMAP, SMTP and POP3 be blocked.  This means that clients cannot use an older version of Office 2010 but can use a more current version such as Office 2016.  Some email/faxing software and other types of applications require the use of these older protocols.  Make sure that none of your applications are using legacy authentication protocols before enabling security defaults.   

Protecting privileged actions

We mentioned how security defaults uses MFA to protect privileged user accounts.  It also protects privileged actions as well.  This is important because non-admin users can be delegated to Azure Resources.  Azure services can be managed through the Azure Resource Manager API.  These services include:

• Azure portal
• Azure PowerShell
• Azure CLI

These services give users tenant wide powers such as the ability to modify configurations, service settings and billing subscriptions.  This is why it is imperative to verify the identity of users that utilize them.  When enabled, security defaults will require added authentication before allowing delegated access. 

Conclusion

Azure AD security defaults certainly has its shortcomings and should not be considered a long-term solution for any sizable organization.  It also does not provide the rich security protections that many organizations need to satisfy security policies or compliances.  It does provide a “one-click” easy button that new tenants can use to protect themselves right out of the gate while they begin to learn their solution options.  While it may provide ample protection for small organizations, tenant owners should view it as a transitory measure only.  Security defaults is a great first step and one that hopefully, will better secure the entire O365 community as well. 

The old adage, “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink,” certainly applies to cybersecurity today.   You can provide users and organizations with all types of cybersecurity tools and policies, but as long as they are optional, you cannot make them utilize them.  A case in point is the enforcement of multifactor authentication (MFA) for Azure.  Despite the fact that Microsoft attests that MFA will prevent 99.9 percent of account compromises, only around 8 percent of administrative accounts in Azure AD use it.  In a world in which credential stuffing attacks initiate billions of malicious login attempts on a monthly basis, MFA should be an enforced policy for every organization.  The hard truth is that we live in a digital world in which security is no longer optional. 

Depreciation of Baseline Security Policies

Microsoft has already been providing a set of predefined policies to help organizations protect themselves against common attacks.  There were four baseline policies.

• Require MFA for admins (preview)
• End user protection (preview)
• Block legacy authentication (preview)
• Require MFA for service management (preview

Azure admins could enable or disable them for their Azure userbase.  Unfortunately, too many organizations have not taken advantage of these policies or the rich set of security capabilities such as Conditional Access.  This not only makes them more vulnerable, but adds to the collective threat environment for everyone else as well.  Every computer that is compromised serves as one more potential attack vehicle that perpetrators can use for malicious deeds towards others.  The IT industry is starting to recognize that organizations not only have a responsibility to protect their own users, but share in the universal collective effort to make the world a less vulnerable place.  By hardening up our own attack surfaces, we harden the world as well.  As a result, Microsoft is depreciating these predefined policies on February 29, 2020, replacing them with the new “Security Defaults.”

What are Azure Security Defaults?

The intention of Security Defaults is simple; provide an enforced default security state for all Azure organizations that do not implement security policy initiatives on their own.  Security Defaults are available to all tenants and like Baseline Security policies, are offered at no additional cost.  New tenants will automatically have security defaults enabled by default.  If your tenant was created on or after October 22, 2019, chances are that security defaults is already enabled.  In the coming phase, Microsoft will begin retroactively enabling it for existing domains who have failed to enact any security measures on their own.  These security defaults enforce the following:

• Unified Multi-Factor Authentication registration
• Multi-Factor Authentication enforcement
• Blocking legacy authentication
• Protecting privileged actions

If you are an existing tenant prior to the October date and currently and currently do not utilize security policies of any kind, you will need to enable Security Defaults for now.  You can do this by going to Azure Active Directory > Properties > “Manage Security defaults” and set the Enable security defaults toggle to Yes as is shown below.

If you currently utilize Conditional Access, Classic or Identity Protection policies that consist of settings that may conflict with any of the security default offerings, you will receive an error message when trying to enable default security policies as is shown below.

Note that you will have to disable Security defaults before creating conditional access or other security policies that involve conflicting settings.  Keep in mind too that Security defaults is a bare minimum.  While they may be appropriate for small organizations, medium or large enterprises should expand into policies that are more comprehensive. 

MFA Registration

Let’s start with multifactor authentication.  Security defaults require all users within the tenant to register for MFA.  MFA requires a user to use a second method of authentication to prove their identity in addition to their logon credentials.  The most popular method currently is SMS MFA in which the user must type in a unique one-time code sent to their cell phone after logging on with their assigned credentials.  While this and other methods are available in Azure Conditional Access policies, it is not an available option under Security defaults.  Azure Security defaults only utilizes the Microsoft Authenticator app

Once you enable Security defaults, users are required to register for MFA within 14 days.  The 14-day clock starts from the time the user logs on for the first time once the security defaults are enabled.  Should a user fail to register within this required time frame, the user will not be able to logon until the FMA registration is completed.  The screenshot below shows what users will see during the 14-day registration period.

In addition to completing the MFA registration process, users must also install the Microsoft Authenticator app on their cell phone.  We will cover Multi-Factor Authentication enforcement in Part 2 of this blog series.