V-276260

Discussion

Without tracking privileged activity, it would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an incident or identify those responsible for one. System documentation should include a definition of the functionality considered privileged. A privileged function in this context is any operation that modifies the structure of the database, its built-in logic, or its security settings. This would include all Data Definition Language (DDL) statements and all security-related statements. In an Azure SQL Managed Instance environment, it encompasses but is not necessarily limited to: CREATE ALTER DROP GRANT REVOKE DENY There may also be Data Manipulation Language (DML) statements that, subject to context, should be regarded as privileged. Possible examples in SQL Managed Instance include: TRUNCATE TABLE; DELETE, or DELETE affecting more than n rows, for some n, or DELETE without a WHERE clause; UPDATE or UPDATE affecting more than n rows, for some n, or UPDATE without a WHERE clause; any SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE to an application-defined security table executed by other than a security principal. Depending on the capabilities of Azure SQL Managed Instance and the design of the database and associated applications, audit logging may be achieved by means of DBMS auditing features, database triggers, other mechanisms, or a combination of these. Note that it is particularly important to audit, and tightly control, any action that weakens the implementation of this requirement itself, since the objective is to have a complete audit trail of all administrative activity. Satisfies: SRG-APP-000504-DB-000354, SRG-APP-000504-DB-000355

Check Content

Review Azure SQL Managed Instance configuration to verify that audit records are produced for all privileged activities or other system-level access. 

Run this TSQL command to determine if SQL Auditing AuditActionGroups are configured:  

SELECT name AS 'Audit Name',
status_desc AS 'Audit Status',
audit_file_path AS 'Current Audit File'
FROM sys.dm_server_audit_status 
WHERE name NOT IN ('admin_audit','SqlDbThreatDetection_ServerAudit')  

If no values exist for Audit Name, this is a finding.  

Verify the following AuditActionGroup(s) are configured: 

APPLICATION_ROLE_CHANGE_PASSWORD_GROUP  
AUDIT_CHANGE_GROUP  
BACKUP_RESTORE_GROUP 
DATABASE_CHANGE_GROUP
DATABASE_OBJECT_CHANGE_GROUP 
DATABASE_OBJECT_OWNERSHIP_CHANGE_GROUP 
DATABASE_OBJECT_PERMISSION_CHANGE_GROUP 
DATABASE_OPERATION_GROUP 
DATABASE_OWNERSHIP_CHANGE_GROUP 
DATABASE_PERMISSION_CHANGE_GROUP 
DATABASE_PRINCIPAL_CHANGE_GROUP 
DATABASE_PRINCIPAL_IMPERSONATION_GROUP 
DATABASE_ROLE_MEMBER_CHANGE_GROUP 
DBCC_GROUP 
LOGIN_CHANGE_PASSWORD_GROUP 
SCHEMA_OBJECT_CHANGE_GROUP 
SCHEMA_OBJECT_OWNERSHIP_CHANGE_GROUP 
SCHEMA_OBJECT_PERMISSION_CHANGE_GROUP 
SERVER_OBJECT_CHANGE_GROUP 
SERVER_OBJECT_OWNERSHIP_CHANGE_GROUP 
SERVER_OBJECT_PERMISSION_CHANGE_GROUP 
SERVER_OPERATION_GROUP 
SERVER_PERMISSION_CHANGE_GROUP 
SERVER_PRINCIPAL_CHANGE_GROUP 
SERVER_PRINCIPAL_IMPERSONATION_GROUP 
SERVER_ROLE_MEMBER_CHANGE_GROUP 
SERVER_STATE_CHANGE_GROUP 
TRACE_CHANGE_GROUP 
USER_CHANGE_PASSWORD_GROUP  

SELECT a.name AS 'AuditName', 
s.name AS 'SpecName', 
d.audit_action_name AS 'ActionName', 
d.audited_result AS 'Result' 
FROM sys.server_audit_specifications s 
JOIN sys.server_audits a ON s.audit_guid = a.audit_guid 
JOIN sys.server_audit_specification_details d ON s.server_specification_id = d.server_specification_id 
WHERE a.is_state_enabled = 1  
AND d.audit_action_name IN ('APPLICATION_ROLE_CHANGE_PASSWORD_GROUP','AUDIT_CHANGE_GROUP','BACKUP_RESTORE_GROUP','DATABASE_CHANGE_GROUP','DATABASE_OBJECT_CHANGE_GROUP','DATABASE_OBJECT_OWNERSHIP_CHANGE_GROUP','DATABASE_OBJECT_PERMISSION_CHANGE_GROUP','DATABASE_OPERATION_GROUP','DATABASE_OWNERSHIP_CHANGE_GROUP','DATABASE_PERMISSION_CHANGE_GROUP','DATABASE_PRINCIPAL_CHANGE_GROUP','DATABASE_PRINCIPAL_IMPERSONATION_GROUP','DATABASE_ROLE_MEMBER_CHANGE_GROUP','DBCC_GROUP','LOGIN_CHANGE_PASSWORD_GROUP','SCHEMA_OBJECT_CHANGE_GROUP','SCHEMA_OBJECT_OWNERSHIP_CHANGE_GROUP','SCHEMA_OBJECT_PERMISSION_CHANGE_GROUP','SERVER_OBJECT_CHANGE_GROUP','SERVER_OBJECT_OWNERSHIP_CHANGE_GROUP','SERVER_OBJECT_PERMISSION_CHANGE_GROUP','SERVER_OPERATION_GROUP','SERVER_PERMISSION_CHANGE_GROUP','SERVER_PRINCIPAL_CHANGE_GROUP','SERVER_PRINCIPAL_IMPERSONATION_GROUP','SERVER_ROLE_MEMBER_CHANGE_GROUP','SERVER_STATE_CHANGE_GROUP','TRACE_CHANGE_GROUP','USER_CHANGE_PASSWORD_GROUP')    

If any listed AuditActionGroups do not exist in the configuration, this is a finding.