Control: 4.1.1 Ensure that 'Auditing' is set to 'On'

Description

It is recommended to enable auditing on SQL Servers. Enabling auditing at the server level ensures that all existing and newly created databases on the SQL server instance are audited. Auditing policy applied on the SQL database does not override auditing policy and settings applied on the particular SQL server where the database is hosted.

Auditing tracks database events and writes them to an audit log in the Azure storage account. It also helps to maintain regulatory compliance, understand database activity, and gain insight into discrepancies and anomalies that could indicate business concerns or suspected security violations.

Default setting for Auditing is set to Off.

Remediation

From Console

Login to Azure console and navigate to SQL Servers.
For each server instance, go to Security section from left pane.
Click on Auditing.
Set Enable Azure SQL Auditing to On and select a storage account for log destination.
Click Save.

From PowerShell

Get the list of all SQL Servers

Get-AzureRmSqlServer

For each Server, enable auditing.

Set-AzureRmSqlServerAuditingPolicy -ResourceGroupName <resource group name> - ServerName <server name> -AuditType <audit type> -StorageAccountName <storage account name>

Usage

Run the control in your terminal:

powerpipe control run azure_compliance.control.cis_v130_4_1_1

Snapshot and share results via Turbot Pipes:

powerpipe login
powerpipe control run azure_compliance.control.cis_v130_4_1_1 --share

SQL

This control uses a named query:

select
  s.id as resource,
  case
    when audit -> 'properties' ->> 'state' = 'Disabled' then 'alarm'
    else 'ok'
  end as status,
  case
    when audit -> 'properties' ->> 'state' = 'Disabled' then name || ' auditing disabled.'
    else name || ' auditing enabled.'
  end as reason
  
  , s.resource_group as resource_group
  , sub.display_name as subscription
from
  azure_sql_server s,
  jsonb_array_elements(server_audit_policy) audit,
  azure_subscription sub
where
  sub.subscription_id = s.subscription_id;