Security is a major concern for businesses of all sizes, and virtual machines (VMs) are no exception. With the rise of cyberattacks and data breaches, it’s essential to ensure that your VMs are secure and protected against unauthorized access. Fortunately, Microsoft Azure offers a range of security features to help you secure your VMs, including Just-in-time (JIT) access.
What is Just-in-time Access?
Just-in-time (JIT) access is a security feature that allows you to control access to your VMs on an as-needed basis. With JIT access, you can restrict access to your VMs to only those users who need it, and for only as long as they need it. This helps to minimize the risk of unauthorized access and reduces the surface area for potential attacks.
JIT access works by creating a temporary firewall rule that allows specified users to access your VMs for a set period of time. Once the time period expires, the rule is automatically removed, and access to the VM is once again restricted. This means that even if a user’s credentials are compromised, they won’t be able to access your VMs unless they have been granted access via JIT.
How Does Just-In-Time-Access Work?
JIT works by defining limits on three critical parameters of privileged access:
# Location
# Time
# Actions
Location limit ensures that the user only exercises privileged access from a pre-approved place, based on the requirement. Limiting time is the core strategy of JIT, where the user or the system gets elevated access only for the necessary time during which the work must get completed. Prevailing access gets revoked after reaching the prescribed time.
To further bring down the attack surface, JIT also limits the actions performed by the user by restricting the final parameter. With this, users can only perform requirements-based actions.
How to Enable Just-in-time Access in Azure VMs
Enabling JIT access in Azure VMs is easy. Here’s how:
- Navigate to your Azure VM in the Azure portal.
- Select “Security” from the left-hand menu.
- Click “Just-in-time access” and select “Enable”.
- Select the protocols (SSH or RDP) for which you want to enable JIT access.
- Specify the users who should have JIT access and set the maximum duration for access.
- Click “Save” to enable JIT access.
Once JIT access is enabled, you can view and manage JIT access requests from the “Just-in-time access” page. From here, you can approve or reject access requests, view request details, and manage your JIT access policies.
Benefits of Just-in-time Access
There are several benefits to using JIT access in your Azure VMs, including:
- Improved security: JIT access helps to reduce the risk of unauthorized access and minimizes the surface area for potential attacks.
- Reduced administrative burden: With JIT access, you don’t need to create and manage permanent firewall rules for your VMs, reducing your administrative workload.
- Greater control: JIT access gives you fine-grained control over who can access your VMs and for how long, helping you to enforce your security policies more effectively.
Conclusion
Just-in-time (JIT) access is a powerful security feature that can help you secure your Azure VMs against unauthorized access. By enabling JIT access, you can control access to your VMs on an as-needed basis, reducing the risk of cyberattacks and data breaches. With JIT access, you can improve your security posture while reducing your administrative burden and maintaining fine-grained control over your VMs.