Azure Connector

The following is not supported in Tenable FedRAMP Moderate environments. For more information, see the Tenable FedRAMP Product Offering.

Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines are image service instances that provide on-demand and scalable computing resources with usage-based pricing.

Tip: For more information on how third-party integrations work, see Connectors.

Connector Details

Details Description

Supported products

Azure Virtual Machines

Category

Asset Inventory

Ingested data

Assets only

Ingested Asset Classes

Device

Integration type

UNI directional (data is transferred from the Connector to Tenable Exposure Management in one direction)

Supported version and type

SaaS (latest)

Prerequisites and User Permissions

Before you begin configuring the connector, make sure you have the following:

  1. Create Azure Application

  2. Generate Azure Client Secret (Service Principal Password)

  3. Grant the Azure Application API permissions

Create Azure Application

To create the Azure application:

  1. Sign in to the Azure Portal .

  2. In the left navigation pane, click Azure Active Directory.

  3. Under Manage, click App registrations.

  4. Click the + New registration button.

  5. In the Name field, enter a display name for the application.
  6. Under Supported account types, select the appropriate option based on your organization’s needs.
  7. (Optional) Enter a redirect URI if applicable.

  8. Click Register.

  9. After registration, make note of the following values for connector configuration:

    • Directory (Tenant) ID

    • Application (Client) ID

Generate Azure Client Secret (Service Principal Password)

  1. In the Azure Portal, navigate to Azure Active Directory.

  2. Under Manage, select App registrations.

  3. Select the application you registered for the connector.

  4. In the left-hand menu, select Certificates & secrets.

  5. Under Client secrets, click + New client secret.

  6. Enter a description and choose an expiration duration (e.g., 6 months, 12 months).

  7. Click Add.

    Copy the Value immediately after creation. This is the Service Principal Password. You won’t be able to retrieve it later.

Grant the Azure Application API permissions

  1. In the Microsoft Azure Portal, navigate to Subscriptions.

  2. Click the applicable subscription.

  3. On the Overview page, click Access Control (IAM) > Add.

  4. Click Add role.

  5. From the Role drop-down, select Reader.

  6. From the Assign access drop-down, select Azure AD user, group, or service principal

  7. In the Select drop-down, select your Azure Application

  8. Click Save.

Tip: Review these API permissions by navigating to Azure active directory > App Registrations > select your client application > API Permissions.

Add a Connector

To add a new connector:

  1. In the left navigation menu, click Connectors.

    The Connectors page appears.

  2. In the upper-right corner, click Add new connector.

    The Connector Library appears.

  3. In the search box, type the name of the connector.

  4. On the tile for the connector, click Connect.

    The connector configuration options appear.

Configure the Connector

To set up the connector:

  1. (Optional) Edit the default connector name if you need it to be more descriptive.

  2. In the Tenant ID, Client ID, and Service Principal Password (Client Secret) text boxes, enter the credentials you generated earlier.

  3. Data pulling configuration: This configuration has dynamic settings tailored to the specific connector and integration type. Below are the configurations relevant to this connector.

    • Subscriptions: Configure to either "Always fetch all subscription" or select specific subscriptions to sync.

    • In the Asset Retention text box, type the number of days after which you want assets to be removed from Tenable Exposure Management. If an asset has not been detected or updated within the specified number of days, it is automatically removed from the application, ensuring your asset inventory is current and relevant.

      Tip: For more information, see Asset Retention.
      • (Optional) Select more statuses when detected the asset should be archived. By default, Exposure Management archives assets that return from the connector with the state Deallocating or Deallocated .
  4. In the Test connectivity section, click the Test Connectivity button to verify that Tenable Exposure Management can connect to your connector instance.

    • A successful connectivity test confirms that the platform can connect to the connector instance. It does not, however, guarantee that the synchronization process will succeed, as additional syncing or processing issues may arise.

    • If the connectivity test fails, an error message with details about the issue appears. Click Show tests for more information about the exact error.

  5. In the Connector scheduling section, configure the time and day(s) on which you want connector syncs to occur.

    Tip: For more information, see Connector Scheduling
  6. Click Create to start syncing the new connector, or Save Changes if editing an existing connector.

  7. Allow some time for the sync to complete. Then, you can review the sync status on the Connectors main page or under Connector Logs on the connector's specific setup page.

  8. To confirm the sync is complete, do the following:

Azure in Tenable Exposure Management

Locate Connector Assets in Tenable Exposure Management

As the connector discovers assets, Tenable Exposure Management ingests those devices for reporting.

To view assets by connector:

  1. In Tenable Exposure Management, navigate to the Assets page.

  2. In the Filters section, under 3rd Party Connectors, click the connector name for which you want to view assets.

    The asset list updates to show only assets from the selected connector.

  3. Click on any asset to view Asset Details.

Data Mapping

Exposure Management integrates with the connector via API to retrieve relevant weakness and asset data, which is then mapped into the Exposure Management system. The following tables outline how fields and their values are mapped from the connector to Exposure Management.

Device Mapping

Tenable Exposure Management UI Field

Microsoft Azure Field

Unique Identifier vmId

Asset - External Identifier or

Asset - Provider Identifier

vmId
Asset - Name name
Asset - Operating Systems properties.storageProfile.osDisk.osType

Asset - IPv4 Adresses

Asset - IPv6 Adresses

network_interface.data.properties.ipConfigurations.properties.privateIPAddress

publicIps.data.properties.ipAddress

Asset - MAC Addresses network_interface.data.properties.macAddress
Asset - First Observation Date instance_view.status.time

Asset - External Tags

tags

Asset Custom Attributes

os_version

instance_view.data.osName

properties.vmId

subscription_id

subscription_name

Status Update Mechanisms

Every day, Tenable Exposure Management syncs with the vendor's platform to receive updates on existing findings and assets and to retrieve new ones (if any were added).

The table below describes how the status update mechanism works in the connector for findings and assets ingested into Tenable Exposure Management.

Update Type in Exposure Management

Mechanism (When?)

Archiving Assets

  • Asset not seen for X days according to "Last Seen"

  • Asset that returns from the connector with the state Deallocating orDeallocated is archived by default

  • Optional configuration is to archive based on the states: Stopping or stopped or VM deallocated in the Data Pulling Configuration on the connector setup.

Note: Updates on the vendor side are reflected in Tenable Exposure Management only when the next scheduled connector sync time is complete (once a day).

Uniqueness Criteria

Tenable Exposure Management uses defined uniqueness criteria to determine whether an ingested asset or finding should be recognized as a distinct record. These criteria help define how assets and findings are identified and counted from each connector.

Tip:  Read all about Third-Party Data Deduplication in Tenable Exposure Management

The uniqueness criteria for this connector are as follows:

Data

Uniqueness Criteria

Asset

vmId

API Endpoints in Use

API version: 2021-04-01, 2021-03-01, 2020-11-01

API URL: https://management.azure.com

API

Use in Tenable Exposure Management

https://login.microsoftonline.com/{{ tenant_id }}/oauth2/token

Authentication

https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/{{ subscription_id }}/resourcegroups?api-version=2021-04-01

Resource groups

https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/{{ subscription_id }}/resourceGroups/{{ group_name }}/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines?api-version=2021-03-01

Virtual Machines

https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/{{ subscription_id }}/resourceGroups/{{ group_id }}/providers/Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces/{{ network_interface_id }}?api-version=2020-11-01

Network interfaces - Private IPS, MAC

https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/{{ subscription_id }}/resourceGroups/{{ group_id }}/providers/Microsoft.Network/publicIPAddresses/{{ public_ip_id }}?api-version=2020-11-01

Public IPS

https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/{{ subscription_id }}/resourceGroups/{{ group_id }}/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/{{ vm_id }}/instanceView?api-version=2021-03-01

Virtual Machine Details

Data Validation

This section shows how to validate and compare data between Tenable Exposure Management and the Microsoft Azure platform.

Asset Data Validation

Objective: Ensure the number of endpoints (devices) in Microsoft Azure aligns with the number of devices displayed in Tenable Exposure Management.

In Microsoft Azure:

  1. Navigate to your list of Virtual Machines. Every Virtual Machine in Azure is ingested as a device in Exposure Management.

In Tenable Exposure Management:

  1. Locate your connector assets.

  2. Compare the total number of assets between Azure and Tenable Exposure Management.

Expected outcome: The total numbers returned in Microsoft Azure and Exposure Management should match.

If an asset is not visible in Exposure Management, check the following conditions:

If an asset meets any of the following conditions, it will not appear in Exposure Management.

  • Archived based on the last observed date.

  • Archived based on the asset's status.

    Tip: To learn more on how assets are archived, see Status Update Mechanisms.