Restrict user access to data operations in Azure Cosmos DB

Security · Cosmos DB · 2021_09

Use Azure AD identities for management place operations in Azure Cosmos DB.

Description

Cosmos DB provides two authorization options for interacting with the database:

• Azure Active Directory identity (Azure AD). Can be used to authorize account and resource management operations.
• Keys and resource tokens. Can be used to authorize resource management and data operations.

Resource management operations include management of databases, indexes, and containers. By default, keys are permitted to perform resource management operations. You can restrict these operations to Azure Resource Manager (ARM) calls only.

Recommendation

Consider limiting key and resource tokens to data plane operations only. Use Azure AD identities for authorizing account and resource management operations.

Examples

Configure with Azure template

To deploy Cosmos DB accounts that pass this rule:

• Set the Properties.disableKeyBasedMetadataWriteAccess property to true.

For example:

Azure Template snippet

{
    "type": "Microsoft.DocumentDB/databaseAccounts",
    "apiVersion": "2021-06-15",
    "name": "[parameters('dbAccountName')]",
    "location": "[parameters('location')]",
    "properties": {
        "consistencyPolicy": {
            "defaultConsistencyLevel": "Session"
        },
        "databaseAccountOfferType": "Standard",
        "locations": [
            {
                "locationName": "[parameters('location')]",
                "failoverPriority": 0,
                "isZoneRedundant": false
            }
        ],
        "disableKeyBasedMetadataWriteAccess": true
    }
}

Configure with Bicep

To deploy Cosmos DB accounts that pass this rule:

• Set the Properties.disableKeyBasedMetadataWriteAccess property to true.

For example:

Azure Bicep snippet

resource dbAccount 'Microsoft.DocumentDB/databaseAccounts@2021-06-15' = {
  name: dbAccountName
  location: location
  properties: {
    consistencyPolicy: {
      defaultConsistencyLevel: 'Session'
    }
    databaseAccountOfferType: 'Standard'
    locations: [
      {
        locationName: location
        failoverPriority: 0
        isZoneRedundant: false
      }
    ]
    disableKeyBasedMetadataWriteAccess: true
  }
}

Links

• Use identity-based authentication
• Restrict user access to data operations in Azure Cosmos DB
• Secure access to data in Azure Cosmos DB
• How does Azure Cosmos DB secure my database?
• Access control in the Azure Cosmos DB SQL API
• Azure resource template

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Last update: 2022-10-17

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