Security on Windows Azure

Security on Microsoft Cloud Solutions

Haddy El-HagganMicrosoft Student Partner

Founder of Azure Community in Egypt

Security on Microsoft Cloud Solutions

• Overview on Windows Azure• Security Overview• Data Security on Windows Azure• Network Security• Identity On Azure

Windows Azure

• Cloud Computing is a new Concept of the Best utilization of the Data Center

• Cloud Computing is based on Virtualization• Cloud Computing is mainly composed of 3

layers• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)• Platform as a Service (Paas)• Software as a Service (SaaS

Windows Azure (cont.)

• Windows Azure is Microsoft Cloud Solutions• Windows Azure is composed of 3 main Nodes:– Compute– Storage (Windows Azure Storage, AppFabrics

Caching and SQL Azure)– Fabrics (to enable communication between

different applications hosted on Azure or even on premises)

Benefits

• High Availability • High Scalability• Pay as you go• Best utilization of the hardware resources

available• Focus on your business rather than the IT

infrastructure• Flexibility to access your data

ONE OF THE BIGGEST CONCERN IS ALWAYS ABOUT THE SECURITY AND HOW ARE MY DATA SECURE ON THE CLOUD?

Platform(as a Service)

Man

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Storage

Servers

Networking

O/S

Middleware

Virtualization

Applications

Runtime

Data

Microsoft Cloud Solution Security Overview

• Developers and users must know the responsibilities the share with the Cloud Provider

• These are the main layers of security for any Cloud Provider:

– Human– Data– Application– Host– Network– Physical

Microsoft Cloud Solution Security Overview (Cont.)

• The “human” and “Data” layers are the users’ responsibility and how they manage their data and its permissions (more information about the data n Azure to be followed)

• The “Application Layer” depend on the developer and the security used on it

• Authentication• Input validation ….

• Recommend to develop using SDL (security development lifecycle) designed for windows Vista, Windows 7 and windows Azure

Microsoft Cloud Solution Security Overview

• “Host” Layer, Windows Azure is hosted on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V

• Windows Azure doesn’t depend on Windows Server 2008 hypervisor , it has its own hypervisor where the roles and the VM are hosted and isolated

• Host has 2 main jobs:– Isolation (every role runs on its own VM)– Hardening (regular Security Updates)

Microsoft Cloud Solution Security Overview

• Some Firewall can be configured by the service owner and some are controlled by the fabric controller

• “Network” Layer, Windows Azure traffic through several firewall

• Guest VM• Host VM• SQL Azure VM

THERE IS NO ENCRYPTION ON WINDOWS AZURE

Data Security on Azure

• Windows Azure Compute and Windows Azure Storage are 2 different things each of them is hosted on different hardware resources

• In the Storage Architecture the top layer validates, authenticates, and authorizes requests, routing them to the partition layer and data layer where the data exists

• Protect against Data Loss, there are always three replicates of your data whatever happens

• Isolation: all your data are isolated from the others by 2 ways:– Logically – Physically

• Each type of storage has its own way of access depending on the developer

• NO DATA ARE ACCESSIBLE BY THE PUBLIC EXCEPT THE PUBLIC BLOB

Data Security on Azure

• Isolation: all your data are isolated from the others by 2 ways:– Logically – Physically

• Each type of storage has its own way of access depending on the developer

• NO DATA ARE ACCESSIBLE BY THE PUBLIC EXCEPT THE PUBLIC BLOB

Secure Networking

• Network Architecture: – In Azure there are mainly 4 types of Nodes:

• Fabric Controller Node (Azure Kernel)• Storage Node• Compute Node• Other infrastructure Node

– In the FC Networking there are 3 types of isolated networks:• Main VLAN (all untrusted customer nodes)• FC VLAN (trusted FC networks)• Device VLAN (contains trusted networks an other infrastructure

devices)

Secure Networking

• No communication is possible between the VLANs without passing through a router for preventing faking traffic and eavesdropping on other traffic

• The communication is permitted from the FC VLAN or the Device VLAN to the main VLAN but not initiated from the main VLAN

Secure Networking

• Azure has the largest internet connections in the industry

• It is unlikely that someone can cut azure out of public by producing enough malicious traffic

• If your application on azure is attacked, azure will create several compute instances to maintain your application until the attack passes

• Microsoft is considering ways to identify malicious traffic and block it as it enters the Azure Fabric, but this sort of protection has not yet been deployed.

Identity On Azure

• To gain access to your application on the Cloud you have to pass few steps:– Authentication– Authorization– Monitoring and logging (track users and log their

operations)• Windows Azure support several identity technology

– Active Directory– Open ID– SQL Server– WIF

Identity On Azure

• Windows Azure supports 2 types of identity in the Cloud:– Role based– Claim Based

• Role based is using Username and password• Claim based is using Token containing a

collection of Claims

Identity On Azure: Role based authorization

• It can be used by SQL Azure, Azure Connect andASP.NET membership provider

• You only use the username and the password and the rest are kept in the identity store

• Simple, easy to use and possible to implement Domain join

Identity on Azure: Azure Connect

• Azure connect support domain join of windows azure roles to on premises Active Directory

Identity on Azure : Claim Based

• Claim is a piece of information• Token is a collection of Claims and are signed• Security Token Service map the credentials to the

token• Application is provide with all the identity information

needed• The management of the identity is not the application

responsibility• Integration between several identity providers• Less infrastructure code

Identity On Azure: AppFabric Access Control

• Enable the developer of using claim based authorization from enterprises like active directory, SQL Server

• Also enable the usage of the other identity provider like live ID, Facebook, Google and Yahoo.

Azure Community in Egypt

• Twitter: Azurecomeg• E-Mail: [email protected]

Contacts

• Twitter: @Hhaggan• Email: [email protected]• Blog: http://hhaggan.wordpress.com/