CompositionalIT
Farmer Azure security capabilities
I bought 20+ O'Reilly security books (from Cybersecurity Humble Bundle) I asked Claude Sonnet to go them all through against Farmer:
Can you verify that the Farmer is capable of producing the cloud architecture that is aligned with these security best practices, by supporting correct Azure resources and doesn't have important customOperations missing in the Builders and the Farmer documentation is up to date.
This is the result:
Executive Summary
Farmer has been audited against cloud security best practices derived from 23 major cloud security books (focusing on 9 Azure-relevant titles). The audit assessed Farmer's capability to implement secure Azure infrastructure that aligns with industry standards for:
- Identity and Access Management (IAM/RBAC)
- Network Security
- Encryption and Key Management
- Monitoring and Logging
- Container Security
- Compliance and Governance
- Backup and Disaster Recovery
Overall Security Posture: GOOD with Critical Gaps
Strengths:
- ✅ Excellent IAM/RBAC support with 1500+ built-in Azure roles
- ✅ Comprehensive network security controls (NSG, Firewall, Private Endpoints, Bastion)
- ✅ Strong Key Vault and encryption support
- ✅ Good monitoring and logging capabilities
- ✅ Well-documented security features
Critical Gaps:
- ❌ No Azure Policy builder (major governance gap)
- ❌ No Recovery Services Vault or backup support
- ❌ No DDoS Protection Plan builder
- ⚠️ Limited Container Registry security configuration
- ❌ No Azure Sentinel (SIEM) support
- ❌ No Security Center/Defender for Cloud builder
Ok then, many of these are for large enterprises that are probably not using Farmer. But it's not an excuse, so here is a PR that addresses these issues:
Summary
Add 6 enterprise security resource builders to Farmer, enabling infrastructure-as-code deployments that meet regulatory compliance requirements and security best practices.
New Security Resources
🛡️ Network Security
- DDoS Protection Plan - Enterprise DDoS mitigation with shared plans across subscriptions
- Network Watcher & Flow Logs - NSG traffic monitoring, diagnostics, and Traffic Analytics integration
🔐 Security Management
- Defender for Cloud - Unified security posture management and threat protection for VMs, containers, databases, and more
- Azure Sentinel - Cloud-native SIEM/SOAR for security event aggregation and automated response
📋 Governance & Compliance
- Azure Policy - Policy definitions and assignments for organizational standards enforcement
💾 Business Continuity
- Recovery Services Vault - Backup policies and disaster recovery for VMs and databases
🐳 Enhanced Container Registry
- Network access restrictions (IP rules, private endpoints)
- Public access controls (Premium SKU)
Key Features
✅ Complete Documentation - Each resource includes:
- Builder examples (basic and advanced)
- Cost breakdowns with optimization strategies
- Security best practices
- Compliance framework mappings (NIST 800-53, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, HIPAA, SOC 2, CIS)
✅ Full Test Coverage - All new builders have comprehensive unit tests
✅ Production-Ready - Addresses security gaps identified in enterprise readiness audit
Compliance Support
These builders help organizations meet requirements from:
- NIST SP 800-53 / Cybersecurity Framework
- ISO 27001:2013
- PCI DSS 3.2.1 / 4.0
- HIPAA Security Rule
- SOC 2 Type II
- CIS Azure Foundations Benchmark
Files Changed
- 6 new ARM resource definitions
- 6 new builders with consistent patterns
- 7 comprehensive documentation pages
- 6 test suites
Breaking Changes
None - all additions are backward compatible
All Critical Security Gaps Closed
| # | Feature | Status | Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Azure Policy | ✅ Complete | Compliance enforcement at scale |
| 2 | Recovery Services Vault | ✅ Complete | Backup & disaster recovery |
| 3 | Azure Sentinel | ✅ Complete | SIEM for security operations |
| 4 | Defender for Cloud | ✅ Complete | Continuous security posture |
| 5 | DDoS Protection Plan | ✅ Complete | Network-level protection |
| 6 | Network Watcher | ✅ Complete | Traffic monitoring & forensics |
| 7 | Enhanced ACR Security | ✅ Complete | Container registry isolation |
I have read the contributing guidelines and have completed the following:
- [ ] Tested my code end-to-end against a live Azure subscription.
- [x] Updated the documentation in the docs folder for the affected changes.
- [x] Written unit tests against the modified code that I have made.
- [x] Updated the release notes with a new entry for this PR.
- [x] Checked the coding standards outlined in the contributions guide and ensured my code adheres to them.
If I haven't completed any of the tasks above, I include the reasons why here:
- A few of my unit-tests in current master fails.
- I struggle with Fantomas. It formats all files due to line-endings or whatever.
- I don't have active Azure Subscription to test my code as I've been focusing AWS recently
Below is a minimal example configuration that includes the new features, which can be used to deploy to Azure:
