Search service should disable local authentication

Applies to

• Microsoft.Search/searchServices

What CGPulse checks

A resource passes this rule when disableLocalAuth must equal true. Anything else is reported as a finding with the evaluated property value attached as evidence.

How to fix it

Disable API key authentication and use Azure AD RBAC for access control. In Azure Portal: Search service > Keys > disable API key authentication. See: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/search/search-security-rbac

Careful: Disabling API key auth breaks all clients using query keys or admin keys. Ensure all access uses Entra ID RBAC first

CLI

az search service update --ids "{id}" --disable-local-auth true

Terraform

resource "azurerm_search_service" "{name}" {
  name                          = "{name}"
  resource_group_name           = "{rg}"
  location                      = var.location
  sku                           = "standard"
  local_authentication_enabled  = false
}

Compliance frameworks

• Cloud Security: Azure Foundations

Related Azure rules

• Action Group should be enabled
• Activity Log Alert should be enabled
• AKS cluster logs should be sent to Log Analytics
• AKS cluster must enable RBAC
• AKS cluster must enable RBAC
• AKS cluster should be a private cluster
• AKS cluster should disable local accounts
• AKS cluster should enable Azure RBAC for Kubernetes