Governance Policies Azure Networking Network Interface - Azure/az-prototype GitHub Wiki

Network Interface

Governance policies for Network Interface

Domain: azure-networking

Patterns

Name Description
Network interface with NSG and accelerated networking Production NIC with mandatory NSG, no public IP, and accelerated networking

Anti-Patterns

Description Instead
Do not deploy NICs without a Network Security Group Always associate an NSG with every NIC or its subnet
Do not assign public IP addresses to NICs Use Azure Bastion for management and internal load balancers for application access

References


Checks (4)

Check Severity Description
AZ-NIC-001 Required Associate every NIC with a Network Security Group
AZ-NIC-002 Required Do not assign public IP addresses directly to network interfaces
AZ-NIC-003 Recommended Enable accelerated networking on supported VM sizes
AZ-NIC-004 Recommended Use static private IP allocation for infrastructure VMs (domain controllers, DNS servers)

AZ-NIC-001

Associate every NIC with a Network Security Group

Severity: Required
Rationale: NICs without NSGs allow all inbound and outbound traffic by default
Agents: terraform-agent, bicep-agent, cloud-architect

Targets

  • Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces

Companion Resources

Resource Name Purpose
Microsoft.Network/networkSecurityGroups nsg-resource NSG with least-privilege rules
Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks/subnets snet-resource Target subnet

AZ-NIC-002

Do not assign public IP addresses directly to network interfaces

Severity: Required
Rationale: Direct public IP assignment bypasses centralized ingress controls and exposes the VM to the internet
Agents: terraform-agent, bicep-agent, cloud-architect, security-reviewer

Targets

  • Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces

Companion Resources

Resource Name Purpose
Microsoft.Network/bastionHosts bas-mgmt For management access instead of public IPs
Microsoft.Network/loadBalancers lb For application traffic instead of public IPs

AZ-NIC-003

Enable accelerated networking on supported VM sizes

Severity: Recommended
Rationale: Accelerated networking provides up to 30Gbps throughput and lower latency via SR-IOV
Agents: terraform-agent, bicep-agent, cloud-architect

Targets

  • Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces

AZ-NIC-004

Use static private IP allocation for infrastructure VMs (domain controllers, DNS servers)

Severity: Recommended
Rationale: Dynamic IPs can change on deallocation, breaking dependent services
Agents: terraform-agent, bicep-agent, cloud-architect

Targets

  • Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces

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