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Configure Conditional Access policies for Microsoft Dev Box

  • Article

Conditional access is the protection of regulated content in a system by requiring certain criteria to be met before granting access to the content. Conditional access policies at their simplest are if-then statements. If a user wants to access a resource, then they must complete an action. Conditional access policies are a powerful tool for being able to keep your organization's devices secure and environments compliant.

This article provides examples of how organizations can use conditional access policies to manage access to dev boxes. For Microsoft Dev Box, it's common to configure conditional access policies to restrict who can access dev box, what from which locations they can access their dev boxes.

  • Device-based Conditional Access

    • Microsoft Intune and Microsoft Entra ID work together to make sure only managed and compliant devices can Dev Box. Policies include Conditional Access based on network access control.
    • Learn more about device-based Conditional Access with Intune

  • App-based Conditional Access

Prerequisites

Provide access to Dev Box

Your organization might start with conditional access policies that, by default, allow nothing. You can set up a conditional access policy that allows your developers to access their dev boxes by specifying the conditions under which they can connect.

You can configure conditional access policies through Microsoft Intune, or through Microsoft Entra ID. Each path brings you to a configuration pane, an example of which is shown in the following screenshot:

Screenshot showing the options for creating anew conditional access policy.

Scenario 1: Allow access to dev boxes from trusted networks

You want to allow dev box access, but only from specified networks, like your office or a trusted vendor's location.

Define a location

Follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Conditional Access Administrator.

  2. Browse to Protection > Conditional Access > Named locations.

  3. Choose the type of location to create.

    • Countries location or IP ranges location.

  4. Give your location a name.

  5. Provide the IP ranges or select the Countries/Regions for the location you're specifying.

    • If you select IP ranges, you can optionally Mark as trusted > location.

    • If you choose Countries/Regions, you can optionally choose to include unknown areas.

  6. Select Create

For more information, see, What is the location condition in Microsoft Entra Conditional Access.

Create new policy

Follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Conditional Access Administrator.

  2. Browse to Protection > Conditional Access > Policies.

  3. Select New policy.

  4. Give your policy a name. Use a meaningful naming convention for conditional access policies.

  5. Under Assignments, select Users or workload identities.

    a. Under Include, select All users.

    b. Under Exclude, select Users and groups and choose your organization's emergency access accounts.

  6. Under Target resources > Cloud apps > Include, select All cloud apps.

  7. Under Network.

    a. Set Configure to Yes

    b. Under Exclude, select Selected networks and locations

    c. Select the location you created for your organization.

    d. Select Select.

  8. Under Access controls > select Block Access and select Select.

  9. Confirm your settings and set Enable policy to Report-only.

  10. Select Create to create your policy.

Confirm that your policy works as expected by using Report-only mode. Confirm that the policy is working correctly, and then enable it.

For information on configuring conditional access policy to block access, see Conditional Access: Block access by location.

Scenario 2: Allow access to the developer portal

You want to allow developer access to the developer portal only. Developers should access and manage their dev boxes through the developer portal.

Create a new policy

Follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Conditional Access Administrator.

  2. Browse to Protection > Conditional Access > Policies.

  3. Select New policy.

  4. Give your policy a name. Use a meaningful naming convention for conditional access policies.

  5. Under Assignments, select Users or workload identities.

    a. Under Include, select Dev Box Users.

    b. Under Exclude, select Users and groups and choose your organization's emergency access accounts.

  6. Under Target resources > Cloud apps > Include, select Microsoft Developer Portal, Fidalgo dataplane public, Windows Azure Service Management API.

  7. Under Access controls > select Allow Access, and select Select.

  8. Confirm your settings and set Enable policy to Report-only.

  9. Select Create to create to enable your policy.

Confirm that your policy works as expected by using Report-only mode. Confirm that the policy is working correctly, and then enable it.

Caution

Misconfiguration of a block policy can lead to organizations being locked out. You can configure accounts for emergency access to prevent tenant-wide account lockout. In the unlikely scenario all administrators are locked out of your tenant, your emergency-access administrative account can be used to log into the tenant to take steps to recover access.

Apps required for Dev Box

The following table describes the apps relevant for Microsoft Dev Box. You can customize conditional access policies to suit the needs of your organization by allowing or blocking these apps.

App name App ID Description
Windows 365 0af06dc6-e4b5-4f28-818e-e78e62d137a5 Used when Microsoft Remote Desktop is opened, to retrieve the list of resources for the user and when users initiate actions on their dev box like Restart.
Azure Virtual Desktop 9cdead84-a844-4324-93f2-b2e6bb768d07 Used to authenticate to the Gateway during the connection and when the client sends diagnostic information to the service. Might also appear as Windows Virtual Desktop.
Microsoft Remote Desktop a4a365df-50f1-4397-bc59-1a1564b8bb9c Used to authenticate users to the dev box. Only needed when you configure single sign-on in a provisioning policy.
Windows Cloud Login 270efc09-cd0d-444b-a71f-39af4910ec45 Used to authenticate users to the dev box. This app replaces the Microsoft Remote Desktop app. Only needed when you configure single sign-on in a provisioning policy.
Windows Azure Service Management API 797f4846-ba00-4fd7-ba43-dac1f8f63013 Used to query for DevCenter projects where the user can create dev boxes.
Fidalgo Dataplane Public e526e72f-ffae-44a0-8dac-cf14b8bd40e2 Used to manage dev boxes and other DevCenter resources via the DevCenter REST APIs, Azure CLI, or Dev Portal.
Microsoft Developer Portal 0140a36d-95e1-4df5-918c-ca7ccd1fafc9 Used to sign into the developer portal web app.

You can allow apps based on your requirements. For example, you can allow Fidalgo Dataplane Public to allow dev box management by using the DevCenter REST APIs, Azure CLI, or Dev Portal. The following table lists the apps used in common scenarios.

App Log in to and manage dev boxes in developer portal Dev box management (create/delete/stop etc.) Connect through browser Connect through Remote Desktop
Microsoft Developer Portal
Fidalgo Dataplane Public
Windows Azure Service Management API
Windows 365
Azure Virtual Desktop
Microsoft Remote Desktop

For more information on configuring conditional access policies, see: Conditional Access: Users, groups, and workload identities.

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