Remote-access Guide

bastion remote access

by Josefina Blanda PhD Published 2 years ago Updated 2 years ago
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Bastion hosts provide remote access to private networks from an external network. Commonly used as SSH proxy servers to support system administration, bastions provide a convenient, securable path through a protected network perimeter.

Azure Bastion is a fully managed service that provides more secure and seamless Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) and Secure Shell Protocol (SSH) access to virtual machines (VMs) without any exposure through public IP addresses.

Full Answer

What is Azure bastion?

Azure Bastion is a new fully platform-managed PaaS service you provision inside your virtual network. It provides secure and seamless RDP/SSH connectivity to your VMs directly in the Azure portal over SSL. When you connect via Azure Bastion, your virtual machines do not need a public IP address.

What is Azure bastion RDP?

Explore Azure Bastion Documentation Securing your RDP/SSH access to Azure VMs Azure Bastion is a new fully platform-managed PaaS service you provision inside your virtual network. It provides secure and seamless RDP/SSH connectivity to your VMs directly in the Azure portal over SSL.

How do I use bastion with a VNET virtual machine?

A VNet with the Bastion host already installed. Make sure that you have set up an Azure Bastion host for the virtual network in which the VM is located. Once the Bastion service is provisioned and deployed in your virtual network, you can use it to connect to any VM in the virtual network. To set up an Azure Bastion host, see Create a bastion host.

How do I connect to a bastion server?

On the Overview page, select Connect, then select Bastion from the dropdown. After you select Bastion from the dropdown, a side bar appears that has three tabs: RDP, SSH, and Bastion. Because Bastion was provisioned for the virtual network, the Bastion tab is active by default. Select Use Bastion.

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How do I connect to via Bastion?

Connect: Manually enter a private keyOpen the Azure portal. ... After you select Bastion, click Use Bastion. ... On the Connect using Azure Bastion page, enter the Username and SSH Private Key.Enter your private key into the text area SSH Private Key (or paste it directly).Select Connect to connect to the VM.

Does Bastion use RDP?

Bastion provides secure RDP and SSH connectivity to all of the VMs in the virtual network in which it is provisioned. Using Azure Bastion protects your virtual machines from exposing RDP/SSH ports to the outside world, while still providing secure access using RDP/SSH.

Is Bastion a VPN?

We use a VPN server. Further, bastion services like Teleport offer a reverse tunneling feature to manage secure access to services behind a firewall and NAT without the need to open servers to a public routable interface.

Is bastion host same as jump box?

A bastion host is a server used to manage access to an internal or private network from an external network - sometimes called a jump box or jump server. Because bastion hosts often sit on the Internet, they typically run a minimum amount of services in order to reduce their attack surface.

Is bastion host a VM?

Azure Bastion is a fully managed service that provides more secure and seamless Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) and Secure Shell Protocol (SSH) access to virtual machines (VMs) without any exposure through public IP addresses.

Does Bastion require public IP?

Azure Bastion Service enables you to securely and seamlessly RDP & SSH to the VMs in your virtual network. Azure Bastion enables connections without exposing a public IP on the VM. Connections are made directly from the Azure portal, without the need of an extra client/agent or piece of software.

What is Bastion used for?

A bastion host is a server whose purpose is to provide access to a private network from an external network, such as the Internet. Because of its exposure to potential attack, a bastion host must minimize the chances of penetration. For example, you can use a bastion host to mitigate the risk of allowing SSH […]

How does a Bastion work?

A bastion host is a dedicated server that lets authorized users access a private network from an external network such as the internet. Placed outside the firewall or within a DMZ, the bastion host becomes the only ingress path to those internal resources.

Is bastion host a proxy server?

A bastion host is a computer designed to withstand attacks. It hosts a single application, such as a proxy server, which serves as a gateway between the internal network and the Internet.

What is the difference between NAT gateway and bastion host?

So a bastion host allows inbound access to known IP addresses and authenticated users, a NAT instance allows instances within your VPC to go out to the internet.

Is Azure bastion expensive?

Azure Bastion will cost ~$140/month per instance (50% off during preview) plus Outbound data transfer charges. This is roughly the cost of a basic, low-level VM that a jump box would be provisioned as.

Why is it called a bastion host?

A bastion host is a special-purpose computer on a network specifically designed and configured to withstand attacks, so named by analogy to the military fortification.

What is bastion host?

A bastion host is a server whose purpose is to provide access to a private network from an external network, such as the Internet. Because of its exposure to potential attack, a bastion host must minimize the chances of penetration.

How can you remotely manage Azure virtual machines that do not have public IP addresses?

Azure Bastion is a solution that we can use to access Azure VM securely without the use of public IP addresses or VPN connectivity. This is similar to using a jump-server to connect to resources in the remote network but instead of the traditional RDP method, it is using browser-based secure HTTP connectivity.

How many Azure German regions are there?

2 Azure RegionsThe Azure German Cloud is a sovereign cloud that consists of 2 Azure Regions that are located in Germany and make up the Azure German Cloud.

Which statement describes a benefit that is unique to Azure government?

What statement describes a benefit that is unique to Azure Government? Resources in AZ Government are deployed too data centers that are separate from non-government resources.

What port is Azure Bastion?

With Azure Bastion, you can connect to your virtual machines in your virtual network over SSL, port 443, directly in Azure Portal. This enables clientless RDP/SSH connectivity so that you can connect from anywhere – any device and any platform, and without any additional agent running inside your virtual machines.

Can Azure Bastion be deployed per virtual network?

Read this article to create an Azure Bastion. Once you provision Azure Bastion service in your virtual network, the seamless RDP/SSH experience is available to all your VMs in the same virtual network. This deployment is per virtual network, not per subscription/account or virtual machine.

What is bastion host?

A bastion host is an instance that is provisioned in a public subnet and can be accessed via SSH. Once set up, the bastion host acts as a jump server, allowing secure connection to instances provisioned in a private subnet.

When designing a solution on the cloud, no application architecture is complete without a clear understanding of potential security risks and?

When designing a solution on the cloud, no application architecture is complete without a clear understanding of potential security risks and how to protect against such threats. As you design the network architecture, you want to limit the entry points into your system—only open the minimum required set of ports on your servers, hide the servers from the public Internet, implement firewall, intrusion detection system, etc.

Can you access the bastion server with SSH?

Administrative tasks on the individual servers are going to be performed using SSH, proxied through the bastion. Access to the servers and regular internet access from the servers (e.g., for software installation) will only be allowed with a special maintenance security group attached to those servers.

How to connect to Azure Bastion?

This figure shows the architecture of an Azure Bastion deployment. In this diagram: 1 The Bastion host is deployed in the virtual network that contains the AzureBastionSubnet subnet that has a minimum /27 prefix. 2 The user connects to the Azure portal using any HTML5 browser. 3 The user selects the virtual machine to connect to. 4 With a single click, the RDP/SSH session opens in the browser. 5 No public IP is required on the Azure VM.

What port is Azure Bastion?

Remote Session over TLS and firewall traversal for RDP/SSH: Azure Bastion uses an HTML5 based web client that is automatically streamed to your local device. You get your RDP/SSH session over TLS on port 443, enabling you to traverse corporate firewalls securely.

How many host instances does Azure Bastion support?

Increasing the number of host instances lets Azure Bastion manage more concurrent sessions. Decreasing the number of instances decreases the number of concurrent supported sessions. Azure Bastion supports up to 50 host instances. This feature is available for the Azure Bastion Standard SKU only.

Why are VMs protected from port scanning?

Protection against port scanning: Because you do not need to expose your virtual machines to the public Internet, your VMs are protected against port scanning by rogue and malicious users located outside your virtual network .

Does Azure Bastion require a public IP address?

When you connect via Azure Bastion, your virtual machines do not need a public IP address, agent, or special client software. Bastion provides secure RDP and SSH connectivity to all of the VMs in the virtual network in which it is provisioned.

Do you need NSGs for Azure Bastion?

You don't need to apply any NSGs to the Azure Bastion subnet. Because Azure Bastion connects to your virtual machines over private IP, you can configure your NSGs to allow RDP/SSH from Azure Bastion only. This removes the hassle of managing NSGs each time you need to securely connect to your virtual machines.

Addressing Key Privileged Access Security & Accountability Gaps in the Cloud

BeyondTrust Web Jump can address these privileged access security gaps in the Cloud by providing a layer of security for authenticating to these systems with full session monitoring capabilities.

Morey J. Haber, Chief Security Officer at BeyondTrust

Morey J. Haber is the Chief Security Officer at BeyondTrust. He has more than 25 years of IT industry experience and has authored three books: Privileged Attack Vectors, Asset Attack Vectors, and Identity Attack Vectors.

How to connect to Bastion on Azure?

In the Azure portal, navigate to the virtual machine that you want to connect to. On the Overview page, select Connect, then select Bastion from the dropdown.

What is Azure bastion?

Azure Bastion provides secure connectivity to all of the VMs in the virtual network in which it is provisioned. Using Azure Bastion protects your virtual machines from exposing RDP/SSH ports to the outside world, while still providing secure access using RDP/SSH. For more information, see the What is Azure Bastion?.

What port is RDP on Azure?

The RDP connection to this virtual machine via Bastion will open directly in the Azure portal (over HTML5) using port 443 and the Bastion service.

Can you specify custom ports in Azure Bastion?

If you want to specify a custom port value, Azure Bastion must be configured using the Standard SKU. The Basic SKU does not allow you to specify custom ports. The Standard SKU is currently in Preview.

Can you use Azure Bastion to connect to a Windows VM?

When you use Azure Bastion, your VMs don't require a client, agent, or additional software. You can also connect to a Windows VM using SSH. For information, see Create an SSH connection to a Windows VM.

What is a bastion host?

Bastion hosts are a security best practice for remote access to targets in the cloud. Bastions are gate keepers to your cloud infrastructure, allowing you to: Control access to targets (servers, containers and clusters) Log the activities of your engineers and their scripts.

What happens if the Bastion is hacked?

If the Bastion is hacked, all of your targets are compromised. Traditional zero-trust network architectures use an all-powerful centralized authority to provide users with short-term credentials to targets. But if that centralized authority is hacked, all the targets are compromised.

Why do we intercept and log commands?

We intercept and log all commands before they reach the server, so adversaries can’t hide their actions by deleting server logs. High-quality logs satisfy compliance, audit and forensic requirements, along with your own peace of mind.

Is bastion a security flaw?

But if you're not careful, your bastion host can also be a giant security flaw. Traditional bastions are a single point of compromise in your cloud. Home-grown bastions hold the SSH keys to all your targets. If the Bastion is hacked, all of your targets are compromised.

Where does Azure Bastion store customer data?

Azure Bastion doesn't move or store customer data out of the region it is deployed in.

How do I incorporate Azure Bastion in my Disaster Recovery plan?

In the event of an Azure region failure, perform a failover operation for your VMs to the DR region. Then, use the Azure Bastion host that's deployed in the DR region to connect to the VMs that are now deployed there.

Does Bastion hardening work with AADJ VM extension-joined VMs?

This feature doesn't work with AADJ VM extension- joined machines using Azure AD users. For more information, see Windows Azure VMs and Azure AD.

Does Azure Bastion require an RDS CAL for administrative purposes on Azure-hosted VMs?

No, access to Windows Server VMs by Azure Bastion does not require an RDS CAL when used solely for administrative purposes.

Does Azure Bastion support timezone configuration or timezone redirection for target VMs?

Azure Bastion currently does not support timezone redirection and is not timezone configurable.

Can I deploy multiple Azure resources in my Azure Bastion subnet?

No. The Azure Bastion subnet ( AzureBastionSubnet) is reserved only for the deployment of your Azure Bastion resource.

Can I still deploy multiple Bastion hosts across peered virtual networks?

Yes. By default, a user sees the Bastion host that is deployed in the same virtual network in which VM resides. However, in the Connect menu, a user can see multiple Bastion hosts detected across peered networks. They can select the Bastion host that they prefer to use to connect to the VM deployed in the virtual network.

To modify an existing bastion host

If you have already configured Bastion for your VNet, modify the following settings:

To configure a new bastion host

If you don't already have a bastion host configured, see Create a bastion host. When configuring the bastion host, specify the following settings:

Ports

To connect to a Linux VM using native client support, you must have the following ports open on your Linux VM:

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SKUs

Architecture

  • Azure Bastion is deployed to a virtual network and supports virtual network peering. Specifically, Azure Bastion manages RDP/SSH connectivity to VMs created in the local or peered virtual networks. RDP and SSH are some of the fundamental means through which you can connect to your workloads running in Azure. Exposing RDP/SSH ports over the Internet...
See more on docs.microsoft.com

Host Scaling

  • Azure Bastion supports manual host scaling. You can configure the number of host instances (scale units) in order to manage the number of concurrent RDP/SSH connections that Azure Bastion can support. Increasing the number of host instances lets Azure Bastion manage more concurrent sessions. Decreasing the number of instances decreases the number of concurrent …
See more on docs.microsoft.com

Pricing

  • Azure Bastion pricing involves a combination of hourly pricing based on SKU, scale units, and data transfer rates. Pricing information can be found on the Pricingpage.
See more on docs.microsoft.com

What's New?

  • Subscribe to the RSS feed and view the latest Azure Bastion feature updates on the Azure Updatespage.
See more on docs.microsoft.com

Next Steps

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