What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on AM-5 Use only approved applications in virtual machine?

Application allow list definition per workload role; Enforcement mode configuration and its coverage; Blocked execution events and their triage; Process for adding software to the allow list.

What is the most common gap auditors find on AM-5?

allow listing deployed in audit mode only

Azure Security Benchmark v3 (renamed Microsoft cloud security benchmark) · Asset Management

`AM-5` Use only approved applications in virtual machine

Ensure only authorised software executes in virtual machines by maintaining an allow list and blocking unauthorised software from running.

Source: Azure Security Benchmark v3 (renamed Microsoft cloud security benchmark), AM-5. The statement above is our statement of the clause, read from the published text and cited so you can check it against the official text, not the instrument verbatim. Open Azure Security Benchmark v3 (renamed Microsoft cloud security benchmark) in the compliance library.

artefacts

held by a system

at each review

easy

to go live

Endpoint management (MDM / EDR)

where the evidence lives

teal = a system already holds it · olive = produced at each review. To go live: easy when half or more of the artefacts are already held by a system, moderate from a quarter to a half, hard below a quarter.

These are the artefacts auditors commonly ask for on this requirement, our guidance rather than text from the standard. Your assessor decides what is sufficient in your context, and asks for samples across the period when a report covers one.

system holds itEvidence a system already holds

Enforcement mode configuration and its coverage · Endpoint management (MDM / EDR)
Blocked execution events and their triage · Endpoint management (MDM / EDR)

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

none for this control

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Application allow list definition per workload role · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Process for adding software to the allow list · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

Automate the pull from your Endpoint management (MDM / EDR). Device compliance report from the MDM (encryption, EDR agent, OS version) on a daily pull.

Common gaps auditors find

allow listing deployed in audit mode only
list built once from a running system so existing unauthorised software is baked in
no route to add legitimate software so the control gets disabled

Do this for your whole sheet

Paste the rows you run your controls from and get this mapping for every control at once, with the periodic-review ones flagged and a first move per row. No account for the first run.

Build my evidence sheet

AM-4 Limit access to asset management · BR-1 Ensure regular automated backups