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Compliance · High severity

Azure VM Antimalware Not Enabled

Nothing detects malicious code on the VM, so a compromise persists until it causes damage visible somewhere else.

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Azureprovider
Highseverity
Compliancewhere it shows up
Manualfix, steps written out

Azure

Found, explained, handed over.

Where the estate departs from your policies, frameworks and tagging rules.

01

Detect

ZopNight checks this automatically across Azure, with read-only access to the account.

02

Explain

Every finding says exactly what to change: Enable antimalware protection on VM.

03

Fix

The finding opens with the fix already written out, step by step, so it is one ticket, not an investigation.

Applies to
Virtual Machines on Azure
The fix, by hand
  1. VM → Extensions + applications.
  2. On Windows Server 2016+ Microsoft Defender Antivirus is built-in. The IaaSAntimalware extension is largely redundant; prefer onboarding to Microsoft Defender for Endpoint via the MDE.Windows / MDE.Linux extension for unified EDR.
  3. If staying on IaaSAntimalware, install the extension and configure real-time protection plus a weekly scheduled scan.
  4. For Linux, install a supported endpoint protection solution (MDE for Linux, or a partner agent listed in Defender for Cloud).
  5. Confirm Defender for Cloud → Recommendations clears the Endpoint protection finding for the resource.

These are the steps the finding carries in the product.

Category
Compliance. Configuration drift from best practice: public access, missing MFA, unencrypted storage, deprecated runtimes.
Where it appears
The Compliance tab of Recommendations, with every affected resource listed.
Rule ID
RC-1304
Full reference

Azure VM Antimalware Not Enabled

Related checks

Azure VM Backup Not EnabledAzureAzure VM Disk Encryption Not EnabledAzureAzure VM JIT Access Not EnabledAzureAzure VM Missing Deletion ProtectionAzureAzure VM Update Management Not EnabledAzureAzure VM Using Unmanaged DisksAzure

See the compliance findings in your account.

Connect a read-only role and the first pass runs on your own estate. This check, and the rest of the catalogue, with it.

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