CIS.M365.5.1.2.3: Ensure 'Restrict non-admin users from creating tenants' is set to 'Yes'

CIS Benchmark notice

This check implements a recommendation of the CIS Microsoft 365 Foundations Benchmark. The benchmark text is © Center for Internet Security, Inc. and is not reproduced here beyond the short summary below. Get the full benchmark free of charge from cisecurity.org.

ID	CIS.M365.5.1.2.3
Severity	Medium
Suite	CIS Microsoft 365 Foundations Benchmark
Product	Entra ID
Feature	User and directory settings
Security area	Access control
Resource type	Tenant
User impact of fixing	Low
Effort to fix	Low
Benchmark	CIS Microsoft 365 Foundations Benchmark 7.0.0, 5.1.2.3 (L1, E3 Level 1, E5 Level 1)
Framework controls	cis-m365:5.1.2.3 nist-800-53-r5:AC-6(10) Least Privilege | Prohibit Non-privileged Users from Executing Privileged Functions nist-800-53-r5:CM-5 Access Restrictions for Change
Reads from	Microsoft Graph

What this checks and how to fix it

5.1.2.3 (L1) Ensure ‘Restrict non-admin users from creating tenants’ is set to ‘Yes’

Non-privileged users can create tenants in the Microsoft Entra ID and Microsoft Entra administration portal under “Manage tenant”. The creation of a tenant is recorded in the Audit log as category “DirectoryManagement” and activity “Create Company”. By default, the user who creates a Microsoft Entra tenant is automatically assigned the Global Administrator role. The newly created tenant doesn’t inherit any settings or configurations.

Rationale

Restricting tenant creation prevents unauthorized or uncontrolled deployment of resources and ensures that the organization retains control over its infrastructure. User generation of shadow IT could lead to multiple, disjointed environments that can make it difficult for IT to manage and secure the organization’s data, especially if other users in the organization began using these tenants for business purposes under the misunderstanding that they were secured by the organization’s security team.

Impact

Non-admin users will need to contact I.T. if they have a valid reason to create a tenant.

Remediation action

1. Navigate to Microsoft 365 Entra admin center.
2. Click to expand Entra ID > Users > User settings.
3. Set Restrict non-admin users from creating tenants to Yes then Save.

PowerShell

1. Connect to Microsoft Graph using Connect-MgGraph -Scopes "Policy.ReadWrite.Authorization"
2. Run the following commands:

# Create hashtable and update the auth policy
$params = @{ AllowedToCreateTenants = $false }
Update-MgPolicyAuthorizationPolicy -DefaultUserRolePermissions $params

Related links

• Microsoft 365 Entra admin center
• Restrict member users’ default permissions
• CIS Microsoft 365 Foundations Benchmark v7.0.0 - Page 200

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Mito check, based on CIS Microsoft 365 Foundations Benchmark. Author: oed-metzb; contributors: Mynster9361. Open-source licences.