The CLR Strict Security feature must be enabled for Azure SQL Server Managed Instance, unless specifically required and approved.

Severity	Group ID	Group Title	Version	Rule ID	Date	STIG Version
medium	V-276320	SRG-APP-000141-DB-000093	MSQL-D0-017300	SV-276320r1149869_rule	2025-10-07	1

Description
Information systems are capable of providing a wide variety of functions and services. Some of the functions and services, provided by default, may not be necessary to support essential organizational operations (e.g., key missions, functions). It is detrimental for applications to provide, or install by default, functionality exceeding requirements or mission objectives. Applications must adhere to the principles of least functionality by providing only essential capabilities. Azure SQL Managed Instance may spawn additional external processes to execute procedures that are defined in Azure SQL Managed Instance but stored in external host files (external procedures). The spawned process used to execute the external procedure may operate within a different OS security context than Azure SQL Managed Instance and provide unauthorized access to the host system. Azure SQL Managed Instance is capable of providing a wide range of features and services. CLR Strict Security interprets assemblies as unsafe, ignoring permissions on individual assemblies which otherwise may be able to access external system resources, call unmanaged code, and acquire sysadmin privileges.

Description

Information systems are capable of providing a wide variety of functions and services. Some of the functions and services, provided by default, may not be necessary to support essential organizational operations (e.g., key missions, functions). It is detrimental for applications to provide, or install by default, functionality exceeding requirements or mission objectives. Applications must adhere to the principles of least functionality by providing only essential capabilities. Azure SQL Managed Instance may spawn additional external processes to execute procedures that are defined in Azure SQL Managed Instance but stored in external host files (external procedures). The spawned process used to execute the external procedure may operate within a different OS security context than Azure SQL Managed Instance and provide unauthorized access to the host system. Azure SQL Managed Instance is capable of providing a wide range of features and services. CLR Strict Security interprets assemblies as unsafe, ignoring permissions on individual assemblies which otherwise may be able to access external system resources, call unmanaged code, and acquire sysadmin privileges.

ℹ️ Check
The CLR Strict Security option can be disabled for backward compatibility, but this is not recommended. To determine if CLR Strict Security is enabled, execute the following command: SELECT name, value, value_in_use FROM sys.configurations WHERE name = 'CLR Strict Security' If "value_in_use" is a "0", review the system documentation to determine whether the use of CLR Strict Security is not required and approved. If it is not approved to be disabled, this is a finding.

ℹ️ Check

The CLR Strict Security option can be disabled for backward compatibility, but this is not recommended. To determine if CLR Strict Security is enabled, execute the following command: SELECT name, value, value_in_use FROM sys.configurations WHERE name = 'CLR Strict Security' If "value_in_use" is a "0", review the system documentation to determine whether the use of CLR Strict Security is not required and approved. If it is not approved to be disabled, this is a finding.

✔️ Fix
To enable the use of CLR Strict Security, from the query prompt: EXEC SP_CONFIGURE 'show advanced options', 1; RECONFIGURE WITH OVERRIDE; EXEC SP_CONFIGURE 'CLR Strict Security', 1; RECONFIGURE WITH OVERRIDE; EXEC SP_CONFIGURE 'show advanced options', 0; RECONFIGURE WITH OVERRIDE; Reference: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/database-engine/configure-windows/clr-strict-security?