Does Microsoft Defender for Storage periodically scan files in Azure Files file shares?

Joshua Watson-Evans 0 Reputation points
2025-03-10T11:25:38.4666667+00:00

Files are stored in a file share in Azure Files within a Storage Account where Microsoft Defender for Storage has been enabled. It is understood that On-upload and On-demand malware scanning are not supported, but is there a periodic scanning of files?

The documentation mentions that Hash Reputation Analysis can detect potential malware in Azure files but states it does not support SMB file shares. Since Azure Files only supports creating file shares that utilize SMB, is this feature supported or not? https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/defender-for-cloud/defender-for-storage-introduction

The file share is mounted on an App Service, and files are uploaded/downloaded through this.

Azure Storage Accounts
Azure Storage Accounts
Globally unique resources that provide access to data management services and serve as the parent namespace for the services.
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  1. Keshavulu Dasari 4,110 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff
    2025-03-10T17:47:24.7766667+00:00

    Hi Joshua Watson-Evans ,

    Microsoft Defender for Storage does not support periodic scanning of files in Azure Files file shares. The available scanning options are on-upload and on-demand malware scanning, which are not applicable to Azure Files file shares

    Regarding Hash Reputation Analysis, it is indeed used to detect potential malware in Azure Files by comparing hash values with known malware from Microsoft Threat Intelligence, this feature does not support SMB file shares

    Since Azure Files only supports SMB file shares, Hash Reputation Analysis is not applicable in this scenario

    For more information :
    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/defender-for-cloud/defender-for-storage-configure-malware-scan

    https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/discussions/microsoftdefendercloud/limitations-of-hash-reputation-analysis/3475943

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