Check ID: app_ftp_deployment_disabled
Provider: Azure
Service: app
Severity: HIGH
Categories: encryption
Resource type: microsoft.web/sites

What this check verifies

Azure App Service web apps are evaluated for FTP exposure via the ftpsState setting. Values FtpsOnly or Disabled indicate FTP is not allowed; AllAllowed means both FTP and FTPS are accepted.

Risk

Allowing FTP (unencrypted) exposes credentials on public endpoints, enabling credential theft and session hijacking. Compromise grants write access to code and content, enabling malicious deployments, backdoors, and data leakage, degrading integrity and confidentiality-with greater blast radius if shared, user-scope publishing credentials are used.

Recommendation

Disable FTP or enforce FTPS (ftpsState: FtpsOnly or Disabled). Prefer CI/CD over manual FTP and apply least privilege with app-scoped credentials. Rotate publishing secrets, enforce modern TLS, and restrict access via private networking. If FTP is unavoidable, require FTPS and monitor publishing logs.

Remediation

az webapp config set —resource-group <RESOURCE_GROUP> —name <APP_NAME> —ftps-state FtpsOnly

References

Where this check fires

This check runs on every scheduled scan against your Azure account. Findings appear at Cloud Security → Findings filterable by Check ID = app_ftp_deployment_disabled. To re-evaluate after a fix, hit Run now on the account’s schedule under Cloud Security → Schedules — the next scan re-checks this control and marks the finding fixed or keeps it persistent.
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