Guidance for Azure Firewall — managed cloud-native L3-L7 stateful network firewall for centralised egress, east-west, and ingress control.

MITAuto-check passedSecurity

Install Azure Firewall

skills CLI
$ npx skills add vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills --skill azure-firewall -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills azure-firewall --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/azure-firewall .claude/skills/azure-firewall && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
azure-firewall
GitHub stars
175
Token cost
~1.7k tokens
SKILL.md length
748 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
50
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Guidance for Azure Firewall — managed cloud-native L3-L7 stateful network firewall for centralised egress, east-west, and ingress control.

  • Works in 7 steps: Deploy in the hub — Single firewall per… → Use Firewall Policy (not classic rules)… → Default-deny + structured rule… → …
  • L7 web application protection (use Front Door / Application Gateway WAF)
  • SKILL.md covers When to use, Pick the SKU by capability need, Approach and Guardrails, plus 3 more sections
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Azure Firewall is an agent skill from vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills. Guidance for Azure Firewall — managed cloud-native L3-L7 stateful network firewall for centralised egress, east-west, and ingress control. Covers SKU choice (Basic vs Standard vs Premium), Firewall Policy hierarchy, application/network/DNAT rules, threat intelligence and IDPS, TLS inspection, hub-spoke deployment with UDRs, and forced tunneling. WHEN: Azure Firewall, network firewall, egress filtering, FQDN filtering, Firewall Policy, IDPS, TLS inspection, forced tunneling, central network control, firewall SKU…

Its SKILL.md is about 1.7k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Security, covering Network security, Cloud networking and OSINT. It works with Microsoft Azure. The repository describes itself as: Curated Microsoft Security skills for AI agents - Defender, Sentinel, Entra, Purview, Intune, Security Copilot. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • L7 web application protection (use Front Door / Application Gateway WAF)
  • Subnet microsegmentation (use NSGs in azure-network-security-design)
  • Third-party NVA design

Example prompts

  • “/azure-firewall”

Workflow steps

7 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. Deploy in the hub — Single firewall per region in the hub VNet (with at least two
  2. Use Firewall Policy (not classic rules) — Author rules in Azure Firewall Policy with
  3. Default-deny + structured rule collections — Order: DNAT (inbound) → **Network
  4. Application rules with FQDN tags — Use built-in FQDN tags (WindowsUpdate,
  5. Force spoke egress through firewall via UDRs — User-defined routes on spoke subnets
  6. Enable threat intel + IDPS (Premium) — Threat-intel-based filtering in Deny mode
  7. Stream logs and monitor capacity — Send to Log Analytics / Sentinel using **structured

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 15f16df. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md.

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    Links to these hosts (documentation or services it may open):

    • learn.microsoft.com

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Azure Firewall loads about 1.7k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 199 tokens; SKILL.md has 748 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~199
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~1.7k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills at commit 15f16df, republished under its MIT licence (© vinayaklatthe). 748 words, ~1,729 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/azure-firewall/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
azure-firewall
description
Guidance for Azure Firewall — managed cloud-native L3-L7 stateful network firewall for centralised egress, east-west, and ingress control. Covers SKU choice (Basic vs Standard vs Premium), Firewall Policy hierarchy, application/network/DNAT rules, threat intelligence and IDPS, TLS inspection, hub-spoke deployment with UDRs, and forced tunneling. WHEN: Azure Firewall, network firewall, egress filtering, FQDN filtering, Firewall Policy, IDPS, TLS inspection, forced tunneling, central network control, firewall SKU Premium Standard Basic, hub spoke firewall, UDR through firewall, DNAT inbound. DO NOT USE for L7 web application protection (use Front Door / Application Gateway WAF), subnet microsegmentation (use NSGs in azure-network-security-design), or third-party NVA design.
license
MIT
metadata.author
Microsoft
metadata.version
0.1.0

Azure Firewall

Azure Firewall is a managed, highly available, cloud-native stateful network firewall used to centrally govern and log traffic, typically deployed in the hub of a hub-spoke network. It is the choke point that enforces a default-deny egress posture across an Azure estate.

When to use

Centralising egress (and east-west / ingress) traffic control and inspection across an Azure network estate. Use this skill to pick the SKU, design rules, and deploy in the hub.

Do not use this skill for L7 web app protection (WAF on Front Door / App Gateway), subnet microsegmentation (NSGs - see azure-network-security-design), or third-party NVA design.

Pick the SKU by capability need

RequirementSKUNotes
SMB / dev / small estate, < 250 MbpsBasicCost-optimised; no threat intel deny
Standard egress filtering, FQDN, threat intelStandardDefault for most enterprise hubs
TLS inspection, IDPS signatures, URL filtering, web categoriesPremiumRegulated / high-assurance
Multi-hub global deploymentPremium + Firewall Manager + Virtual WANCentralised policy at scale

Rule of thumb: Standard SKU is right for most enterprise hubs in 2026. Move to Premium only when you have a concrete TLS-inspection or IDPS requirement - the certificate / PKI overhead of TLS inspection is real and breaks some apps. Basic only for SMB or sandbox.

Approach

  1. Deploy in the hub — Single firewall per region in the hub VNet (with at least two availability zones for resilience). All spokes peer to the hub; egress and east-west traffic flows through. Verify: firewall has public IP for egress, deployed across ≥ 2 AZs, capacity baseline established.

  2. Use Firewall Policy (not classic rules) — Author rules in Azure Firewall Policy with hierarchical parent + child policies (e.g. parent = enterprise baseline, child = region-specific). Don't author rules per firewall. Verify: policy hierarchy mapped; one base policy reused across regional firewalls.

  3. Default-deny + structured rule collections — Order: DNAT (inbound) → Network rules (IP/port/protocol) → Application rules (FQDN/URL). Inside each collection group, priority controls evaluation. Default action = deny. Verify: a probe from a spoke to an unallowed FQDN is logged as deny.

  4. Application rules with FQDN tags — Use built-in FQDN tags (WindowsUpdate, AzureKubernetesService, Office365) for Microsoft service egress instead of hand-curated lists. Custom FQDNs for third-party SaaS.

  5. Force spoke egress through firewall via UDRs — User-defined routes on spoke subnets: 0.0.0.0/0 next hop = firewall private IP. Without UDRs, traffic bypasses the firewall. Verify: Get-AzEffectiveRouteTable on a spoke NIC shows next hop = firewall.

  6. Enable threat intel + IDPS (Premium) — Threat-intel-based filtering in Deny mode for known-bad IPs / FQDNs. Premium: enable IDPS in Alert+Deny for high-severity signatures; tune false positives.

  7. Stream logs and monitor capacity — Send to Log Analytics / Sentinel using structured firewall logs. Use the workbook for top denied flows, capacity / throughput. Verify: firewall workbook populated; alert on > 80% throughput sustained for 15 minutes.

Show full SKILL.md (298 more words)Show less

Guardrails

  • Azure Firewall complements, not replaces, NSGs (subnet/NIC microsegmentation) and WAF (L7 web). Layered defence; each does a different job.
  • TLS inspection (Premium) requires certificate / PKI planning. Internal CA cert chain trusted on clients; some apps (cert-pinning, mTLS) break under inspection. Pilot first.
  • Plan capacity and availability zones for resilient hub deployments. Single-zone = single zone outage takes the hub down.
  • UDRs are the enforcement. Without 0.0.0.0/0 → firewall on spokes, traffic doesn't go through. Audit UDRs as part of landing zone.
  • Firewall Policy is hierarchical for a reason. Don't author per-firewall rules at scale - they drift.
  • Don't enable Premium features speculatively. Cost is meaningfully higher; only enable when there's a use case.

Common anti-patterns

  • "Allow * for outbound to start" - Defeats the firewall. Default-deny + named FQDN rules from day one.
  • "Premium SKU for everyone" - Cost without value if no IDPS / TLS inspection in scope.
  • "TLS inspection on day one for all traffic" - Breaks half the apps. Pilot per workload.
  • "No UDR - we assume traffic goes through the firewall" - It doesn't. Routes are the enforcement.
  • "One single firewall, single zone" - AZ outage = hub down. Multi-AZ from day one.
  • "Don't log - it's noisy" - First incident, no forensics. Structured logs + Sentinel always.

Example prompts

  • Design Azure Firewall egress filtering with FQDN and application rules in a hub-spoke topology.
  • When should I choose Firewall Premium with IDPS and TLS inspection?
  • Set up Firewall Policy hierarchy and force spoke egress through UDRs.
  • How do I protect Azure Virtual Desktop traffic with Azure Firewall?
  • Build a Sentinel workbook for top denied flows from Azure Firewall logs.
  • Plan capacity, availability zones, and DNS proxy for the hub firewall.

Microsoft Learn

© vinayaklatthe, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in skills/azure-firewall of vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 15f16df

Compare with similar skills

Azure Firewall next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Azure Firewall compared with similar skills
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Azure Firewall this skillvinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills175—~1.7kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
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External Enumerationforefy/.context152—~3.1kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
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Implementing Cloud Waf Rulesmukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills34k—~2.9kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Recon Osinthypnguyen1209/offensive-claude388—~2.2kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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Works with

Questions about Azure Firewall

What does Azure Firewall do?

Guidance for Azure Firewall — managed cloud-native L3-L7 stateful network firewall for centralised egress, east-west, and ingress control. Azure Firewall is an agent skill from vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills. Guidance for Azure Firewall — managed cloud-native L3-L7 stateful network firewall for centralised egress, east-west, and ingress control.

When should I use Azure Firewall?

Azure Firewall fits situations like: L7 web application protection (use Front Door / Application Gateway WAF); subnet microsegmentation (use NSGs in azure-network-security-design); third-party NVA design.

How do I install Azure Firewall in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills --skill azure-firewall -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/azure-firewall in vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills) into .claude/skills/azure-firewall in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Azure Firewall in Codex?

Run `npx skills add vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills --skill azure-firewall -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/azure-firewall in vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills) into .agents/skills/azure-firewall in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Azure Firewall in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills --skill azure-firewall -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/azure-firewall, .gemini/skills/azure-firewall, .github/skills/azure-firewall and .opencode/skills/azure-firewall in your project.

What does Azure Firewall need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Azure Firewall is instructions for the agent only.

Does Azure Firewall access the network?

SKILL.md names 1 domain. As links in the text: learn.microsoft.com. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Azure Firewall safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Azure Firewall use?

Azure Firewall is published under the MIT licence (declared in SKILL.md). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Azure Firewall use?

About 1.7k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 6.9k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Azure Firewall?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Azure Firewall: Domain Intel (Tommy-yw/RunbookHermes, 546 stars), External Enumeration (forefy/.context, 152 stars), mTLS Configuration (wshobson/agents, 40k stars) and Implementing Cloud Waf Rules (mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills, 34k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Azure Firewall?

vinayaklatthe (a GitHub user) maintains it in vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills, which has 175 GitHub stars. The repository holds 50 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on June 18, 2026.

Source: vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.