CISA.MS.AAD.3.5 - The authentication methods SMS, Voice Call, and Email One-Time Passcode (OTP) SHALL be disabled.
Overview
The authentication methods SMS, Voice Call, and Email One-Time Passcode (OTP) SHALL be disabled.
Rationale: SMS, voice call, and email OTP are the weakest authenticators. This policy forces users to use stronger MFA methods.
Remediation action:
If phishing-resistant MFA has not been deployed yet and Microsoft Authenticator is in use, configure Authenticator to display context information to users when they log in.
- In Entra ID, click Security > Authentication methods
- Click on the SMS, Voice Call, and Email OTP authentication methods and disable each of them. Their statuses should be Enabled > No on the Authentication methods > Policies page.
Related links
- Entra admin portal - Authentication methods
- CISA Strong Authentication & Secure Registration - MS.AAD.3.5v1
- CISA ScubaGear Rego Reference
Test Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Test ID | CISA.MS.AAD.3.5 |
| Severity | High |
| Suite | CISA |
| Product | Entra ID |
| Feature | Authentication methods |
| Area | Authentication |
| Resource type | Tenant |
| User impact | Medium |
| Implementation cost | Medium |
| MITRE ATT&CK | T1566.002 Spearphishing Link, T1621 Multi-Factor Authentication Request Generation, T1111 Multi-Factor Authentication Interception |
| Supports benchmark | CISA SCuBA Secure Configuration Baselines for Microsoft 365 (version ScubaGear main, 2026-10-11), requirement MS.AAD.3.5 |
| Criticality | SHALL |
| Upstream requirement | MS.AAD.3.5v2 |
| Supports controls | cisa-scuba:MS.AAD.3.5, nist-800-53-r5:CM-7b, nist-800-53-r5:IA-5c |
| PowerShell test | Test-MtCisaWeakFactor |
| Services | Graph |
| Compatible licenses | AAD_PREMIUM |
Source
- Test:
tests/cisa/entra/Test.CISA.MS.AAD.3.5.ps1 - Documentation:
tests/cisa/entra/Test.CISA.MS.AAD.3.5.md