Intune and Zimperium – Part 1: Configure the integration

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This week and next week I’ll be looking at integrating Microsoft Intune with Zimperium. Zimperium is one the available third-party Mobile Threat Defense connectors for Microsoft Intune. This enables organizations to add an additional layer of protection to their corporate resources. More specifically, prevent access from compromised mobile devices. In the first part of this week I’ll be providing a short introduction about the integration and I’ll show how to configure the integration. I’ll end this post with the configuration results.

Introduction

Let’s start with a little introduction. Organizations can control mobile device access to corporate resources by using conditional access based on a risk assessment conducted by Zimperium. For this, Zimperium must be integrated with Microsoft Intune. The risk is assessed based on telemetry collected from devices running the Zimperium app. This enables organizations to configure conditional access policies based on the Zimperium risk assessment. The conditional access policy requires compliant devices and the compliance policy requires a minimum Mobile Threat Defense level. That combination enables organizations to allow or block non-compliant devices to access corporate resources based on detected threats.

To visualize this a bit more, it could be summarized in the following flow.

  1. The Zimperium app, on an iOS 8+ device or an Android 4.1+ device, detects a threat and sends an alert to the Zimperium cloud;
  2. The Zimperium cloud determines, based on the Mobile Thread Response Policy, the severity of the alert and sends the threat severity level to Microsoft Intune;
  3. Microsoft Intune determines, based on the configured mobile threat level, in the Device Compliance Policy, the compliance of the device and writes the device compliance to Azure AD;
  4. Azure AD determines, based on the configured access controls, in the Conditional Access Policy, if the device is allowed access to the cloud app.
 ZimperiumFlow

Configuration

Now let’s have a look at the actual configuration of the integration between Zimperium and Microsoft Intune. The connector. Before starting with the configuration make sure that the following is available:

  • Microsoft Intune subscription;
  • Azure Active Directory administrative credentials;
  • Zimperium zConsole administrative credentials.

Zimperium configuration

The actual configuration starts in the Zimperium zConsole and not in the Intune section of the Azure portal. The Intune section in the Azure portal will only refer to the Zimperium zConsole. The 6 steps below walk through the configuration in cloud version of Zimperium.

1 Open the Zimperium zConsole and navigate to MANAGEMENT > MDM Settings;
2 Click Edit to open the Edit MDM dialog box;

Note: This environment had a previous MDM configuration. A clean environment has an Add MDM option. In that case every screen will show Edit instead of Add.
3 EditMDM01At Step 1, select Microsoft Intune and click Next;.
4a EditMDM02At Step 2, click Add to Azure Active Directory for the different components and click Next;

Note: Step 4b, 4c and 4d provide more details about the required permissions per component.
4b EditMDM02_zConsoleZimperium zConsole needs the following permissions:

  • Send device threat information to Microsoft Intune;
  • Read directory data;
  • Sign in and read user profile;
  • Read directory data.

Note: This makes sure that Zimperium can synchronize user and devices from Microsoft Intune and that Zimperium can sent threat information to Microsoft Intune.
4c EditMDM02_zIPSiOSZimperium zIPS iOS needs the following permissions:

  • Access Zimperium zConsole (Zimperium zConsole);
  • Sign in and read user profile.

Note: This makes sure that the Zimperium zIPS iOS app can use the auto sign-in functionality by using the Microsoft Intune enrollment user information.
4d EditMDM02_zIPSAndroidZimperium zIPS Android needs the following permissions:

  • Access Zimperium zConsole (Zimperium zConsole);
  • Sign in and read user profile.

Note: This makes sure that the Zimperium zIPS Android app can use the auto sign-in functionality by using the Microsoft Intune enrollment user information.
5 EditMDM03At Step 3, verify the information and click Next;
6 EditMDM04At Step 4, select the MDM group(s) that should be synchronized and used for the integration between Microsoft Intune and Zimperium and click Finish.

Note: The users in this group, and their devices, are synchronized to Zimperium.

Note: The connector between Zimperium and Intune automatically synchronizes and the synchronization schedule can be customized. This synchronization can also be manually triggered (see the Results section).

Microsoft Intune configuration

After performing the configuration in the Zimperium zConsole, the connector will be created in Microsoft Intune. This enables a few tuning options from Microsoft Intune perspective. The following 3 steps walk through the configuration options.

1 Open the Azure portal and navigate to Intune > Device compliance > Mobile Threat Defense;
2 On the Device compliance – Mobile Threat Defense blade, select the automatically created MTD CONNECTOR Zimperium;
3 IntuneZimperiumConnectorOn the Edit Connector blade, configure the connected devices and click Save.

Note: This enables the administrator to differentiate between the available platforms.

Results

When the configurations are completed, a successful configuration can be verified in the Zimperium zConsole (below on the right) and in the Azure portal (below on the left). Both will show the same synchronization time.

MDMSettings_Results01 MDMSettings_Results02

More information

For more information about Mobile Treat Defense, Zimperium and Microsoft Intune, please refer to the following articles:

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