Enforce MFA

This Conditional Access Policy enforces Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for all users, requiring an additional verification step beyond just a password. Enforcing MFA significantly increases account security and helps protect against unauthorized access.

Settings this baseline controls

Setting	What it does
Policy name	Specifies a display name for the Conditional Access Policy Learn more
Enable policy	Specifies the state of the conditional Access Policy. Possible values are: enabled, disabled, enabledForReportingButNotEnforced. Required. Learn more
Included users	User IDs in scope of policy Learn more
Included roles	Role IDs in scope of policy Learn more
Included groups	Group IDs in scope of policy Learn more
Included guest types	Guest or external user types in scope of policy Learn more
Excluded users	User IDs excluded from scope of policy Learn more
Excluded roles	Role IDs excluded from scope of policy Learn more

3 more settings

Setting	What it does
Excluded groups	Group IDs excluded from scope of policy Learn more
Excluded guest types	Guest or external user types excluded from scope of policy Learn more
Grant controls	List of values of built-in controls required by the policy. Possible values: block, mfa, compliantDevice, domainJoinedDevice, approvedApplication, compliantApplication, passwordChange, unknownFutureValue Learn more

Adding a baselineAdd, configure or remove a single baseline on a tenant, a user or a group, without deploying a whole scheme.→

Configure it

Add this baseline when every sign-in to the tenant should require multi-factor authentication, not only admin sign-ins.

1. Add the baseline to the tenant directly (see Adding a baseline), or carry it in a scheme you deploy to every tenant you manage (see Deploying a scheme).

2. Leave Included users covering everyone, so the policy reaches the whole tenant, and use Excluded users or Excluded groups for your organisation’s break-glass accounts only.

3. Leave Grant controls set to require multi-factor authentication. This is what enforces MFA; without it, the policy only watches sign-ins and changes nothing.

4. Set Enable policy to enabled to enforce it straight away, or to enabledForReportingButNotEnforced first if you want to see who it would affect before anyone is challenged.

5. Save.

   Turn on Auto-remediation if you want Octiga to reapply the policy whenever it’s changed in Microsoft 365, so MFA stays enforced without anyone needing to check. End users see nothing beyond the MFA prompt the policy already asks for.

Caution

Add your break-glass accounts under Excluded users before you enforce this policy, so you can’t lock yourself out if MFA is ever unreachable.

Licence: Entra ID P1 or P2

This baseline needs Entra ID P1 or P2 on the tenant. Without it, Octiga excludes the baseline rather than reporting it as deviated — see Licence requirements.

Check it worked

After the next sync, this baseline shows Passing once a policy with state set to enabled (or enabledForReportingButNotEnforced) and the multi-factor authentication grant control exists in Microsoft Entra. You can confirm it in the Microsoft Entra admin centre under Entra ID > Conditional Access > Policies. End users see a multi-factor authentication prompt the next time they sign in, unless they’re already satisfying it another way, such as Windows Hello for Business.

Standards this addresses

CISM365 5.2.2.1M365 5.2.2.2v8 6.3v8 6.5

NISTPR.AC-1PR.AC-7IA-2

ISO 27001A.8.3A.8.3.3

GDPRArticle 32

Doing this for every tenant?

Step through the deploy wizard to apply a scheme to a tenant, groups or users, and see what Managed and Direct do at deploy time.

Deploying a scheme→