App Protection Policies (APP) avilable with Intune and products when you buy Microsoft 365 Business Premium are essentially a set of rule-based constraints enforced at the application layer, decoupling security from device management. From a devops perspective, these policies act like declarative security wrappers around mobile apps (iOS/Android), enforcing encryption, access controls, and data loss prevention (DLP) through Microsoft Intune’s Graph API. The real power lies in treating these policies as infrastructure-as-code—version-controlled, scriptable, and deployable via PowerShell with the Microsoft.Graph.Intune module.
API-Driven Policy Configuration
Under the hood, App Protection Policies are just JSON payloads sent to the Microsoft Graph API (/deviceAppManagement/iOSManagedAppProtections or /androidManagedAppProtections). Programmatically, we can:
powershell
$params = @{
displayName = "Lockdown-Policy"
description = "Blocks copy/paste to unmanaged apps"
appDataEncryptionType = "whenDeviceLocked"
minimumRequiredPatchVersion = "2023-06-01"
}
New-MgDeviceAppManagementAndroidManagedAppProtection -BodyParameter $params
This is far more efficient than clicking through the Intune GUI. The API accepts fine-grained settings like requiredPinType, fingerprintBlocked, or allowedDataStorageLocations, which map directly to Intune’s schema.
Automated Policy Deployment Pipeline
For large-scale deployments, we can script policy assignments using Azure AD group IDs and the targetedAppManagementLevels property. Example:
powershell
$policyId = (Get-MgDeviceAppManagementAndroidManagedAppProtection -Filter "displayName eq 'Lockdown-Policy'").id
$assignmentParams = @{
target = @{
"@odata.type" = "#microsoft.graph.groupAssignmentTarget"
groupId = (Get-MgGroup -Filter "displayName eq 'Finance Team'").id
}
}
New-MgDeviceAppManagementTargetedManagedAppConfigurationAssignment -TargetedManagedAppConfigurationId $policyId -BodyParameter $assignmentParams
This approach enables GitOps-style workflows—store policy definitions in a repo, validate with ARM templates, and deploy via CI/CD (e.g., Azure DevOps).
Debugging and Compliance as Code
Programmatically verifying policy enforcement requires querying managed device status (/deviceAppManagement/managedAppStatuses) or triggering offline reports:
powershell
Invoke-MgGraphRequest -Method GET -Uri "https://graph.microsoft.com/beta/deviceAppManagement/reports/getAppsInstallStatusReport(status='failed')"
For true observability, pipe this data to Log Analytics or a SIEM. Combining this with Azure AD Conditional Access (e.g., blocking rooted devices via deviceRiskStates) creates a policy-as-code ecosystem where security controls are dynamic, auditable, and testable.
Top comments (0)