Review public network access to Azure AI Search

Limit search-service access to the required clients.

Description

An enabled public endpoint allows Azure AI Search, formerly Cognitive Search, to receive public-network requests. Public access does not imply anonymous data access; authentication and firewall settings still apply.

Potential impact

Unnecessary public access can provide a data-exposure path when authentication is misconfigured or credentials are leaked.

Remediation

For private access, configure a Private Endpoint and DNS before setting public_network_access_enabled = false. Verify connectivity from existing clients.

Examples

The examples change only the public-access option. Configure Private Endpoint connectivity and authentication separately.

Before

hcl
resource "azurerm_search_service" "example" {
  name                          = "example-search-service"
  resource_group_name           = azurerm_resource_group.example.name
  location                      = azurerm_resource_group.example.location
  sku                           = "standard"
  public_network_access_enabled = true
}

After

hcl
resource "azurerm_search_service" "example" {
  name                          = "example-search-service"
  resource_group_name           = azurerm_resource_group.example.name
  location                      = azurerm_resource_group.example.location
  sku                           = "standard"
  public_network_access_enabled = false
}

References