Device Protection in Azure Pipelines

Azure Pipelines jobs run on Linux agents, so Device Protection installs the same way it does on any Linux machine. What is specific to Azure Pipelines is where the install goes: once on a self-hosted agent that stays around, or inside each job on a Microsoft-hosted agent.

Read Install Device Protection for Linux first for the token and the install flavors. The job-level snippets below use the container flavor, which Device Protection in Containers explains.

Microsoft-hosted agents

Add your Device Protection token as a secret variable named AIKIDO_TOKEN, then start the agent before any step that installs packages:

azure-pipelines.yml

pool:
  vmImage: ubuntu-latest

steps:
  - script: |
      curl -fsSL https://github.com/AikidoSec/safe-chain/raw/refs/heads/main/install-scripts/install-endpoint-linux.sh \
        | sudo AIKIDO_TOKEN="$AIKIDO_TOKEN" sh -s -- --container
      sudo aikido-endpoint-protection-start --wait-for-healthy
    displayName: Start Device Protection
    env:
      AIKIDO_TOKEN: $(AIKIDO_TOKEN)

  - script: |
      for f in /etc/profile.d/aikido-*.sh; do . "$f"; done
      npm ci
    displayName: Install dependencies

• Map the secret under env. Azure Pipelines never exposes secret variables to a step on its own.

• Pass the token after sudo. sudo drops the rest of your environment.

• Source /etc/profile.d/aikido-*.sh in every step that installs packages. Each step is a new shell, and without those settings downloads skip the agent.

• The runner is a VM, but it takes --container. A job cannot reboot the runner, and container mode needs no reboot. That is also why the agent is started explicitly. See Choose the install flavor.

Self-hosted agents

Install the agent on the agent host with --headless, then reboot. See Install Device Protection for Linux.

Verify it works

azure-pipelines.yml

  - script: |
      for f in /etc/profile.d/aikido-*.sh; do . "$f"; done
      curl -sS -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}\n" --max-time 15 https://registry.npmjs.org/safe-chain-test/-/safe-chain-test-0.0.1-security.tgz
    displayName: Verify Device Protection

403 means the agent blocked the malware test package. 200 means the download skipped the agent.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Fix
Token is required	Map the secret under the step's env, and pass it after sudo. Fork pull requests get no secrets
Root privileges required	Prefix the install and the start command with sudo
Test package returns 200, or SELF_SIGNED_CERT_IN_CHAIN	The step did not source /etc/profile.d/aikido-*.sh