Privileged Identity Management Done Right

Introduction

In today's cloud-centric enterprise landscape, managing and securing privileged access is paramount. The increasing sophistication of cyber threats mandates a robust strategy to protect sensitive resources. Privileged Identity Management (PIM) within Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) provides a comprehensive suite of tools designed to minimize the attack surface associated with highly privileged accounts. By implementing PIM, organizations can enforce principles of Just-In-Time (JIT) access and Just-Enough-Administration (JEA), ensuring that elevated permissions are granted only when necessary, for a limited duration, and with appropriate oversight.

This article is tailored for cloud architects, security engineers, identity administrators, and IT managers responsible for designing, implementing, and maintaining secure access strategies within Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365 environments. We will delve into the core functionalities of PIM, practical implementation steps, and best practices to fortify your organization's security posture against internal and external threats targeting privileged identities.

Why this matters

The proper implementation of PIM is not merely a technical exercise; it's a critical component of an organization's overall security and compliance strategy. From a business perspective, reducing the risk of a breach associated with privileged accounts can save millions in potential incident response, reputational damage, and regulatory fines. Compliance frameworks like SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, and ISO 27001 often require stringent controls over privileged access, making PIM an invaluable tool for demonstrating adherence.

Technically, PIM significantly reduces the "blast radius" of compromised accounts. Without PIM, a compromised global administrator account could grant an attacker permanent, unfettered access to an entire tenant. With PIM, even if such an account is compromised, its elevated privileges are almost certainly temporary and subject to re-activation, giving defenders a smaller window to detect and remediate. This proactive stance contributes to a stronger Zero Trust architecture, where trust is never assumed, and access is always verified. Furthermore, automating the activation and deactivation of roles through PIM improves operational efficiency by eliminating manual, time-consuming processes for granting temporary elevated access.

Key concepts

• Just-In-Time (JIT) Access: A core principle of PIM, JIT access means that users are only granted elevated permissions for a specific, limited period, and only when they need it to perform a task. This contrasts with standing access, where users hold permanent high-privilege roles.
• Just-Enough-Administration (JEA): Complementary to JIT, JEA ensures that users are granted only the specific permissions required to complete their task, rather than broad administrative roles. While PIM primarily focuses on JIT, its role assignment capabilities support JEA principles.
• Eligible Assignment: Users or groups assigned to a role as "eligible" can request to activate that role. They do not have standing access.
• Active Assignment: Users or groups assigned to a role as "active" have standing access to that role. PIM's primary goal is to minimize these assignments, especially for highly privileged roles.
• Role Activation: The process by which an eligible user requests and obtains temporary elevated permissions for a configured role. This can involve multi-factor authentication (MFA), approval workflows, justificaion, and ticketing system integration.
• Azure AD Roles (now Microsoft Entra roles): PIM manages assignments for built-in Entra roles (e.g., Global Administrator, User Administrator) and custom roles.
• Azure Resource Roles: PIM can also manage assignments for Azure Resource Roles (e.g., Owner, Contributor, User Access Administrator) for subscriptions, resource groups, and individual resources.
• PIM for Groups: A feature allowing PIM to manage the eligibility and activation of membership for security-enabled Microsoft 365 groups, which can then be assigned to Entra roles, Azure resource roles, or other resources.
• Access Reviews: PIM integrates with access reviews to regularly audit and certify who requires continued access to privileged roles.

Step-by-step implementation

Implementing PIM involves several key stages, from initial setup to ongoing management.

1. Enable PIM: Navigate to the Microsoft Entra admin center. In the left navigation, select Identity Governance, then Privileged Identity Management. Follow the prompts to consent to PIM accessing your directory.

1. Discover and Onboard Azure AD Roles:

In the PIM blade, select Azure AD roles from the Manage section. Review the roles currently assigned as "permanent active." Identify highly privileged roles (e.g., Global Administrator, Application Administrator, Authentication Administrator) that should be managed by PIM. * For these roles, you will convert standing assignments to eligible assignments. This is a critical step.

1. Configure Role Settings:

For each privileged role you want to manage, click on the role name (e.g., Global Administrator). Select Role settings and then Edit. Configure the following: Activation maximum duration: Typically 1-8 hours. Require Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) on activation: Always enable this for critical roles. Require justification on activation: Enable this. Require approval to activate: For extremely sensitive roles, enable this and specify approvers (individual users or groups). Require incident ticket or request ticket: Integrate with ITSM for auditing. Require justification on active assignment: Ensure standing assignments (if any remain) are documented. Notifications: Configure who receives alerts for role activations and assignments.

1. Assign Eligibility to Users/Groups:

Go back to the specific role's overview in PIM. Select Add assignments. Choose eligible users or groups that should be able to activate this role. Assign them as "Eligible." Define a permanent eligible assignment or a time-bound eligible assignment. For most scenarios, permanent eligible assignments are appropriate, with activation being time-bound.

1. Configure PIM for Azure Resources (Optional but Recommended):

In the PIM blade, select Azure resources from the Manage section. Click Discover resources to find subscriptions, resource groups, or individual resources you want to manage. * Once discovered, onboard the resource. Then, you can manage Azure RBAC roles (e.g., Owner, Contributor) for that resource using PIM, following similar steps as for Azure AD roles.

1. Configure PIM for Groups (Optional):

In the PIM blade, select Groups from the Manage section. Select Discover groups. You can onboard security-enabled Microsoft 365 groups or security groups. * Once onboarded, you can manage the eligibility and activation of group membership using PIM. This is useful for assigning a PIM-managed group to a resource or role.

1. Regular Access Reviews:

In the PIM blade, select Access reviews from the Manage section. Create a new access review for critical PIM-managed roles. Schedule it to run periodically (e.g., quarterly or annually). * Specify reviewers (e.g., role owners, managers) and actions for denied access (e.g., remove assignment, make inactive).

Here's an example of using Azure CLI to assign an eligible role to a user, which can also be done via the Entra admin center:

# Ensure you have the 'azure-cli-extensions' and 'azure-ad' extensions installed
# az extension add --name 'azure-cli-extensions'
# az extension add --name 'azure-ad'

# Get the Object ID of the user to assign
USER_OBJECT_ID=$(az ad user show --id "admin_user@yourtenant.onmicrosoft.com" --query "id" --output tsv)

# Get the Object ID of the "User Administrator" role (replace with desired role)
ROLE_OBJECT_ID=$(az ad approleassignment list-eligible-user-assigned-approle --principal-type "ServicePrincipal" --query "[?contains(appRole.displayName, 'User Administrator')].appRole.id" --output tsv)

# Assign the user to the "User Administrator" role as eligible (permanent eligibility)
# The output will include details of the eligible assignment
az rest --method POST --uri "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/privilegedAccess/azureResources/roleAssignments" \
    --headers "Content-Type=application/json" \
    --body "{ \
        \"principalId\": \"$USER_OBJECT_ID\", \
        \"roleDefinitionId\": \"$ROLE_OBJECT_ID\", \
        \"type\": \"Eligible\" \
    }"

Example configuration

This JSON snippet demonstrates a PIM settings configuration for the "Global Administrator" role. This can be viewed or configured in the Entra admin center (Identity Governance > Privileged Identity Management > Azure AD roles > Roles > Global Administrator > Role settings > Edit).

{
  "properties": {
    "roleSettings": {
      "id": "e009477e-2cf0-4228-a536-40742d4a6f2b",
      "isMfaOnActivationEnabled": true,
      "maxActivationDuration": "PT4H",
      "isApprovalRequiredOnActivation": true,
      "approvers": [
        {
          "id": "78a1bc2d-5ef0-4c3e-8f9d-1a2b3c4d5e6f", // Object ID of a specific approver user
          "displayName": "PIM Approver A",
          "email": "pim.approver.a@yourtenant.onmicrosoft.com",
          "type": "User"
        },
        {
          "id": "90f1e2d3-4a5b-6c7d-8e9f-0123456789ab", // Object ID of an approver group
          "displayName": "PIM Approvers Group",
          "email": "pim.approvers@yourtenant.onmicrosoft.com",
          "type": "Group"
        }
      ],
      "isNotificationOnActivationEnabled": true,
      "isJustificationRequiredOnActivation": true,
      "isTicketingInfoRequiredOnActivation": false,
      "isJustificationRequiredOnPermanentAssignment": true,
      "isNotificationOnPermanentAssignmentEnabled": true,
      "isMfaOnPermanentAssignmentEnabled": true,
      "isApprovalRequiredOnPermanentAssignment": true
    },
    // Other properties like roleDefinitionId, scope, displayName, etc. would also be present
    "roleDefinition": {
      "id": "62e90394-69f5-4237-9190-012177145e10",
      "displayName": "Global Administrator",
      "description": "Can manage all aspects of Azure AD and Microsoft services that use Azure AD identities.",
      "isBuiltIn": true
    }
  }
}

Common pitfalls

• Leaving Global Admins with Standing Access: The most critical mistake is not converting permanent Global Administrator assignments to eligible PIM assignments. This leaves your tenant highly vulnerable.
• Neglecting MFA for Activation: Failing to enforce MFA during role activation defeats a significant security benefit of PIM. Always enable MFA for privileged role activations.
• Overly Broad Approval Policies: Requiring approval from a single individual who is frequently unavailable can lead to operational bottlenecks and workarounds, circumventing security controls. Distribute approval responsibilities or use groups.
• Ignoring Azure Resource PIM: Focusing solely on Entra roles while leaving Azure subscription, resource group, or resource-level roles (like Owner or User Access Administrator) with standing access. These present equally critical attack vectors.
• No Regular Access Reviews: Setting up PIM is not a one-time task. Without periodic access reviews, eligible assignments can become stale and unnecessary, increasing the attack surface.
• Lack of Emergency Access Accounts: While PIM aims to remove standing access, it's crucial to maintain at least two highly secured emergency access ("break glass") accounts that are excluded from PIM and have permanent Global Administrator roles, with extremely robust security controls (e.g., physical YubiKey, separate vaults, offline storage). These are for dire emergencies if PIM or MFA systems become unavailable.

Best practices

• Implement Zero Standing Access (ZSA): As per the Zero Trust principle, strive for zero standing administrative privileges. All administrative roles, especially highly privileged ones, should be eligible for activation through PIM.
• Principle of Least Privilege: When assigning eligibility, ensure users are only granted the specific roles required for their job functions. Avoid assigning "Global Administrator" when "User Administrator" or "Helpdesk Administrator" would suffice.
• Enforce MFA for All Activations: Mandate Multi-Factor Authentication for every PIM role activation. This is a foundational security control. Consider using strong authentication methods like FIDO2 security keys or certificate-based authentication.
• Shortest Possible Activation Duration: Configure the maximum activation duration for roles to be as short as practically possible (e.g., 4-8 hours). Users should activate for the specific window they need, not for an entire day or week.
• Automate Access Reviews: Schedule regular access reviews (e.g., quarterly, semi-annually) for all PIM-managed roles. This ensures that eligibility remains current and only those who truly need privileged access retain it. Integrate with Microsoft Defender for Cloud for visibility into stale resource role assignments.
• Leverage PIM for Groups: Use PIM to manage the eligibility for membership in security-enabled Microsoft 365 groups. These groups can then be assigned to Entra roles or Azure Resource Roles. This centralizes PIM management and simplifies role-based access control.
• Monitor PIM Activity: Actively monitor PIM activation logs and audit trails within the Entra admin center or by streaming them to Azure Monitor Logs/Sentinel. Look for unusual activation patterns, activations outside of business hours, or activations by unexpected users.

Further reading

• What is Microsoft Entra Privileged Identity Management?
• Assign Microsoft Entra roles in PIM
• Configure PIM settings for Microsoft Entra roles
• Discover Azure resources to manage PIM
• Create an access review of PIM for Microsoft Entra roles