Plan and manage Azure roles in Privileged Identity Management (PIM), including settings and assignments

Privileged Identity Management (PIM) in Azure AD is a service that enables you to manage, control, and monitor access within your organization. This includes providing just-in-time privileged access to Azure AD and Azure resources, enforcing MFA to activate any role, using approval workflows, and conducting access reviews.

Understanding Azure AD Roles in PIM

Azure AD comes with a set of built-in roles that can be managed through PIM. Some of the key roles include Global Administrator, Privileged Role Administrator, and User Administrator. Each role has specific permissions designed to carry out certain tasks in an organization’s Azure environment.

Setting up PIM

Before you can assign roles in PIM, ensure you have the required permissions to do so. You would typically need to be a Privileged Role Administrator or a Global Administrator to manage PIM.

1. Enable PIM: First, PIM needs to be enabled within the Azure AD organization. This requires setting up PIM from the Azure portal and selecting the directory to manage.
2. Configure PIM Settings: You can set various policies and configurations for PIM, which can include:
   • MFA requirements: Ensuring that users perform multi-factor authentication before activating a role.
   • Justification: Requiring users to provide a reason when activating a role.
   • Assignment duration: Determining how long a user can hold a role before needing to re-activate.
   • Notification settings: Configuring alerts for certain PIM activities.

Assigning Roles in PIM

With PIM, roles can be assigned in two ways:

• Active Assignments: Users hold the role continuously until the role is removed or the assignment expires.
• Eligible Assignments: Users can activate the role when needed, subject to approval or other conditions set in PIM.

Here’s a basic outline of assigning a role in PIM:

1. Select roles to manage: Navigate to the Azure portal and open Azure AD Privileged Identity Management.
2. Choose the role: From the list of Azure AD roles or Azure resource roles, select the role to assign.
3. Assign the role: Click “Add member” and select the user to whom the role will be assigned. Set the type of assignment to either “Eligible” or “Active”.

Approval Workflow

To further strengthen the security, you can create an approval workflow for activating the roles in PIM. Here’s how to configure an approval workflow:

1. Navigate to the role settings: Select the role in PIM, then click on “Settings”.
2. Configure approvals: Set up approvers who are notified when there is a request to activate the role. This can be one or more individuals or a group.
3. Define multi-stage approvals: For extra security, you can set up multiple stages of approvals, requiring a user to pass through several approvers before getting role activation.

Access Reviews

Regularly reviewing role assignments is crucial to maintaining least-privilege access. PIM provides the feature to create access reviews for users performing privileged roles, which helps organizations to:

• Ensure the right people have the right access.
• Comply with internal audits and regulatory requirements.
• Remove unnecessary access rights over time.

To create an access review in PIM:

1. Set up an access review: Define the scope (e.g., specific roles or all roles) and the frequency of the review.
2. Determine reviewers: Assign individuals or groups who will conduct the review.
3. Review results: Upon completion, review the recommendations and approve or revoke access based on the findings.

Reporting and Monitoring

Azure PIM provides extensive reporting capabilities that help you monitor the activity within your environment. You can view audit logs for activated roles, access reviews’ outcomes, and history of role assignments and activations. These reports are critical for maintaining a secure and compliant Azure environment.

• Audit Logs: Records all activations, changes in role settings, and added/removed role memberships.
• Access Review Reports: Summarize decisions made during an access review cycle.

Best Practices

• Regularly review and update PIM settings to adapt to organizational changes.
• Use eligible assignments over active assignments to reduce the attack surface area.
• Incorporate a minimum number of approvers required for activating privileged roles.
• Schedule regular access reviews and ensure the review process is adequately followed and documented.

By properly planning and managing Azure roles in PIM, organizations can minimize risks associated with privileged access, improve their security posture, and meet compliance requirements. Access to sensitive roles and permissions is tightly controlled, which reduces the potential for security breaches and misuse of elevated privileges.