Azure AD Privileged Identity Management (PIM) Guide

This comprehensive guide will walk you through understanding and implementing Azure AD Privileged Identity Management (PIM) to secure your cloud environment and manage privileged access effectively.

What is Azure AD Privileged Identity Management?

Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) Privileged Identity Management (PIM) is a service that helps you manage, control, and monitor access to important resources in your organization. It's designed to address the challenges of security, compliance, and governance for privileged accounts.

PIM allows you to enforce Just-In-Time (JIT) access, meaning users only have the permissions they need, for the time they need them, and only when they need them. This significantly reduces the risk associated with standing privileged access.

Key Benefits of Using PIM

Reduced Risk: Minimizes the attack surface by limiting standing access for privileged roles.
Enhanced Security: Enforces multifactor authentication (MFA) for role activation.
Improved Compliance: Provides audit trails and enables approval workflows for privileged role assignments.
Operational Efficiency: Streamlines the process of granting and revoking temporary access.
Granular Control: Offers precise control over who can access what, and when.

Core Concepts and Features

Roles vs. Assignments

In Azure AD PIM, we distinguish between roles and assignments.

Roles: Define a set of permissions. Examples include Global Administrator, User Administrator, and Security Administrator.
Assignments: The act of granting a user or group a role. PIM manages these assignments, allowing for permanent, eligible, or time-bound assignments.

Eligible vs. Active Assignments

PIM introduces two types of assignments:

Eligible Assignments: Users assigned as eligible for a role can activate that role when needed. This is the default and recommended approach for most privileged roles.
Active Assignments: Users assigned as active have the role's permissions all the time. These should be used sparingly.

Role Activation Workflow

When an eligible user needs to use a privileged role, they go through an activation process:

User requests to activate the role.
They may be required to provide a business justification.
MFA is enforced.
The role is activated for a specific duration.
After the duration, the role assignment reverts to eligible.

Approval Workflows

For critical roles, you can configure approval workflows. This means that when a user requests to activate an eligible role, their request must be approved by designated approvers before activation.

Azure AD PIM Configuration Steps

1. Enable Azure AD PIM

Azure AD PIM is available in Azure AD Premium P2. Ensure your tenant has the appropriate license. You can access PIM through the Azure portal by searching for "Privileged Identity Management".

2. Discover and Inventory Privileged Roles

Identify all roles that grant elevated privileges within your Azure AD and Azure subscriptions. PIM provides tools to help with this.

3. Convert Permanent Assignments to Eligible

For most roles, convert existing permanent assignments to eligible assignments. This is a crucial step in adopting the JIT model.

In the PIM portal, navigate to Azure AD roles or Azure resource roles, select the role, and then go to Assignments. Here, you can manage existing assignments.

4. Configure Role Activation Settings

For each role, define:

Maximum activation duration.
Whether justification is required.
Whether MFA is required.
If approval is needed.

This is done by selecting the role, then clicking on Settings and Edit.

5. Set Up Approval Workflows (Optional)

For critical roles, define approvers. Navigate to the role, then Settings > Edit > Approvals. Select users or groups as approvers.

6. Monitor and Audit

Regularly review PIM audit logs and assignment activities. PIM provides extensive logging capabilities within the Azure portal.

You can find audit logs under Privileged Identity Management > Activity.

Example: Configuring Eligible Assignment for a Global Administrator Role

Let's say you want to make the Global Administrator role eligible for a user named "Alice" with a 4-hour activation limit and require a business justification.

Navigate to Azure AD PIM in the Azure portal.
Under Azure AD roles, click Roles.
Search for and select the Global Administrator role.
Click on Assignments, then Add assignments.
Select "Alice" as the member.
Choose Eligible for the assignment type.
Click Next.
On the Settings tab, set the Activation duration to 4 hours.
Ensure Require justification for activation is checked.
Click Assign.

Alice will now see the Global Administrator role in her PIM dashboard and can activate it when needed.

                
# Example PowerShell snippet to check PIM assignments
# Requires the AzureAD module

Connect-AzureAD

$UserId = "user@yourdomain.com"
$RoleTemplateId = "62e90394-77f5-425e-922a-f37913e38d42" # Example for Global Administrator

# Get all PIM eligible assignments for a user and role
Get-AzureADMSPrivilegedRoleAssignment -ProviderId "adéderivative" -ResourceId "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000" -Filter "resourceId eq '00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000' and principalId eq '$UserId'" | Where-Object {$_.roleDefinitionId -eq $RoleTemplateId -and $_.assignmentState -eq "Eligible"}

# Note: Actual PIM cmdlets might require AzureADPreview or Microsoft.Graph modules for full functionality.
# The above is a simplified representation. For robust management, use Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK.

Best Practices

Least Privilege: Grant only the necessary permissions.
Time-Bound Access: Always prefer eligible assignments over permanent ones.
MFA Enforcement: Mandate MFA for all role activations.
Regular Audits: Periodically review assignments and audit logs.
Clear Documentation: Document your PIM policies and procedures.
Role Separation: Avoid combining too many administrative functions into a single role.

Conclusion

Azure AD Privileged Identity Management is a powerful tool for enhancing security and governance. By implementing JIT access and carefully managing privileged roles, organizations can significantly reduce their exposure to security threats and maintain compliance. Start by exploring your current privileged access landscape and gradually migrate to a PIM-managed model.