Azure Identity and Access Management (IAM) Fundamentals
Secure your cloud resources by understanding and implementing robust identity and access controls.
What is Azure IAM?
Azure Identity and Access Management (IAM) is a foundational security discipline that controls who (identity) has what access (access management) to resources.
In Azure, IAM is primarily managed through Azure Active Directory (now Microsoft Entra ID), a comprehensive cloud-based identity and access management service. It enables you to manage users, groups, and applications, and to secure access to your Azure resources.
Key benefits of Azure IAM include:
- Centralized Identity Management: Manage all your user identities from a single place.
- Granular Access Control: Define precise permissions for users and groups.
- Enhanced Security: Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) and conditional access policies.
- Simplified Compliance: Meet regulatory requirements with robust auditing and reporting.
Core Concepts
1. Identities
An identity represents an object that can be authenticated by a security system. In Azure, these can be:
- Users: Individuals who need access to resources.
- Groups: Collections of users or other groups, used to simplify management.
- Service Principals: Identities used by applications or services to access Azure resources.
- Managed Identities: Special identities for Azure resources (like VMs or App Services) to access other Azure services securely, without needing credentials in code.
2. Roles and Permissions
Azure RBAC (Role-Based Access Control) is the system used to manage access to Azure resources. It works by assigning roles to users, groups, service principals, or managed identities.
- Roles: A collection of permissions. Azure has built-in roles (e.g., Owner, Contributor, Reader) and allows for custom roles.
- Permissions: What operations a principal can perform on a resource (e.g., read, write, delete).
- Scope: The level at which access is granted (e.g., subscription, resource group, or individual resource).
Principle of Least Privilege: Always grant users only the permissions they need to perform their jobs, and no more.
3. Authentication and Authorization
- Authentication: The process of verifying who a user or service is. This typically involves credentials like passwords, certificates, or tokens.
- Authorization: The process of determining what an authenticated identity is allowed to do. This is where RBAC comes into play.
4. Azure Active Directory (Microsoft Entra ID)
Azure AD is the heart of Azure IAM. It provides:
- Identity and access management for cloud applications.
- Single sign-on (SSO) across on-premises and cloud applications.
- Multi-factor authentication (MFA) for enhanced security.
- Conditional Access policies to enforce access controls based on context.
- Device management and identity protection features.
Best Practices for Azure IAM
Use Azure AD Groups
Organize users into groups and assign roles to groups for efficient management.
Apply Least Privilege
Assign the minimum necessary permissions to users and service principals.
Enable MFA
Require multi-factor authentication for all users, especially administrators.
Use Conditional Access
Implement policies that grant or deny access based on user, location, device, and application.
Regularly Review Access
Periodically audit and review role assignments and permissions.
Secure Service Principals
Avoid hardcoding credentials; use managed identities or client secrets with strict rotation policies.
Example: Assigning a Role
You can assign roles through the Azure portal, Azure CLI, PowerShell, or ARM templates. Here's a conceptual example using Azure CLI to grant 'Reader' role to a user on a resource group:
az role assignment create \
--assignee <user-principal-name> \
--role "Reader" \
--resource-group <resource-group-name>
This command ensures that the specified user can view resources within the given resource group but cannot make any changes.