Configure Microsoft Entra Privileged Identity Management to enforce just-in-time role activation, approval workflows, and access reviews for Azure AD privileged roles.
Configure Microsoft Entra Privileged Identity Management to enforce just-in-time role activation, approval workflows, and access reviews for Azure AD privileged roles.
Implementing Azure AD Privileged Identity Management
Overview
Microsoft Entra Privileged Identity Management (PIM) provides time-based and approval-based role activation to mitigate risks from excessive, unnecessary, or misused access to critical resources. PIM replaces permanent (standing) privilege assignments with eligible assignments that require users to explicitly activate their role before use, with configurable duration, MFA enforcement, approval workflows, and justification requirements. This is a core component of Zero Trust identity governance in Microsoft environments.
When to Use
When deploying or configuring implementing azure ad privileged identity management capabilities in your environment
When establishing security controls aligned to compliance requirements
When building or improving security architecture for this domain
When conducting security assessments that require this implementation
Common Misconfigurations & Verification
Eligible vs active confusion: assignments are labeled "eligible" in the portal but a parallel active (standing) assignment for the same role still exists, so activation/MFA is never actually required. Verify each principal has no active assignment outside break-glass — Get-MgRoleManagementDirectoryRoleAssignmentSchedule should show assignmentType=Activated, not Assigned, for day-to-day admins.
Approval/MFA bypass: activation settings require approval and MFA, but the role was assigned directly in Azure AD (not through PIM), or a group nested into the role grants standing access that skips PIM entirely. Confirm the PIM alert "roles being assigned outside of PIM" is clean and audit role-assignable group membership.
Duration and re-cert gaps: "allow permanent eligible assignment = Yes" or no expiry means eligibility never lapses; max activation set to 24-72h widens the window. Verify eligible assignments expire (e.g. 6 months) and activation ≤8h for critical roles.
Break-glass blind spots: active break-glass accounts with no alerting defeat the model. Confirm sign-in alerts fire on break-glass use and that they are excluded from Conditional Access that could lock them out.
Verification: attempt selfActivate without MFA/justification and confirm it is rejected; pull the PIM audit log and confirm every privileged action maps to an activation with approval; run the "too many global admins" and "outside PIM" alerts and confirm zero standing admins beyond break-glass.
Prerequisites
Microsoft Entra ID P2 or Microsoft Entra ID Governance license
Global Administrator or Privileged Role Administrator role
Azure subscription for Azure resource role management
MFA configured for all privileged users
Microsoft Authenticator or FIDO2 key for admin accounts
Core Concepts
Assignment Types
Type
Behavior
Use Case
Eligible
User must activate the role before use; expires after configured duration
Day-to-day admin work
Active
Role is always active; no activation needed
Service accounts, break-glass accounts
Time-Bound
Either type with explicit start/end dates
Temporary project access, contractor access
PIM Activation Flow
User with Eligible Assignment
│
├── Opens PIM portal → My Roles
│
├── Clicks "Activate" on the desired role
│
├── Provides justification and optional ticket number
│
├── Completes MFA challenge (if required)
│
├── [If approval required] → Notification sent to approvers
│ │
│ ├── Approver reviews and approves/denies
│ └── User notified of decision
│
├── Role activated for configured duration (e.g., 8 hours)
│
└── Role automatically deactivated when duration expires
Supported Resource Types
Microsoft Entra Roles: Global Admin, Exchange Admin, Security Admin, etc.
Azure Resource Roles: Owner, Contributor, User Access Administrator on subscriptions/resource groups
PIM for Groups: Manage membership in privileged security groups
Workflow
Step 1: Plan Role Assignments
Audit current permanent role assignments and determine which should be converted to eligible:
Current Role
Permanent Holders
Action
Global Administrator
2-3 admins
Convert to eligible, keep 1 break-glass active
Exchange Administrator
IT team
Convert all to eligible
Security Administrator
SOC team
Convert to eligible
User Administrator
Help desk
Convert to eligible
Application Administrator
DevOps
Convert to eligible
Best practice: Maintain no more than 2 permanent Global Administrators (break-glass accounts).
Step 2: Configure Role Settings
For each Entra directory role, configure PIM settings:
Via Microsoft Entra Admin Center:
Navigate to Identity Governance > Privileged Identity Management > Microsoft Entra roles
Select "Settings" and choose the role to configure
Configure the following:
Activation Settings:
Maximum activation duration: 8 hours (recommended; max 72 hours)