How to handle privilege escalation in Microsoft Entra ID

Managing privileges is crucial for maintaining a secure and well-governed IT environment. Privilege escalation—where users gain or hold permissions beyond what they are allowed—can expose organizations to significant security risks. Your privileged users can end up abusing the permissions granted to them and become insider threats. This allows them to access sensitive data, disable security controls, or spread malware. Implementing least privilege principles and monitoring privileged accounts is essential to mitigate these risks effectively.

As an IAM solution, Microsoft Entra ID can help organizations prevent the abuse of privileges by enforcing strict access controls and implementing robust governance measures.

These features can help you in your battle against privilege misuse in your Microsoft Entra ID environment:

• Custom roles to reduce the impact of privileged permissions
• Access reviews for managing privileged permission assignment
• Administrative units to limit the scope of privileges

Custom roles to reduce the impact of privileged permissions

Microsoft Entra ID simplifies access management with built-in roles, but large organizations often need more flexibility and access to granular controls. Custom roles address this by enabling tailored permissions for specific tasks, such as granting access to specific objects or viewing audit logs. These roles can be assigned only for a limited time, ensuring that the admins do not get to use the permissions any longer than they have to.

Learn how to create custom roles in Microsoft Entra ID and see how M365 Manager Plus offers a better alternative that prevents escalations at the permission level.

Access reviews for managing privileged permission assignment

Managing privileged permissions is critical for maintaining security and compliance. Microsoft Entra ID's access reviews streamline permissions management by allowing organizations to review and recertify privileged access assignments to roles, groups, and applications. With scheduled or on-demand reviews, admins can ensure that only authorized users retain elevated permissions, reducing risks and enhancing security governance.

Learn how to configure access reviews in Microsoft Entra ID and secure your privileges from being misused.

Administrative units to limit the scope of privileges

Assigning roles to admins and organizing users into groups is a common practice, but Administrative Units (AUs) in Microsoft Entra ID offer a more secure and efficient alternative. AUs enable precise delegation of administrative privileges by limiting the scope of roles to specific resources like users, groups, or devices.

By using AUs, you can assign roles to admins that apply only to a specific unit, preventing access to resources outside their assigned scope. This not only simplifies management but also mitigates the risk of privilege escalation. For instance, an admin with permissions for one AU cannot extend their privileged permissions beyond it, ensuring that access remains tightly controlled and compliant with security policies.

Learn how to create and implement AUs in Microsoft Entra ID.

Administer your Microsoft 365 environment effortlessly and effectively with M365 Manager Plus

ManageEngine M365 Manager Plus is a comprehensive administration and security solution for Microsoft 365 used for reporting, managing, monitoring, auditing, and creating alerts for critical activities in your Microsoft 365 environments. You can delegate granular permissions to technicians without elevating their Microsoft 365 privileges and create custom roles with any combination of reporting, management, and auditing tasks.

You can also create Virtual Tenants in M365 Manager Plus that allow you to limit your technicians to only the users selected for the virtual tenant and prevent them from accessing any user objects to which they are not assigned. In future releases, the reach of Virtual Tenants will include other objects like groups, teams, and more.

Here are some more benefits of using M365 Manager Plus to manage and monitor your Microsoft 365 environment:

• Gain access to detailed and critical Microsoft 365 reports without any exclusive licenses.
• Export reports generated in M365 Manager Plus in not just CSV but also other presentable formats, such as HTML, PDF, and XLSX.
• Filter your reports just once and save them as custom reports that you can access in just a few clicks.
• Keep tabs on risky sign-ins and other activities in Microsoft Entra ID and other services, such as Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and Microsoft Teams, all from a single console.
• Manage users, mailboxes, groups, sites, and contacts effortlessly in bulk without PowerShell scripting.
• Monitor the health and performance of Microsoft 365 features and endpoints around the clock.