Privileged Role Assigned Outside PIM

Status: available
Severity: low
Time window: 1d
Source: github.com/Azure/Azure-Sentinel

Identifies a privileged role being assigned to a user outside of PIM Ref : https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/active-directory/fundamentals/security-operations-privileged-accounts#things-to-monitor-1

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Privilege Escalation	`T1078.004` Valid Accounts: Cloud Accounts

Event coverage

Provider	Event
Entra-AuditLogs	Add member to role

Rules detecting the same action

Other rules on this platform that filter on the same API call or operation.

Admin promotion after Role Management Application Permission Grant (Kusto)
Bulk Changes to Privileged Account Permissions (Kusto)
Changes to PIM Settings (Kusto)
Detect PIM Alert Disabling activity (Kusto)
Multiple admin membership removals from newly created admin. (Kusto)
New External User Granted Admin Role (Kusto)
NRT Privileged Role Assigned Outside PIM (Kusto)
NRT User added to Microsoft Entra ID Privileged Groups (Kusto)

Rule body kusto

id: 269435e3-1db8-4423-9dfc-9bf59997da1c
name: Privileged Role Assigned Outside PIM
description: |
  'Identifies a privileged role being assigned to a user outside of PIM
  Ref : https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/active-directory/fundamentals/security-operations-privileged-accounts#things-to-monitor-1'
severity: Low
requiredDataConnectors:
  - connectorId: AzureActiveDirectory
    dataTypes:
      - AuditLogs
queryFrequency: 1d
queryPeriod: 1d
triggerOperator: gt
triggerThreshold: 0
status: Available
tactics:
  - PrivilegeEscalation
relevantTechniques:
  - T1078.004
tags:
    - AADSecOpsGuide
query: |
  AuditLogs
  | where Category =~ "RoleManagement"
  | where OperationName has "Add member to role outside of PIM"
          or (LoggedByService =~ "Core Directory" and OperationName =~ "Add member to role" and Identity != "MS-PIM" and Identity != "MS-PIM-Fairfax")
  | mv-apply TargetResource = TargetResources on 
    (
        where TargetResource.type =~ "User"
        | extend TargetUserPrincipalName = tostring(TargetResource.userPrincipalName)
    )
  | extend InitiatingAppName = tostring(InitiatedBy.app.displayName)
  | extend InitiatingAppServicePrincipalId = tostring(InitiatedBy.app.servicePrincipalId)
  | extend InitiatingUserPrincipalName = tostring(InitiatedBy.user.userPrincipalName)
  | extend InitiatingAadUserId = tostring(InitiatedBy.user.id)
  | extend InitiatingIpAddress = tostring(iff(isnotempty(InitiatedBy.user.ipAddress), InitiatedBy.user.ipAddress, InitiatedBy.app.ipAddress))
  | extend TargetName = tostring(split(TargetUserPrincipalName,'@',0)[0]), TargetUPNSuffix = tostring(split(TargetUserPrincipalName,'@',1)[0])
  | extend InitiatedByName = tostring(split(InitiatingUserPrincipalName,'@',0)[0]), InitiatedByUPNSuffix = tostring(split(InitiatingUserPrincipalName,'@',1)[0])
entityMappings:
  - entityType: Account
    fieldMappings:
      - identifier: FullName
        columnName: InitiatingUserPrincipalName    
      - identifier: Name
        columnName: InitiatedByName      
      - identifier: UPNSuffix
        columnName: InitiatedByUPNSuffix
  - entityType: Account
    fieldMappings:
      - identifier: FullName
        columnName: TargetUserPrincipalName   
      - identifier: Name
        columnName: TargetName      
      - identifier: UPNSuffix
        columnName: TargetUPNSuffix
  - entityType: Account
    fieldMappings:
      - identifier: AadUserId
        columnName: InitiatingAadUserId
  - entityType: Account
    fieldMappings:
      - identifier: AadUserId
        columnName: InitiatingAppServicePrincipalId
  - entityType: IP
    fieldMappings:
      - identifier: Address
        columnName: InitiatingIpAddress
version: 1.0.6
kind: Scheduled

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: `source`

AuditLogs

Stage 2: `where`

| where Category =~ "RoleManagement"

Stage 3: `where`

| where OperationName has "Add member to role outside of PIM"
        or (LoggedByService =~ "Core Directory" and OperationName =~ "Add member to role" and Identity != "MS-PIM" and Identity != "MS-PIM-Fairfax")

Stage 4: `kusto:mv-apply`

| mv-apply TargetResource = TargetResources on 
  (
      where TargetResource.type =~ "User"
      | extend TargetUserPrincipalName = tostring(TargetResource.userPrincipalName)
  )

Stage 5: `extend` (7 consecutive steps)

| extend InitiatingAppName = tostring(InitiatedBy.app.displayName)
| extend InitiatingAppServicePrincipalId = tostring(InitiatedBy.app.servicePrincipalId)
| extend InitiatingUserPrincipalName = tostring(InitiatedBy.user.userPrincipalName)
| extend InitiatingAadUserId = tostring(InitiatedBy.user.id)
| extend InitiatingIpAddress = tostring(iff(isnotempty(InitiatedBy.user.ipAddress), InitiatedBy.user.ipAddress, InitiatedBy.app.ipAddress))
| extend TargetName = tostring(split(TargetUserPrincipalName,'@',0)[0]), TargetUPNSuffix = tostring(split(TargetUserPrincipalName,'@',1)[0])
| extend InitiatedByName = tostring(split(InitiatingUserPrincipalName,'@',0)[0]), InitiatedByUPNSuffix = tostring(split(InitiatingUserPrincipalName,'@',1)[0])

Indicators

Each row is a field, operator, and value that the rule matches. The corpus column counts how many other rules in the catalog look for the same combination: high numbers point to widely-used, community-vetted indicators. Blank or 1 shows that the indicator is specific to this rule.

Field	Kind	Values
`Category`	eq	`RoleManagement`
`Identity`	ne	`MS-PIM` transforms: `cased` `MS-PIM-Fairfax` transforms: `cased`
`LoggedByService`	eq	`Core Directory`
`OperationName`	eq	`Add member to role`
`OperationName`	match	`Add member to role outside of PIM` transforms: `term`
`type`	eq	`User`

Output fields

Fields the rule emits when it matches. Chronicle authors list these in the outcome block; they appear on the detection and $risk_score drives alerting. Sentinel / Defender XDR rules build them up through project / summarize / extend stages. Sentinel maps these into alert fields via entityMappings and customDetails; Defender XDR custom detections surface them as alert fields directly.

Field	Source
`InitiatingAppName`	`extend`
`InitiatingAppServicePrincipalId`	`extend`
`InitiatingUserPrincipalName`	`extend`
`InitiatingAadUserId`	`extend`
`InitiatingIpAddress`	`extend`
`TargetName`	`extend`
`TargetUPNSuffix`	`extend`
`InitiatedByName`	`extend`
`InitiatedByUPNSuffix`	`extend`

`j` / `k`	Scroll down / up
`d` / `u`	Half-page down / up
`gg` / `G`	Top / bottom
`h` / `l`	History back / forward
`f`	Follow link (`Shift` = new tab)
`/`	Focus search
`?`	Toggle this help
`↑` / `↓`	Navigate search results
`Enter`	Open highlighted result
`Esc`	Close results / dialog

`type:`	`events` / `rules` / `providers`
`vendor:`	`sigma` / `elastic` / `splunk` / `kusto` / `chronicle` (vendor name alone also works: `sigma:`, `kql:`, `secops:`…)
`tactic:`	TA-id, slug, or name: `credential_access`, `TA0006`
`technique:`	technique or sub-technique ID: `T1003`, `T1003.001` (alias `tech:`)
`severity:`	`critical` / `high` / `medium` / `low` / `informational` (alias `sev:`)
`risk_score`	Numeric comparison on the Elastic risk score (0 to 100): `risk_score>50`, `risk_score<=20`, `risk_score=99` (alias `risk`; Elastic rules only)
`stages:`	Rules with exactly N pipeline stages
`correlation:`	`single_event` / `sequence` / `alternatives` / `alternatives_cross_log` / `all_required` / `correlated`
`with:`	Co-occurrence event-id; stacks (`with:4624 with:4769`) to require all, while a comma list in one occurrence (`with:4624,4769`) is an either-or group. Implies multi-event
`like:`	Structural neighbors of a rule slug (equivalents + subsumption stricter / broader): `like:comsvcs_lsass_memory_dump-splunk-sysmon`
`groupby:`	Entity-grouping substring match against `group_by_keys`: `groupby:user`, `groupby:host`
`uses:`	Rules whose predicate tree touches the field (any kind, any value): `uses:CommandLine`
`excludes:`	Rules with top-level `not()` clauses on the field (FP whitelists): `excludes:ParentImage`
`field:` / `value:`	Predicate search; narrows rule cards to those with a matching leaf and drives the indicator tier. Unquoted = substring, wildcards allowed (`value:mimikatz`)
`indicator:`	Shorthand for `field:F value:V`: `indicator:Image=*\powershell.exe`
`kind:`	Filter by predicate kind. Narrows rule cards to those carrying a matching predicate leaf (`vendor:elastic kind:cidr_match`) and drives the indicator tier: `contains` / `starts_with` / `ends_with` / `regex` / `cidr` / `eq` / `in` … (operator aliases `op:`/`match:`)
`has:` / `no:`	`sample`, `field`, `notes`, `refs`, `trace`, `thirdparty`, `rule`, `pattern`, `timewindow`, `threshold`, `newterms`, `sigma`/`elastic`/`splunk`/`kusto`/`chronicle`
`-op:val`	Exclude matches; works on most operators but not `type:`/`like:`/`has:`/`no:` (use `no:<flag>` to exclude a rule flag): `tactic:execution -vendor:splunk`. Standalone `-kind:`/`-field:`/`-value:` drop every rule carrying a matching predicate leaf (`type:rules -kind:is_null`)
`field:"…"` / `value:"…"`	Quoted value = anchored exact match (also allows spaces): `value:"net user"`
`a,b`	Comma = OR inside one operator (`vendor:sigma,elastic`, `severity:high,critical`); repeating a facet merges the same way. `field:`/`value:` never split (literal commas)
`vendors:` / `stage:`	Singular and plural spellings fold to the canonical operator and value: `tactics:` = `tactic:`, `type:event` = `type:events`, `correlation:sequences` = `correlation:sequence`, `has:thresholds` = `has:threshold`
`"quoted phrase"`	Exact-match a multi-word phrase (free text)

Privileged Role Assigned Outside PIM

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Event coverage

Rules detecting the same action

Rule body kusto

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: `source`

Stage 2: `where`

Stage 3: `where`

Stage 4: `kusto:mv-apply`

Stage 5: `extend` (7 consecutive steps)

Indicators

Output fields

Keyboard shortcuts

Search operators

Privileged Role Assigned Outside PIM

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Event coverage

Rules detecting the same action

Rule body kusto

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: source

Stage 2: where

Stage 3: where

Stage 4: kusto:mv-apply

Stage 5: extend (7 consecutive steps)

Indicators

Output fields

Stage 1: `source`

Stage 2: `where`

Stage 3: `where`

Stage 4: `kusto:mv-apply`

Stage 5: `extend` (7 consecutive steps)