DEV-116 - Configure Privileged Roles for Intune Admins (PIM, CA, etc)

Implementation Effort: High – Requires privileged role review, Microsoft Entra Privileged Identity Management configuration, Conditional Access changes, and admin workflow updates.

User Impact: Medium – Privileged administrators will sign in differently, activate roles just in time, and may need stronger authentication or approved devices.

Overview

Privileged access to Microsoft Intune is part of the control plane for every managed device, application, and compliance rule in the tenant. In a Zero Trust model, Intune admin permissions should be tightly scoped, activated only when needed, protected by strong authentication, and monitored as high-value activity. The goal is to reduce standing privilege and make it difficult for a compromised admin account to weaken device security at scale.

Implementation Guidance

1. Inventory built-in and custom Intune-related roles, including Intune Administrator, Cloud Device Administrator, Help Desk Administrator, Security Administrator, and any custom Intune RBAC roles.
2. Separate privileged admin identities from day-to-day user identities. Require dedicated admin accounts for privileged operations, and avoid assigning broad tenant-wide roles to normal productivity accounts.
3. Use Microsoft Entra Privileged Identity Management to make eligible assignments just in time where licensing and operating model allow. Require approval, MFA, and justification for the most sensitive activations.
4. Create Conditional Access policies specifically for privileged roles. Require phishing-resistant or at least strong MFA where feasible, block legacy authentication, and require compliant or approved admin devices.
5. Limit the number of permanent role assignments. Prefer task-specific custom Intune roles over tenant-wide broad roles, and pair those roles with scope groups and scope tags.
6. Review audit logs regularly for role changes, policy deletions, and high-risk admin actions. Treat unexpected privilege elevation or off-hours changes as security events.

Reference

• Plan a Privileged Identity Management deployment - Microsoft Entra ID Governance — Explains how to plan and deploy Microsoft Entra Privileged Identity Management for privileged roles.
• Plan Your Microsoft Entra Conditional Access Deployment - Microsoft Entra ID — Covers planning decisions, rollout steps, and safeguards for Conditional Access deployment.
• Role-based access control (RBAC) with Microsoft Intune - Microsoft Intune — Introduces Intune RBAC roles, permissions, scope groups, and delegated administration.
• Configure Microsoft Intune for increased data security - Microsoft Intune — Provides Zero Trust guidance for securing data on devices and apps with Intune.