↳ GitHub sourceAnalytics ruleHigh
Admin promotion after Role Management Application Permission Grant
Description
'This rule looks for a service principal being granted the Microsoft Graph RoleManagement.ReadWrite.Directory (application) permission before being used to add an Microsoft Entra ID object or user account to an Admin directory role (i.e. Global Administrators).
This is a known attack path that is usually abused when a service principal already has the AppRoleAssignment.ReadWrite.All permission granted. This permission allows an app to manage permission grants for application permissions to any API.
A service principal can promote itself or other service principals to admin roles (i.e. Global Administrators). This would be considered a privilege escalation technique.
Ref : https://docs.microsoft.com/graph/permissions-reference#role-management-permissions, https://docs.microsoft.com/graph/api/directoryrole-post-members?view=graph-rest-1.0&tabs=http'
- Rule type
- Scheduled
- Version
- 1.1.0
- Declared status
- Available
- Query frequency
- 1h
- Query period
- 2h
- Trigger
- gt 0
Declared MITRE coverage
Declared sources
Metadata from the source file. No dependencies inferred from KQL.
Connectors
Data types
KQL query
Original query, unchanged.
let query_frequency = 1h;
let query_period = 2h;
AuditLogs
| where TimeGenerated > ago(query_period)
| where Category =~ "ApplicationManagement" and LoggedByService =~ "Core Directory"
| where OperationName =~ "Add app role assignment to service principal"
| mv-expand TargetResource = TargetResources
| mv-expand modifiedProperty = TargetResource["modifiedProperties"]
| where tostring(modifiedProperty["displayName"]) == "AppRole.Value"
| extend PermissionGrant = tostring(modifiedProperty["newValue"])
| where PermissionGrant has "RoleManagement.ReadWrite.Directory"
| mv-apply modifiedProperty = TargetResource["modifiedProperties"] on (
summarize modifiedProperties = make_bag(
bag_pack(tostring(modifiedProperty["displayName"]),
bag_pack("oldValue", trim(@'[\"\s]+', tostring(modifiedProperty["oldValue"])),
"newValue", trim(@'[\"\s]+', tostring(modifiedProperty["newValue"])))), 100)
)
| project
PermissionGrant_TimeGenerated = TimeGenerated,
PermissionGrant_OperationName = OperationName,
PermissionGrant_Result = Result,
PermissionGrant,
AppDisplayName = tostring(modifiedProperties["ServicePrincipal.DisplayName"]["newValue"]),
AppServicePrincipalId = tostring(modifiedProperties["ServicePrincipal.ObjectID"]["newValue"]),
PermissionGrant_InitiatedBy = InitiatedBy,
PermissionGrant_TargetResources = TargetResources,
PermissionGrant_AdditionalDetails = AdditionalDetails,
PermissionGrant_CorrelationId = CorrelationId
| join kind=inner (
AuditLogs
| where TimeGenerated > ago(query_frequency)
| where Category =~ "RoleManagement" and LoggedByService =~ "Core Directory" and AADOperationType =~ "Assign"
| where isnotempty(InitiatedBy["app"])
| mv-expand TargetResource = TargetResources
| mv-expand modifiedProperty = TargetResource["modifiedProperties"]
| where tostring(modifiedProperty["displayName"]) in ("Role.DisplayName", "RoleDefinition.DisplayName")
| extend RoleAssignment = tostring(modifiedProperty["newValue"])
| where RoleAssignment contains "Admin"
| project
RoleAssignment_TimeGenerated = TimeGenerated,
RoleAssignment_OperationName = OperationName,
RoleAssignment_Result = Result,
RoleAssignment,
TargetType = tostring(TargetResources[0]["type"]),
Target = iff(isnotempty(TargetResources[0]["displayName"]), tostring(TargetResources[0]["displayName"]), tolower(TargetResources[0]["userPrincipalName"])),
TargetId = tostring(TargetResources[0]["id"]),
RoleAssignment_InitiatedBy = InitiatedBy,
RoleAssignment_TargetResources = TargetResources,
RoleAssignment_AdditionalDetails = AdditionalDetails,
RoleAssignment_CorrelationId = CorrelationId,
AppServicePrincipalId = tostring(InitiatedBy["app"]["servicePrincipalId"])
) on AppServicePrincipalId
| where PermissionGrant_TimeGenerated < RoleAssignment_TimeGenerated
| extend
TargetName = tostring(split(Target, "@")[0]),
TargetUPNSuffix = tostring(split(Target, "@")[1])
| project PermissionGrant_TimeGenerated, PermissionGrant_OperationName, PermissionGrant_Result, PermissionGrant, AppDisplayName, AppServicePrincipalId, PermissionGrant_InitiatedBy, PermissionGrant_TargetResources, PermissionGrant_AdditionalDetails, PermissionGrant_CorrelationId,
RoleAssignment_TimeGenerated, RoleAssignment_OperationName, RoleAssignment_Result, RoleAssignment, TargetType, Target, TargetName, TargetUPNSuffix, TargetId, RoleAssignment_InitiatedBy, RoleAssignment_TargetResources, RoleAssignment_AdditionalDetails, RoleAssignment_CorrelationId
| extend PermissionGrant_InitiatingUserPrincipalName = tostring(PermissionGrant_InitiatedBy.user.userPrincipalName)
| extend PermissionGrant_InitiatingAadUserId = tostring(PermissionGrant_InitiatedBy.user.id)
| extend PermissionGrant_InitiatingIpAddress = tostring(iff(isnotempty(PermissionGrant_InitiatedBy.user.ipAddress), PermissionGrant_InitiatedBy.user.ipAddress, PermissionGrant_InitiatedBy.app.ipAddress))
| extend PermissionGrant_InitiatingAccountName = tostring(split(PermissionGrant_InitiatingUserPrincipalName, "@")[0]), PermissionGrant_InitiatingAccountUPNSuffix = tostring(split(PermissionGrant_InitiatingUserPrincipalName, "@")[1])
| extend RoleAssignment_InitiatingUserPrincipalName = tostring(RoleAssignment_InitiatedBy.user.userPrincipalName)
| extend RoleAssignment_InitiatingAadUserId = tostring(RoleAssignment_InitiatedBy.user.id)
| extend RoleAssignment_InitiatingIpAddress = tostring(iff(isnotempty(RoleAssignment_InitiatedBy.user.ipAddress), RoleAssignment_InitiatedBy.user.ipAddress, RoleAssignment_InitiatedBy.app.ipAddress))
| extend RoleAssignment_InitiatingAccountName = tostring(split(RoleAssignment_InitiatingUserPrincipalName, "@")[0]), RoleAssignment_InitiatingAccountUPNSuffix = tostring(split(RoleAssignment_InitiatingUserPrincipalName, "@")[1])
Declared entities
Related content
Links established from declared identifiers and solution manifests.
Source provenance
GitHubDisplayed values come from files in Azure/Azure-Sentinel. They describe the published template, not your workspace configuration.
- Commit
7ca9800↗- Source identifier
f80d951a-eddc-4171-b9d0-d616bb83efdc
GSTEP / CATALOG TRACKING
Added to catalog : 16 Sept 2026 · 05:49 UTC
Last change observed : 16 Sept 2026 · 05:49 UTC