Azure PIM Alert: Privileged Role Assigned Outside PIM

Detects Azure PIM risk events indicating privileged role assignments were made outside PIM.

FreeReviewedSigma · High · v5

Product: azure
Service: pim
Author: Mark Morowczynski '@markmorow', Gloria Lee, '@gleeiamglo' (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published: 2023-09-14
Updated: 2026-07-31

ATT&CK techniques

Initial Access → Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
- T1078Valid Accounts
Execution
Persistence
- T1078Valid Accounts
Priv Esc
- T1078Valid Accounts
Defense Evasion
- T1078Valid Accounts
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule catches Azure Privileged Identity Management alert events indicating that privileged roles were assigned outside of PIM. Such activity can bypass approval and monitoring controls, enabling attackers to establish or escalate privileges with greater stealth. The detection relies on PIM risk event telemetry, specifically the riskEventType value for roles assigned outside PIM alert configuration.

Reporting behind it

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Azure PIM Alert: Privileged Role Assigned Outside PIM

Pivot detection · T1078 · 9 related

Changelog

v5
Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
v4
Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
v3
Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
v2
Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
v1
No changelog recorded for this version.2026-07-30

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.

azure-pim-alert-for-roles-assigned-outside-privileged-identity-management-b1bc08d1

title: "Azure PIM Alert: Privileged Role Assigned Outside PIM"
id: 26fc8a4a-8fdb-4701-ad9a-e4d1717bc0a0
status: test
description: This rule catches Azure Privileged Identity Management alert events indicating that privileged roles were assigned outside of PIM. Such activity can bypass approval and monitoring controls, enabling attackers to establish or escalate privileges with greater stealth. The detection relies on PIM risk event telemetry, specifically the riskEventType value for roles assigned outside PIM alert configuration.
references:
  - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/id-governance/privileged-identity-management/pim-how-to-configure-security-alerts#roles-are-being-assigned-outside-of-privileged-identity-management
  - https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/master/rules/cloud/azure/privileged_identity_management/azure_pim_role_assigned_outside_of_pim.yml
author: Mark Morowczynski '@markmorow', Gloria Lee, '@gleeiamglo', Huntrule Team
date: 2023-09-14
tags:
  - attack.initial-access
  - attack.stealth
  - attack.t1078
  - attack.persistence
  - attack.privilege-escalation
logsource:
  product: azure
  service: pim
detection:
  selection:
    riskEventType: rolesAssignedOutsidePrivilegedIdentityManagementAlertConfiguration
  condition: selection
falsepositives:
  - Investigate where users are being assigned privileged roles outside of Privileged Identity Management and prohibit future assignments from there.
level: high
license: DRL-1.1
related:
  - id: b1bc08d1-8224-4758-a0e6-fbcfc98c73bb
    type: derived

Convert

This rule as a query you can run. Uses no unlock credit.

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