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2.1.3. Design an Authorization Solution

💡 First Principle: Authorization determines what an authenticated identity is permitted to do, enforcing the principle of least privilege to ensure that users and services have only the minimum necessary access to perform their functions.

Scenario: You are designing the authorization layer for a critical application in Azure. It needs to define permissions for various user roles, control administrative access to sensitive resources, and adapt access based on real-time factors like user risk or device compliance.

Designing an authorization solution in Azure is about answering the question: "What are you allowed to do?" It's the process of granting the right level of permissions to authenticated identities, ensuring they can perform their jobs but nothing more. A well-designed authorization strategy is a critical defense against both accidental misconfiguration and malicious attacks.

This task delves into the practical application of authorization services. You'll explore how to:

  • Design for Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): Azure’s primary system for managing access to resources.
  • Design for Azure AD Privileged Identity Management (PIM): Manage, control, and monitor privileged access.
  • Design for Conditional Access: Automate access decisions based on real-time conditions.

Mastering these concepts is crucial for the AZ-305 exam, as it assesses your ability to analyze, evaluate, and create comprehensive authorization designs.

⚠️ Common Pitfall: Assigning broad, permanent administrative roles (like Owner or Global Administrator) to users. This creates significant security risk. Privileged access should be temporary, justified, and audited.

Key Trade-Offs:
  • Security vs. Convenience: Applying the principle of least privilege requires more granular role definitions and may require users to request temporary access, which can be less convenient than having permanent administrative rights.

Reflection Question: How do Azure's authorization services (RBAC, PIM, Conditional Access) collectively ensure that only permitted identities can access or modify resources, balancing security, administrative efficiency, and adaptive access control?