Role Based Access Control in Microsoft Azure

Pre-requisite:- Azure

Azure role-based access control is an access management system built over Azure Resource Manager which provides fine-grained access to specific users over specific resources.

Role Assignment

Role assignment allows us to grant specific users access to specific resources at specific levels. This forms the backbone of Azure Role-Based Access Control or Azure RBAC.

RBAC is required because it is like controlling access to the resources under your jurisdiction to make sure the relevant people are able to access the required resources. 

Role Assignment = Role definition + Security Principal + Scope

Role Definition or Azure Roles

Role definition (referring to an Azure role) is a group of actions that can be performed by a particular entity. They are nothing but a set of permissions required to deal with the resources present on the Azure portal.  A basic role definition looks like the following (in Azure PowerShell)

{
  "Name": "Contributor",
  "Id": "b24988ac-6180-42a0-ab88-20f7382dd24c",
  "IsCustom": false,
  "Description": "Lets you manage 
  everything except access to resources.",
  "Actions": [
    "*"
  ],
  "NotActions": [
    "Microsoft.Authorization/*/Delete",
    "Microsoft.Authorization/*/Write",
    "Microsoft.Authorization/elevateAccess/Action",
    "Microsoft.Blueprint/blueprintAssignments/write",
    "Microsoft.Blueprint/blueprintAssignments/delete"
  ],
  "DataActions": [],
  "NotDataActions": [],
  "AssignableScopes": [
    "/"
  ]
}

Security Principal:

The service principal will use the resources. Azure gives two options when creating a role assignment – User, Group, or service principal and Managed Identity.

Scope:

The resource to which the security principal is given access. It can be either the management group, the subscription, the resource group, resource.

Steps to Create a Role Assignment

Step 1: Let’s say you have a resource group called demorg and want to give someone named John Green the contributor role.

• Scope:– Resource Group (demorg)
• Role Definition:– Contributor
• Service Principal:– John Green

Step 2: Go to the left sidebar and click on Access Control (IAM)  

Step 3: Click on Add to add a role assignment

Step 4: Choose the role definition:

Step 5: Press Next and select the member to whom you want to assign the role by clicking + Select Members:

Step 6: Click Next and finally click on the Review and Assign button.

Step 7: Once, the role assignment is complete, you can navigate to the resource group and again click the access control option.

Step 8: Click on the role assignments tab and search for the username in the search bar. Their required role should be present there with their name.