CHAIN-070 — PIM active assignments used as normal role

Summary

Severity: Medium · Likelihood: High · Logic: ALL

Why this chain matters

PIM roles are assigned as Active (not Eligible) so they never expire or require activation. This defeats the purpose of PIM — a compromised principal has permanent admin, not just-in-time admin.

Component rules

This chain fires when its trigger conditions are met by the following rules. Click any rule to see its detection logic and compliance mappings.

Rule ID	Role
zt_id_009	Trigger
zt_id_010	Trigger

Attack walkthrough

Step 1 — Sign in; role already active, no activation needed.

Actor: Attacker with creds
MITRE ATT&CK: T1078
Enabled by: zt_id_009

Attacker gain: Persistent admin.

Step 2 — Operate freely; no activation log to correlate on.

Actor: Attacker
MITRE ATT&CK: T1562
Enabled by: zt_id_010

Attacker gain: Reduced detection surface.

Blast radius

Initial access	Stolen creds of active-role holder.
Max privilege	Assigned directory role, indefinitely.
Data at risk	Role scope
Services at risk	Entra ID

How the logic works

The chain fires only when every rule above has at least one finding in the current scan. Missing any one rule breaks the chain — so remediating any single step disrupts the attack path.