AZ_APP_ADMIN

Summary

Forestall ACL Alias	AZ_APP_ADMIN
Entra ID (Azure AD) Alias	Application Administrator
Affected Object Types	App registrations (Applications) & Enterprise applications (Service Principals)
Exploitation Certainty	Certain
Graph Permission / Role	Membership in the Application Administrator directory role (direct assignment or via a role-assignable group). This role can create and manage enterprise apps and app registrations. It can also grant consent for delegated permissions and application permissions excluding Microsoft Graph.

Description

AZ_APP_ADMIN represents the ability for a principal to operate as an Application Administrator in Microsoft Entra ID. Principals with the Application Admin role can control tenant-resident apps.

An Application Administrator can create and manage applications in the tenant. This includes app registrations and enterprise applications. This role can manage application proxy settings.

By controlling application objects, an attacker can:

• Add credentials to applications and service principals and impersonate them.

• Modify app configuration to redirect authentication flows or trust relationships.

• Grant consent to permissions (within role limits) and expand what an application can do.

• Assign owners or change access paths to establish persistence.

Therefore, any identity that holds the Application Administrator role can escalate privileges by taking control of application identities and their permissions.

Identification

PowerShell (Microsoft Graph)

List all members of the Application Administrator role, expanding groups to show effective members.

# Application Administrator role definition ID
$roleId = "9b895d92-2cd3-44c7-9d02-a6ac2d5ea5c3"

# Get all role assignments
$assignments = Get-MgRoleManagementDirectoryRoleAssignment -Filter "roleDefinitionId eq '$roleId'" -ExpandProperty principal

$assignments | ForEach-Object {
    $p = $_.Principal
    $type = $p.AdditionalProperties.'@odata.type' -replace '#microsoft.graph.', ''

    if ($type -eq 'group') {
        # Expand group members transitively
        Get-MgGroupTransitiveMember -GroupId $_.PrincipalId | ForEach-Object {
            [pscustomobject]@{
                DisplayName = $_.AdditionalProperties.displayName
                Type        = $_.AdditionalProperties.'@odata.type' -replace '#microsoft.graph.', ''
                Id          = $_.Id
                ViaGroup    = $p.AdditionalProperties.displayName
            }
        }
    } else {
        [pscustomobject]@{
            DisplayName = $p.AdditionalProperties.displayName
            Type        = $type
            Id          = $_.PrincipalId
            ViaGroup    = $null
        }
    }
} | Format-Table -AutoSize

Azure CLI (read-only via Microsoft Graph)

# Find the Application Administrator directory role
az rest --method GET --url "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/directoryRoles" --query "value[?displayName=='Application Administrator']"

# List members of the role (replace {role-id} with the id from above)
az rest --method GET --url "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/directoryRoles/{role-id}/members"

Azure Portal

1. Open Microsoft Entra admin center -> Roles & administrators.

2. Search and open Application Administrator.

3. Open Assignments and record:

   • Active assignments

   • Eligible assignments (if PIM is enabled)

4. If a group is assigned:

   • Enumerate its transitive members (nested included).

5. For high-risk tenants, document:

   • Business owner for each assignment

   • Justification and expiry (if applicable)

Application Administrator role assignments in Entra admin center

Exploitation

An Application Administrator can take control of application identities. The primary abuse path is:

1. Create a new credential (client secret or certificate) for an App Registration or Service Principal

2. Authenticate to the tenant as the app's service principal using the new credential

3. Abuse whatever privileges the service principal has (delegated or application permissions)

This can be used to gain persistence and expand access. For detailed exploitation steps, see AZ_ADD_SECRET.

Additional high-impact actions:

• Granting permissions through consent flows (within role limits)

• Modifying application configuration that impacts authentication and access

• Assigning or changing owners on application objects

Treat Application Administrator as a privileged role. Do not assign it broadly.

Mitigation

• Keep Application Administrator assignments minimal.

• Use PIM:

  • Prefer eligible assignments.

  • Require MFA and approvals for activation where appropriate.

• Use Cloud Application Administrator if you do not need application proxy management.

• Prefer custom roles with scoped application permissions where possible.

• Restrict who can grant admin consent and who can manage enterprise applications.

• Review application owners and credentials regularly for sensitive apps.

Detection

Use the Microsoft Entra admin center:

1. Open Microsoft Entra ID -> Audit logs.

2. Filter Activity for Add member to role, Add eligible member to role, Add scoped member to role, certificates and secrets management changes, consent changes, and app role assignment changes.

3. Review Initiated by (actor), Target resources, Date, and Status for unexpected Application Administrator assignments or application changes.

4. Open Roles & administrators -> Application Administrator -> Assignments to review current assignments and recent activations.

5. Use Manage view -> Edit columns if any of those fields are hidden.

Application certificates and secrets management audit logs

References

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity/role-based-access-control/permissions-reference

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity/role-based-access-control/delegate-app-roles

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/api/directoryrole-list-members?view=graph-rest-1.0

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/architecture/security-operations-applications

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity/monitoring-health/reference-audit-activities

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity/enterprise-apps/app-perms-audit-logs

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity/role-based-access-control/best-practices