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View activity logs for Azure RBAC changes

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Sometimes you need information about Azure role-based access control (Azure RBAC) changes, such as for auditing or troubleshooting purposes. Anytime someone makes changes to role assignments or role definitions within your subscriptions, the changes get logged in Azure Activity Log. You can view the activity logs to see all the Azure RBAC changes for the past 90 days.

Operations that are logged

Here are the Azure RBAC-related operations that are logged in Activity Log:

  • Create role assignment
  • Delete role assignment
  • Create or update custom role definition
  • Delete custom role definition

Azure portal

The easiest way to get started is to view the activity logs with the Azure portal. The following screenshot shows an example of role assignment operations in the activity log. It also includes an option to download the logs as a CSV file.

Activity logs using the portal - screenshot

To get more information, click an entry to open the summary pane. Click the JSON tab to get a detailed log.

Activity logs using the portal with summary pane open - screenshot

The activity log in the portal has several filters. Here are the Azure RBAC-related filters:

Filter Value
Event category
  • Administrative
Operation
  • Create role assignment
  • Delete role assignment
  • Create or update custom role definition
  • Delete custom role definition

For more information about activity logs, see Azure Activity log.

Interpret a log entry

The log output from the JSON tab, Azure PowerShell, or Azure CLI can include a lot of information. Here are some of the key properties to look for when trying to interpret a log entry. For ways to filter the log output using Azure PowerShell or Azure CLI, see the following sections.

Property Example values Description
authorization:action Microsoft.Authorization/roleAssignments/write Create role assignment
Microsoft.Authorization/roleAssignments/delete Delete role assignment
Microsoft.Authorization/roleDefinitions/write Create or update role definition
Microsoft.Authorization/roleDefinitions/delete Delete role definition
authorization:scope /subscriptions/{subscriptionId}
/subscriptions/{subscriptionId}/resourceGroups/{resourceGroupName}/providers/Microsoft.Authorization/roleAssignments/{roleAssignmentId}		 Scope for the action
caller admin@example.com
{objectId}		 Who initiated the action
eventTimestamp 2021-03-01T22:07:41.126243Z Time that action occurred
status:value Started
Succeeded
Failed		 Status of the action

Azure PowerShell

To view activity logs with Azure PowerShell, use the Get-AzLog command.

This command lists all role assignment changes in a subscription for the past seven days:

Get-AzLog -StartTime (Get-Date).AddDays(-7) | Where-Object {$_.Authorization.Action -like 'Microsoft.Authorization/roleAssignments/*'}

This command lists all role definition changes in a resource group for the past seven days:

Get-AzLog -ResourceGroupName pharma-sales -StartTime (Get-Date).AddDays(-7) | Where-Object {$_.Authorization.Action -like 'Microsoft.Authorization/roleDefinitions/*'}

Filter log output

The log output can include a lot of information. This command lists all role assignment and role definition changes in a subscription for the past seven days and filters the output:

Get-AzLog -StartTime (Get-Date).AddDays(-7) | Where-Object {$_.Authorization.Action -like 'Microsoft.Authorization/role*'} | Format-List Caller,EventTimestamp,{$_.Authorization.Action},Properties

The following shows an example of the filtered log output when creating a role assignment:

Caller                  : admin@example.com
EventTimestamp          : 3/1/2021 10:07:42 PM
$_.Authorization.Action : Microsoft.Authorization/roleAssignments/write
Properties              :
                          statusCode     : Created
                          serviceRequestId: {serviceRequestId}
                          eventCategory  : Administrative
                          entity         : /subscriptions/{subscriptionId}/resourceGroups/example-group/providers/Microsoft.Authorization/roleAssignments/{roleAssignmentId}
                          message        : Microsoft.Authorization/roleAssignments/write
                          hierarchy      : {tenantId}/{subscriptionId}

Caller                  : admin@example.com
EventTimestamp          : 3/1/2021 10:07:41 PM
$_.Authorization.Action : Microsoft.Authorization/roleAssignments/write
Properties              :
                          requestbody    : {"Id":"{roleAssignmentId}","Properties":{"PrincipalId":"{principalId}","PrincipalType":"User","RoleDefinitionId":"/providers/Microsoft.Authorization/roleDefinitions/fa23ad8b-c56e-40d8-ac0c-ce449e1d2c64","Scope":"/subscriptions/
                          {subscriptionId}/resourceGroups/example-group"}}
                          eventCategory  : Administrative
                          entity         : /subscriptions/{subscriptionId}/resourceGroups/example-group/providers/Microsoft.Authorization/roleAssignments/{roleAssignmentId}
                          message        : Microsoft.Authorization/roleAssignments/write
                          hierarchy      : {tenantId}/{subscriptionId}

If you are using a service principal to create role assignments, the Caller property will be a service principal object ID. You can use Get-AzADServicePrincipal to get information about the service principal.

Caller                  : {objectId}
EventTimestamp          : 3/1/2021 9:43:08 PM
$_.Authorization.Action : Microsoft.Authorization/roleAssignments/write
Properties              : 
                          statusCode     : Created
                          serviceRequestId: {serviceRequestId}
                          eventCategory  : Administrative

Azure CLI

To view activity logs with the Azure CLI, use the az monitor activity-log list command.

This command lists the activity logs in a resource group from March 1, looking forward seven days:

az monitor activity-log list --resource-group example-group --start-time 2021-03-01 --offset 7d

This command lists the activity logs for the Authorization resource provider from March 1, looking forward seven days:

az monitor activity-log list --namespace "Microsoft.Authorization" --start-time 2021-03-01 --offset 7d

Filter log output

The log output can include a lot of information. This command lists all role assignment and role definition changes in a subscription looking forward seven days and filters the output:

az monitor activity-log list --namespace "Microsoft.Authorization" --start-time 2021-03-01 --offset 7d --query '[].{authorization:authorization, caller:caller, eventTimestamp:eventTimestamp, properties:properties}'

The following shows an example of the filtered log output when creating a role assignment:

[
 {
    "authorization": {
      "action": "Microsoft.Authorization/roleAssignments/write",
      "role": null,
      "scope": "/subscriptions/{subscriptionId}/resourceGroups/example-group/providers/Microsoft.Authorization/roleAssignments/{roleAssignmentId}"
    },
    "caller": "admin@example.com",
    "eventTimestamp": "2021-03-01T22:07:42.456241+00:00",
    "properties": {
      "entity": "/subscriptions/{subscriptionId}/resourceGroups/example-group/providers/Microsoft.Authorization/roleAssignments/{roleAssignmentId}",
      "eventCategory": "Administrative",
      "hierarchy": "{tenantId}/{subscriptionId}",
      "message": "Microsoft.Authorization/roleAssignments/write",
      "serviceRequestId": "{serviceRequestId}",
      "statusCode": "Created"
    }
  },
  {
    "authorization": {
      "action": "Microsoft.Authorization/roleAssignments/write",
      "role": null,
      "scope": "/subscriptions/{subscriptionId}/resourceGroups/example-group/providers/Microsoft.Authorization/roleAssignments/{roleAssignmentId}"
    },
    "caller": "admin@example.com",
    "eventTimestamp": "2021-03-01T22:07:41.126243+00:00",
    "properties": {
      "entity": "/subscriptions/{subscriptionId}/resourceGroups/example-group/providers/Microsoft.Authorization/roleAssignments/{roleAssignmentId}",
      "eventCategory": "Administrative",
      "hierarchy": "{tenantId}/{subscriptionId}",
      "message": "Microsoft.Authorization/roleAssignments/write",
      "requestbody": "{\"Id\":\"{roleAssignmentId}\",\"Properties\":{\"PrincipalId\":\"{principalId}\",\"PrincipalType\":\"User\",\"RoleDefinitionId\":\"/providers/Microsoft.Authorization/roleDefinitions/fa23ad8b-c56e-40d8-ac0c-ce449e1d2c64\",\"Scope\":\"/subscriptions/{subscriptionId}/resourceGroups/example-group\"}}"
    }
  }
]

Azure Monitor logs

Azure Monitor logs is another tool you can use to collect and analyze Azure RBAC changes for all your Azure resources. Azure Monitor logs has the following benefits:

  • Write complex queries and logic
  • Integrate with alerts, Power BI, and other tools
  • Save data for longer retention periods
  • Cross-reference with other logs such as security, virtual machine, and custom

Here are the basic steps to get started:

  1. Create a Log Analytics workspace.

  2. Configure the Activity for your workspace.

  3. View the activity logs Insights. A quick way to navigate to the Activity Log Overview page is to click the Logs option.

    Azure Monitor logs option in portal

  4. Optionally use the Azure Monitor Log Analytics to query and view the logs. For more information, see Get started with log queries in Azure Monitor.

Here's a query that returns new role assignments organized by target resource provider:

AzureActivity
| where TimeGenerated > ago(60d) and Authorization contains "Microsoft.Authorization/roleAssignments/write" and ActivityStatus == "Succeeded"
| parse ResourceId with * "/providers/" TargetResourceAuthProvider "/" *
| summarize count(), makeset(Caller) by TargetResourceAuthProvider

Here's a query that returns role assignment changes displayed in a chart:

AzureActivity
| where TimeGenerated > ago(60d) and Authorization contains "Microsoft.Authorization/roleAssignments"
| summarize count() by bin(TimeGenerated, 1d), OperationName
| render timechart

Activity logs using the Advanced Analytics portal - screenshot

Next steps