You wouldn’t hand the bar keys to every patron on a Saturday night, right? The same logic applies to administrative rights in your cloud VDI estate.
When every user has a pint-sized admin role, one bad click can spill into an incident faster than a dropped schooner. Restricting administrative privileges isn’t about mistrust—it’s about measured access to keep your environment clean and secure.

What is “Restrict Administrative Privileges”?

The Restrict Administrative Privileges control is one of the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) Essential 8 strategies.
Its goal is to limit the number and duration of accounts with administrative rights. These privileges should be assigned only when necessary, tightly monitored, and revoked once not in use.

At Maturity Level 2, organisations are expected to:

• Use separate accounts for administration and day-to-day work
• Implement just-in-time privileged access using tools such as Microsoft Entra Privileged Identity Management (PIM)
• Conduct periodic revalidation of privileged access (e.g., every 12 months)
• Remove inactive privileged roles after 45 days
• Ensure all administrative actions are centrally logged, monitored, and auditable
• Enforce restricted internet and email access for privileged accounts

How it Works in Cloud VDI

Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) and Windows 365 both host user desktops in the Microsoft cloud, but how we manage privilege varies depending on desktop persistence and management scope.

Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD)

• AVD session hosts are multi-user machines, rebuilt frequently via automation.
• Admin privileges should be granted temporarily via Azure AD roles or local group membership managed through tools like Azure AD Group Policy Objects (GPOs) or Intune Device Configuration Profiles.
• Use PIM to assign Virtual Machine Administrator Login and Virtual Machine Contributor roles just in time to trusted users.
• Configure access reviews and expiry policies in PIM to automatically remove inactive roles (45 days) and revalidate eligibility every 12 months.
• For delegated operations (e.g., image updates or session host management), prefer Azure RBAC over local admin accounts.
• When performing privileged actions, connect through a jump host or secure AVD management pool—not from general user sessions.

Windows 365 (W365)

• W365 Cloud PCs are persistent, single-user desktops.
• Admin rights should be avoided for standard users and only enabled on a per-device basis with Intune Endpoint Privilege Management (EPM) or temporary local admin assignment.
• For IT admins, management should occur via Intune or Microsoft Endpoint Manager portals—not by logging into the Cloud PC itself.
• Use Cloud PCs as Privileged Access Workstations (PAWs) for administration duties, ensuring these environments are isolated and do not overlap with unprivileged desktops.

Leveraging Cloud VDI as a Privileged Access Workstation (PAW)

A well-brewed privileged access model often hinges on the workstation itself. Whether you prefer AVD for ephemeral sessions or W365 for persistent access, both can serve as controlled brewing vessels for secure administration.

1. Azure Virtual Desktop as a Secure Admin Pool

Goal: Provide short-lived, locked-down desktops for privileged activities inside Azure or Microsoft 365.

Approach:

• Create a dedicated host pool for privileged operations separate from the user host pool.
• Configure each session host with Intune or GPO hardening:
  • Block browsers, email, and non-essential software.
  • Require MFA and device compliance via Conditional Access.
  • Enable Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and attack surface reduction.
• Use PIM to grant Virtual Machine Administrator Login roles only when required.
• Set up ephemeral hosts that reset after logoff—each session is freshly brewed.

Use case:
Cloud administrators log into the “Admin Pool,” elevate through PIM, perform administrative tasks, then sign out. The VM resets, purging cached credentials and leaving a minimal attack surface.

2. Windows 365 Enterprise as a Persistent PAW

Goal: Provide a dedicated, always-available workstation for tenant administration.

Approach:

• Deliver a Cloud PC SKU per privileged identity.
• Manage exclusively via Microsoft Intune:
  • Apply Endpoint Privilege Management for temporary elevation.
  • Enforce application control and hardening baselines.
  • Restrict internet and email via app policies and Conditional Access.
  • Integrate Defender for Cloud Apps and Defender for Endpoint.
• Use the W365 Cloud PC only for administrative tasks—no personal browsing, no email.

Use case:
Global administrators use managed, persistent Cloud PCs to handle Azure and Microsoft 365 duties in isolation. The environment remains fully under corporate management and auditable.

3. Reference Architecture – Privileged Access Flow

This architecture ensures administrators operate only within trusted, monitored environments. All privileged sessions are logged to Sentinel, enforced with Conditional Access, and segregated from unprivileged workstations.

Real-World Impact

Over-privileged accounts are the fast track to compromise.
Attackers hunt for admin credentials because they unlock persistence, lateral movement, and data access.

By restricting admin privileges:

• You reduce privilege escalation vectors
• Limit malware impact scope
• Create audit visibility for policy compliance
• Establish a clean separation between admin and user functions

In short, it’s like locking the keg fridge—you control who pours, when, and how much.

Implementation Examples

Azure Portal – Privileged Identity Management Setup (for AVD)

1. Navigate to Entra ID > Privileged Identity Management
2. Select Azure resources > Assignments
3. Choose + Add assignments
4. Pick a role like Virtual Machine Administrator Login
5. Select eligible users or groups
6. Set assignment type to Eligible, and define Approval and Justification requirements
7. Configure Activation Duration (e.g., 4 hours per request)
8. Add Access Review policies for 12-month revalidation and automatic removal of inactive assignments after 45 days
9. Review and assign

Gotchas & Edge Cases

• Break-glass accounts: Maintain at least one non-PIM local admin for emergency recovery, but secure its credentials in Azure Key Vault or a password vault. Use long, unique, and unpredictable passwords and log all usage.
• Third-party management tools: Agents may need service accounts with consistent privileges—scope them tightly and disable interactive logon.
• W365 Pro vs Enterprise: Privilege controls differ; Enterprise integrates with Intune and PIM, while Pro relies more on local settings.
• Session Host recreation: Admin changes made manually on ephemeral hosts won’t persist—use automation or policy-based config instead.
• Privileged account internet use: Block web and email access using Conditional Access or Endpoint Security baselines.

Best Practices

• Separate user and admin identities
• Implement just-in-time (JIT) privileged access using PIM
• Apply least privilege RBAC at subscription and resource group levels
• Automate group membership, access reviews, and logging
• Enforce expiry of inactive privileged roles after 45 days
• Revalidate all privileged assignments at least every 12 months
• Route all audit and PIM logs to Microsoft Sentinel or immutable storage
• Deny internet and email access for privileged accounts
• Use AVD or W365 PAWs for all privileged administration
• Always enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) for privileged operations
• Integrate privileged detections into your incident response plan

Compliance Tip – Meeting ML2 Requirements

To align fully with Essential 8 Maturity Level 2:

• Configure PIM policies for automatic expiry (≤45 days inactivity) and annual revalidation
• Prohibit privileged accounts from internet, email, or personal app access
• Store and manage break-glass credentials securely in a password or key vault
• Forward all Entra ID, Intune, and Defender logs to Microsoft Sentinel with immutable retention
• Monitor for privileged role changes, logon anomalies, and inactive assignments
• Ensure incident response processes are triggered by privileged anomalies

These fine-tuning steps transform a good design into a fully compliant ML2 implementation.

Learn More

• Essential Eight from the ACSC
• Microsoft Learn – Implement Just-in-Time Access using Privileged Identity Management
• Microsoft Learn – Windows 365 Endpoint Privilege Management
• Microsoft Learn – Azure Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
• Microsoft Learn – Secure Azure Virtual Desktop Deployments
• Microsoft Learn – Use Microsoft Sentinel to Monitor Privileged Access