Forum Discussion
Suggestion: Centralize Microsoft Defender XDR Role Management into Microsoft Entra ID
Microsoft Entra ID has evolved into a strong, centralized identity and access management solution. Likewise, the Defender XDR portal (formerly Microsoft 365 Defender) provides a unified experience for security monitoring, investigation, and response across endpoints, email, identities, and more. These tools are critical to modern SecOps.
However, managing access across them is still more complex than it needs to be.
Key challenges:
- Dual RBAC confusion: Defender for Endpoint uses its own RBAC system, separate from Entra ID. This leads to misunderstandings — for example, assigning a user the Security Reader role in Entra ID might not grant expected access in Defender once Defender RBAC is enabled.
- Hidden roles: Roles like Defender for Endpoint Administrator aren’t visible in the Entra portal, making centralized management harder.
- Access risks: Enabling Defender RBAC can revoke access for some users unless they’re added manually to MDE role groups — often without clear warning.
- Admin overhead: Managing permissions separately in Entra and Defender adds duplication, friction, and potential for misconfiguration.
Suggestions
Let’s build on the strength of Microsoft Entra ID by moving all Defender role assignments into Entra, where identity and access is already managed securely and consistently.
Goal:
Use only Entra ID roles to manage access to the Defender XDR portal — eliminating the need for custom RBAC roles or portal-based configurations in MDE, MDO, or MDI.
Benefits of this change:
- Centralized, consistent access management across Microsoft security solutions
- Simplified admin experience with reduced configuration errors
- Better alignment with Zero Trust and least-privilege principles
- Clear, discoverable roles for Security and SOC teams
- Seamless experience during role onboarding/offboarding
Suggested new Entra built-in roles for Defender XDR:
- Defender Endpoint Security Administrator
- Defender Email Security Administrator
- Defender Cloud Security Administrator
- SOC L1 Analyst (read-only)
- SOC L2 Analyst (response)
- SOC L3 Analyst (hunting)
- Defender XDR Administrator / Engineer
- Vulnerability Analyst
Microsoft has done a fantastic job modernizing Entra and unifying security visibility in Defender XDR — and this would be a great next step forward.
#MicrosoftEntraID #MicrosoftDefenderXDR #SecurityOperations #IAM #RBAC #CloudSecurity #ZeroTrust #MicrosoftSecurity #SecOps #SOC
1 Reply
Hi, your timing is spot on—microsoft just rolled out the foundation for exactly what you’re aiming at. defender xdr now has "unified rbac (urbac)": a single permission system across defender for endpoint, identity, email, vulnerability mgmt, cloud apps, and more. since feb 2025, all new tenants use it by default. you define roles once (like soc l1, l2, vuln analyst…), assign them to entra groups, and manage everything from *defender portal - settings - permissions & roles*. it solves the fragmentation across products, and even lets you delegate urbac role admin via a custom entra role using the new “authorization” permission, no more global admin required.
the catch: these roles still live inside defender, not entra id. so while you manage group assignment in entra, role definitions themselves aren’t visible in the entra ui. microsoft says deeper integration might come later “phase 2”, but they haven’t committed to a date.
bottom line: activate urbac now, migrate or recreate your roles, map them to entra groups, and you’ve already got 90% of what you’re asking for. the final piece, making urbac roles native entra roles, isn’t here yet, but the groundwork is clearly in place. keep the pressure on via feedback and microsoft reps if you want to help push that last mile.
