Best practices for securing Microsoft Intune
Microsoft Intune gives IT and security teams a powerful way to manage endpoints at scale - deploying apps, enforcing security baselines, and configuring the settings that keep users productive and your organization protected. That’s why strong admin protections matter, so the right people can make the right changes, in the right scope, with the right safeguards. In this post, we’ll walk through three practical approaches to strengthen Intune protections: Start with least-privilege, designing roles around real admin jobs Embrace phishing-resistant authentication and privileged access hygiene, leveraging Microsoft Entra capabilities to reduce account and token compromise Enable Multi Admin Approval in Intune for sensitive changes Below we outline how to put each approach into practice. 1) Start with least-privilege: design roles around real admin jobs Least-privilege works best when it’s grounded in how your team operates. As a best practice, don’t grant more administrative access than a role truly needs. In Intune, role-based access control (RBAC) lets you tailor permissions and scopes so teams can run day-to-day operations with the minimum set of permissions required, nothing more. Microsoft Entra ID roles that have access to Intune, such as Global Administrator and Intune Administrator, are considered privileged roles with broad permissions in Intune. The use and assignment of privileged roles should be limited and not used for daily administrative tasks within Intune. Least-privilege is about limiting both the actions an admin can take and the users/devices those actions can be applied to. In Intune RBAC, scope tags enable you to constrain an admin’s visibility and actions to a defined set of users and devices - for example, only the devices assigned to a specific region, business unit, or platform team. When implementing RBAC policies, limit both the actions and users/devices an admin has permissions over. Call to action: Treat Intune administration as a set of job-specific roles, not a blanket entitlement. Inventory who has Intune Administrator, Global Administrator, or other high-impact roles, then remove broad assignments that don’t map to a named job function. Leverage Intune built-in role definitions for common personas (Help Desk Operator, Application Manager, Endpoint Security Manager, Read Only Operator) and standardize assignments. Create custom roles for ultimate least-privilege control. Implement scoped administration (scope groups and scope tags) for business units, regions, or platform teams, and validate that admins can only affect resources within their assigned scope. Adopt time-bound privilege elevation such as Microsoft Entra Privileged Identity Management (PIM) for admin roles and require reauthentication on elevation and sensitive operations. 2) Embrace phishing-resistant authentication and privileged access hygiene The security objective is straightforward: privileged access should be hard to obtain and hard to reuse. Microsoft Entra ID capabilities (Conditional Access, phishing-resistant multifactor authentication (MFA), risk signals, and privileged access controls) provide the policy engine that governs who can administer Intune, from where, and under what conditions. Call to action: Every privileged Intune action (Intune RBAC Role Management, device wipe, script deployment) should require strong, policy-verified sign-in, not just a password. Create Conditional Access policies dedicated to privileged roles and admin portals (Intune, Microsoft Entra, and related admin endpoints): require phishing-resistant authentication only, require a compliant device, challenge high-risk users or sign-ins, and restrict access by location or trusted network where feasible. Reduce or eliminate policy exclusions. Eliminate standing access by using Microsoft Entra Privileged Identity Management to assign time-bound roles based on conditions and approval steps, including restricting access to who can administer and assign permissions to apps. Move privileged accounts to phishing-resistant authentication methods and disable weaker methods for those accounts and through policy (see Plan a phishing-resistant passwordless authentication deployment). Establish privilege admin workstations with higher security baselines and use them for Intune high privilege admin accounts. Operationalize your token theft response plan by investigating risky sign-ins and unusual admin activity in Microsoft Defender XDR with signals from Microsoft Entra, Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps, and Microsoft Defender for Endpoints. Adopt a defense‑in‑depth strategy to reduce the risk and impact of token theft (see Protecting tokens in Microsoft Entra). 3) Multi-admin approval in Intune for sensitive changes Multi Admin Approval introduces a practical governance control: selected Intune changes require a second authorized admin to review and approve before deployment. This is enforced for both Intune admin center actions and actions performed through Intune APIs. Multi Admin Approval reduces the risk that a single action can result in tenant-wide impact. Call to action: Require a second approval for high-impact Intune workflows (such as Intune RBAC role management, device wipe, and script deployment) to add an additional safeguard and help contain potential tenant wide impact. Decide which change types require approval - start with high-impact changes such as Intune RBAC role management and device wipe. Then, add access policies for changes that affect authentication, compliance, security baselines, or broad assignment scopes. Define approver roles and coverage (who can approve, SLAs, and what happens during incidents). Document an emergency/break-glass path with explicit post-change review, so speed doesn’t erase governance. How these measures add up to strong administrative protections When combined, these practices help you shift from relying on “trusted administrators” toward building a more protected administration by design: least-privilege to contain impact, Microsoft Entra-based controls to ensure users are trusted and are who they say they are, and multi-admin approval to govern the changes that matter most. These practices help organizations advance safer speed, clearer separation of duties, stronger audit readiness, and more resilient endpoint operations. If you’re looking for a place to start, here are a few quick steps: start with a quick wins pass - inventory broad, standing Intune role assignments and replace them with least-privilege RBAC roles; enforce Conditional Access and adopt phishing-resistant multifactor authentication for all admin scenarios; and place Intune RBAC role management, device wipe, script deployment behind multi-admin approval.Upcoming changes to iOS/iPadOS Company Portal app deployment for Setup Assistant with modern auth
Learn more about plans to remove automatic deployment of the iOS/iPadOS Company Portal app as a required app for Automated Device Enrollment (ADE) Setup Assistant with modern authentication enrollment profiles.As vulnerability discovery moves at AI speed, keeping current is foundational to reduce exposure
Recent advances in automation and AI are accelerating vulnerability discovery and shortening the window between disclosure and exploitation. As Microsoft outlined in our recent Security blog, this shift raises the bar for how quickly organizations need to reduce exposure across their environments. For IT and security teams, this makes staying current on updates more critical than before. While responding to individual Common Vulnerabilities Exposures (CVE) remains essential, keeping current across devices and applications is foundational to reducing exposure as threats evolve. This post focuses on the endpoint execution layer - how Microsoft Intune helps organizations understand their update posture, prioritize action, and reduce the time it takes for protections to land. Introducing the security update status dashboard in Microsoft Intune To act decisively, teams need clear visibility into where systems are current, where gaps exist, and how update deployments are progressing. Without a shared, defensible view of update status, it’s difficult to prioritize remediation or answer a basic question from leadership: “Are we patched?” To address this, Intune is introducing the General Availability of a new security update status dashboard providing centralized visibility into update compliance across Windows Clients, Windows Servers, and Microsoft 365 Apps. The dashboard provides a clear, current view for leadership, backed by current data — without switching between multiple reports or tools. The dashboard surfaces: Visibility into which devices are current on quality and feature updates, which are falling behind, and where remediation gaps exist across your Intune-managed estate The data needed to prioritize action, track progress across deployment rings, and help demonstrate a more accurate compliance posture Insight to where exposure is critical and needs immediate attention Four ways to shrink your vulnerability window The dashboard delivers visibility. The capabilities below help you act on it. 1) Windows Autopatch: deploy updates at scale with control Windows Autopatch manages update orchestration through predefined deployment rings, releasing updates progressively across representative device groups so that quality and security updates reach broad production populations only after passing validation in pilot environments. IT teams shift from manually coordinating deployment schedules each month to focusing on policy and exception management while Windows Autopatch handles sequencing, scheduling, and rollout logic. When critical vulnerabilities emerge, expedited update deployment allows devices to advance more quickly through the rollout process, providing security teams with an additional lever for reducing time-to-secure when AI-driven discovery shortens the window between disclosure and exploitation. 2) Hotpatch updates: Windows updates without the reboot Even when updates deploy rapidly, protection is not realized until a device restarts, and users routinely defer reboots for hours or days. Hotpatch updates for Windows reduces this gap by applying supported security updates to in-memory processes without requiring frequent restarts. Eligible Windows 11 Enterprise devices can reach a protected state immediately after installation, helping reduce the vulnerability window. Operationally, hotpatch updates shifts the restart requirement from monthly update to a smaller number of planned baseline updates per year, enabling organizations to deploy critical fixes without the productivity impact of forced restarts. You can enable hotpatch updates through quality update policies in Intune on supported systems. In addition, with Autopatch update readiness, IT admins can better anticipate when planned quality or feature updates won’t reach a device, understand Autopatch and hotpatch enrollment coverage, and quickly identify blockers to bringing devices into a ready state. 3) Microsoft 365 Apps patching: keep Office and other apps current in lockstep The Microsoft 365 Apps admin center includes Inventory and Cloud Update, giving administrators visibility into update status across connected devices by update channel so they can quickly spot systems missing the latest security updates and track progress. When an accelerated response is required, teams can tighten deadlines and move from staged rollout to immediate enforcement by removing waves, deferrals, or exclusion windows that may delay availability for specific groups, especially where channel divergence or scoped targeting leaves devices outside policy. Because expedited servicing reduces time for testing across diverse configurations, Cloud Update controls such as pausing a deployment or rolling back an update help mitigate risk while closing security gaps quickly. 4) Server updates: Configuration Manager or Azure Arc to accelerate compliance and operational workloads For organizations managing servers, Configuration Manager helps streamline the identification, packaging, and assignment of security updates (for example, with Automatic Deployment Rules) based on classification and severity. Cloud-based sourcing through the Microsoft Update service can prevent deployment failures in distributed environments, while maintenance windows let you pre-stage updates for highly available systems and install them during defined downtime intervals - achieving compliance without unplanned service interruptions. For server estates that are Arc-enabled, you can also use Azure Arc to extend visibility and management across hybrid and multicloud infrastructure. If you need even deeper coverage and insight, consider integrating Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management (MDVM) to enrich update posture with vulnerability intelligence and prioritize remediation based on real exposure. Using update currency as an enforcement signal Deploying updates is half the job. Verifying they land - and holding the line when they don't - is the other half. Intune compliance policies let you define minimum OS build numbers, required update levels, and grace periods. Devices that fall out of compliance are flagged automatically. Paired with Microsoft Entra ID Conditional Access, update currency can become a condition of access - checking that only current, healthy devices connect to corporate resources. This turns update posture into an enforceable control, not just a reporting metric. Actions you can take today The increasing use of AI in vulnerability discovery, combined with a rapidly evolving threat landscape, underscores the importance of taking proactive security measures. Here are actions you can take today: Assess. Open the new security update status dashboard and know the baseline of your fleet. See how many Windows devices are behind on feature releases, quality updates, and Microsoft 365 Apps patches. Automate. Configure Windows Autopatch for ring-based deployment, enable hotpatch updates on eligible devices, and set Microsoft 365 Apps servicing profiles. Enable expedited updates so you can respond to critical vulnerabilities quickly. Enforce. Pair compliance policies with Conditional Access. Make being current a condition of access to corporate data. Monitor. Review the dashboard weekly. Investigate deployment failures promptly and deploy proactive remediations to clear blockers. Communicate. Share dashboard trends with security leadership and application owners. When stakeholders see the data, update compliance becomes a shared priority, not just an IT burden. Evolve. Revisit your deployment rings, deferral windows, and compliance thresholds quarterly. Use failure patterns from the dashboard to refine your approach and evaluate Windows Autopatch for a fully managed experience that scales with your organization. Every day a device remains out of date is potential exposure to unnecessary vulnerabilities. Intune gives you the tools, and now the visibility, to get current, stay current, and defend your organization at the speed the threat landscape demands. Closing Reducing exposure starts with knowing where you stand. The security update status dashboard in Intune provides a single place to understand update status across Windows devices and Microsoft 365 Apps, helping you identify lagging systems and prioritize action. Make the dashboard part of your regular operational rhythm: review it, act on the gaps it surfaces, and track progress over time. With the right visibility and tooling, staying current becomes repeatable - not reactive. Feature availability varies by license. Learn more about plan details and requirements here. Read the latest Microsoft Security blog to learn how turning AI‑driven discovery into protection at scale can help secure your estate in an AI‑driven threat landscape. Get started with Microsoft Secure Now for guidance in assessing risk and take recommended actions.Unpacking Endpoint Management is back - and we’ve got a lot to talk about
If you've been missing real, candid conversations about endpoint management, good news! Unpacking Endpoint Management is officially back. This series is all about what actually works. No fluff, just practical tips, proven strategies, and honest discussions to help you optimize and simplify the way you manage and secure endpoints today (and prepare for what's next). We're bringing together people from across Microsoft Intune, Security, and Customer Experience engineering and product teams, along with guest practitioners, to share what's worked, what hasn't, and what we've learned along the way. And yes…we're absolutely here for the tough questions. A quick update on the hosts Danny Guillory, a familiar face to the community and a Product Manager for Intune and Configuration Manager, will continue to host the series. He's joined this season by Rachelle Blanchard as co‑host, bringing a strong community and discovery lens to the series. Rachelle focuses on surfacing real customer questions and guiding conversations toward practical outcomes, helping ensure each episode reflects how endpoint management works in the real world. Up next Policy: from hybrid to cloud-native May 28, 2026 - 9:00 a.m. PDT June 2026 episode (topic TBD) June 30, 2026 – 9:00 a.m. PDT July 2026 episode (topic TBD) July 30, 2026 – 9:00 a.m. PDT Sign in to the Tech Community and follow this post for the latest updates on upcoming episodes. Catch up on demand Curious what it takes to secure endpoints in today’s Zero Trust world? Watch our most recent episode on Device security with Microsoft Intune, now on demand! What's the format? This web series is streamed live on Tech Community, LinkedIn, YouTube, and X. In addition to open discussion, we answer your questions so sign in (or sign up for) the Tech Community and RSVP to submit questions early and throughout the live show. How do I join? There's no call or meeting to join. Simply head to aka.ms/JoinUEM. Show up at start time, watch live, and jump into the discussion with us. Help shape the series This series is for you - so tell us what you want to hear. Drop a comment below with: Topics you'd like us to cover Tough questions you want answered Speakers you'd love to hear from We can't wait to get started - and even more excited to hear from you along the way. Join the Community to get early insight into what's coming for Intune, connect with experts, and share real-world feedback that helps shape the product. 👉 aka.ms/JoinIntuneCommunity
