Azure AD Approval Required: Granting Access and Minimizing Risk

Azure AD Approval Required is a feature that adds an extra layer of security to your organization's Microsoft 365 applications.

By requiring approval, you can ensure that only authorized users have access to sensitive information and resources, minimizing the risk of data breaches and unauthorized access.

To grant access, you can create approval workflows that involve multiple users or groups, which can be set up to approve or reject requests based on specific conditions.

This can be especially useful when onboarding new employees or contractors, as you can create a workflow that automatically grants access to necessary applications once they've been approved.

Azure AD Approval Required can also be used to enforce compliance with regulatory requirements, such as GDPR and HIPAA, by ensuring that sensitive data is only accessed by authorized personnel.

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To grant access in Azure AD, begin by signing into the Azure Portal using an account that's been granted the necessary administrative permissions.

You'll need to select "Azure Active Directory" to access the directory's dashboard.

Choosing "App Registrations" will allow you to view a list of all registered applications in your directory.

Select your application in the list of applications in the dashboard to which you want to grant permissions.

After navigating to settings, click on the "API permissions" tab to specify the permissions for your application.

To add a permission, click on the "Add a permission" button, which will open a blade where you can choose which APIs your application can access.

You can select between "Delegated Permissions" and "Application Permissions" based on your application's needs.

After choosing between delegated and application permissions, you'll see a list of all available permissions for that API, which you can check the boxes next to the permissions your application requires.

Click the "Add permissions" button to save your choices.

For permissions that require admin consent, you'll notice an "Exclamation" icon next to them, and you'll need to click on the "Grant admin consent for [Directory Name]" button.

A confirmation prompt will appear, and you'll need to confirm to grant the permissions.

After granting permissions, you can review them in the "API permissions" tab to ensure everything is correctly set up.

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To get started with Azure AD approval, you'll need to meet some basic requirements. To do this, your domain must be verified on the Settings page.

You'll also need an Azure role with the right permissions to create enterprise applications. This can be a Global Administrator, Cloud Application Administrator, Application Administrator, or the owner of the service principal.

To ensure users grant access to applications with limited data or functionality, you can enable the recommended setting in the Consent and permissions panel. This setting is called "Allow user consent for apps from verified publishers, for selected permissions".

You can fine-tune the exact scope requests that are allowed using the Permission classifications panel.

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To get started with meeting the requirements, you'll need to have your domain verified on the settings page. This is a crucial step.

To create an enterprise application, you'll need an Azure role with specific permissions. This can be achieved by being a Global Administrator, Cloud Application Administrator, Application Administrator, or the owner of the service principal.

Here are the specific roles required for creating an enterprise application:

Scopes are a crucial aspect of OAuth, defining the type of access a user is asked to consent to. This can range from knowing the user's email address to sending emails or changing configuration settings.

To ensure limited data or functionality is exposed, you can enable the recommended setting, which allows user consent for apps from verified publishers for selected permissions. This setting will help you reduce the number of low-risk approval requests you receive.

The Consent and permissions panel lets you allow users to grant access to applications with "low impact" access requests. You can fine-tune the exact scope requests that are allowed using the Permission classifications panel.

Using admin consent in conjunction with the Permission classifications panel will further reduce the number of low-risk approval requests you receive. This approach will help you maintain control over the access requests your users make.

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In Azure AD, approval processes are designed to ensure that sensitive tasks are only completed by authorized users.

To initiate an approval process, users can request access to a specific resource, such as an application or a sensitive document.

The approver reviews the request and can choose to approve or reject it.

Approval processes can be configured to require multiple approvers, ensuring that sensitive tasks are thoroughly vetted.

The Azure AD approval process can be customized to fit the specific needs of an organization, including setting approval thresholds and defining approval workflows.

This level of control allows organizations to fine-tune their approval processes to meet their unique requirements.

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To solve the Azure AD approval required issue, you can grant tenant-wide admin consent to Revenue Grid using the URL for granting tenant-wide admin consent.

You'll need to copy the provided link, substitute {organization} with your Microsoft 365 tenant ID, and amend the client ID in the URL if you're on a dedicated single-tenant instance.

To retrieve your Microsoft 365 tenant ID, log in to the Microsoft Entra admin center, go to Identity > Overview, and find the Tenant ID under Basic information.

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Admins with roles that have lower-level permissions won't be able to grant consent, so make sure the admin account has the necessary permissions.

The required permissions for Revenue Grid include:

Review the list of required permissions carefully and ensure they match the permissions requested in the URL.

To grant admin consent, log in using the Microsoft admin account with the necessary permissions, review the required permissions, and click Accept to grant the necessary permissions to Revenue Grid on behalf of all users of your Org.

After granting admin consent, the Revenue Grid app will be added to your tenant's Enterprise apps, and you can manage it in your Microsoft Entra admin center.

If the issue persists, you may need to grant admin consent to permissions requested but not admin consented, which can be done using the /authorize endpoint.

To do this, check the "Consent on behalf of your organization" checkbox and click Accept when granting admin consent.

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