Access Azure PIM api in azure pipelines via service principal

Question

I'm trying to call the azure privileged identity management api ( https://api.azrbac.mspim.azure.com/api/v2/privilegedAccess ) in an azure pipeline. I have the following code to call the register method, but it is not working, but I can't figure out what is wrong. Let me show the code first:

install-module azureadpreview -Force
import-module azureadpreview

$context = [Microsoft.Azure.Commands.Common.Authentication.Abstractions.AzureRmProfileProvider]::Instance.Profile.DefaultContext
$graphToken = [Microsoft.Azure.Commands.Common.Authentication.AzureSession]::Instance.AuthenticationFactory.Authenticate($context.Account, $context.Environment, $context.Tenant.Id.ToString(), $null, [Microsoft.Azure.Commands.Common.Authentication.ShowDialog]::Never, $null, "https://graph.microsoft.com").AccessToken
$pimToken = [Microsoft.Azure.Commands.Common.Authentication.AzureSession]::Instance.AuthenticationFactory.Authenticate($context.Account, $context.Environment, $context.Tenant.Id.ToString(), $null, [Microsoft.Azure.Commands.Common.Authentication.ShowDialog]::Never, $null, "<what do i enter here?>").AccessToken
$aadToken = [Microsoft.Azure.Commands.Common.Authentication.AzureSession]::Instance.AuthenticationFactory.Authenticate($context.Account, $context.Environment, $context.Tenant.Id.ToString(), $null, [Microsoft.Azure.Commands.Common.Authentication.ShowDialog]::Never, $null, "https://graph.windows.net").AccessToken

Connect-AzureAD -AadAccessToken $aadToken -AccountId $context.Account.Id -TenantId $context.tenant.id -MsAccessToken $graphToken

Write-Output "Create PIM role"
$Group = New-AzureADMSGroup -DisplayName "TestPIMGroup" -Description "TestForPim" -MailEnabled $false -SecurityEnabled $true -MailNickName "NOTUSED" -IsAssignableToRole $true

Write-Output "Test api call"
$Headers = @{
  "Accept" = "*/*"
  "Accept-Language" = "en"
  "Authorization" = "Bearer {0}" -f $pimToken
  "Content-Type" = "application/json"
}
$Body = @{
  externalId = $Group.Id
} | ConvertTo-Json
$URL = 'https://api.azrbac.mspim.azure.com/api/v2/privilegedAccess/aadGroups/resources/register'

Write-Output "Body: $Body"

$HeaderJson = $Headers | ConvertTo-Json
Write-Output "Headers: $HeaderJson"

try {
  $QueryResponse = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $URL -Headers $Headers -Method POST -Body $Body
}
catch {
  $_.Exception.Response
  $result = $_.Exception.Response.GetResponseStream()
  $reader = New-Object System.IO.StreamReader($result)
  $reader.BaseStream.Position = 0
  $reader.DiscardBufferedData()
  $responseBody = $reader.ReadToEnd();
  $responseBody
  exit 1
}
$QueryResponse.value

So what I'm trying to accomplish, it to create a PIM group, and enable privileged access on it. The azureadpreview module has functionality to create a PIM group, so I use that. This works perfectly. The method of getting the token for the service principal I got from this post .

Now to enable privileged access on it, I need to directly call the API, because there doesn't seem to be any powershell command for it. This where things get tricky. The API call returns a 500 internal server error, with the only error in the body being an error has occurred . So that doesn't really tell me anything. So I started investigating:

• When I don't pass a token, I get an unauthorized exception
• When I pass nonsense as a token, I get an internal server error. So this pointed me in the direction that something is wrong with the token. I think there is something wrong with the audience tag in the token.
• I tried all kinds of URL's in the token, which all show me a 500 as response.
• I recorded the api call the browser did in azure portal when doing the same call. I read the token from this request, and it got me some guid as aud. When I use this guid, it given me a Unauthorized response

Can anyone help me with my situation?

answer restriction:

I need to be able to access the pim api by reusing the service principal I'm already using in my azure pipeline via my service connection. So I'm not looking for answers about creating certificates in azure an authenticating using it.

Edit: Some background info:

• https://feedback.azure.com/forums/169401-azure-active-directory/suggestions/42203638-allow-privileged-access-for-groups-to-be-enabled-f
• https://feedback.azure.com/forums/34192--general-feedback/suggestions/42644962-possibility-for-azure-ad-privileged-access-groups
• https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/azure-docs/issues/70296#issuecomment-776069283

Answer 1

The guid you get from token in browser in azure portal should be correct.

But this API endpoint looks like to be not exposed for external usage.

We can not generate an application token for this resource currently.

As you see there are several user voice posts are requiring this feature.

Keep voting up the posts will be helpful.