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Virtual Machine Administrator LoginAzure built-in role

View Virtual Machines in the portal and login as administrator

Role ID1c0163c0-47e6-4577-8991-ea5c82e286e4
CategoryCompute
Actions7
Data actions4

Before you assign it

  • It reaches the data, not just the resource. It has 4 data actions, such as reading blobs, secrets or messages.

What it can do

PermissionWhat it allows
Microsoft.Network/publicIPAddresses/readGets a public IP address definition.
Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks/readGet the virtual network definition
Microsoft.Network/loadBalancers/readGets a load balancer definition
Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces/readGets a network interface definition.
Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/*/readAny read operation on anything under Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines
Microsoft.HybridCompute/machines/*/readAny read operation on anything under Microsoft.HybridCompute/machines
Microsoft.HybridConnectivity/endpoints/listCredentials/actionGets the endpoint access credentials to the resource.

Data actions

PermissionWhat it allows
Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/login/actionLog in to a virtual machine as a regular user
Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/loginAsAdmin/actionLog in to a virtual machine with Windows administrator or Linux root user privileges
Microsoft.HybridCompute/machines/login/actionLog in to an Azure Arc machine as a regular user
Microsoft.HybridCompute/machines/loginAsAdmin/actionLog in to an Azure Arc machine with Windows administrator or Linux root user privilege

Assign it

Scope it as tightly as you can: a resource or resource group rather than the whole subscription.

azure cli
az role assignment create \
  --assignee "jane.doe@contoso.com" \
  --role "Virtual Machine Administrator Login" \
  --scope "/subscriptions/<subscription id>/resourceGroups/<resource group>"
powershell3 lines
New-AzRoleAssignment -SignInName "jane.doe@contoso.com" `
  -RoleDefinitionName "Virtual Machine Administrator Login" `
  -Scope "/subscriptions/<subscription id>/resourceGroups/<resource group>"
bicep7 lines
resource assignment 'Microsoft.Authorization/roleAssignments@2022-04-01' = {
  name: guid(resourceGroup().id, principalId, '1c0163c0-47e6-4577-8991-ea5c82e286e4')
  properties: {
    roleDefinitionId: subscriptionResourceId('Microsoft.Authorization/roleDefinitions', '1c0163c0-47e6-4577-8991-ea5c82e286e4')
    principalId: principalId
  }
}

Who already has it?

kql · azure resource graph
authorizationresources
| where type == "microsoft.authorization/roleassignments"
| where tostring(properties.roleDefinitionId) endswith "1c0163c0-47e6-4577-8991-ea5c82e286e4"
| project principalId = tostring(properties.principalId), principalType = tostring(properties.principalType), scope = tostring(properties.scope)

Other compute roles

Find the smallest role for a task →

Sources