M365 Changelog: (Updated) Update on who can manage sensitive attributes of user objects

MC358528 – Updated July 13, 2022: Microsoft has updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Today, there are several user attributes that are considered sensitive, and Microsoft will be simplifying this model.

• Some rely on Global Admins (GA) to be able to manage them for all users (admins and non-admins).
• Others don’t have a Global Admins dependency but the set of admin roles that can manage them and for whom is not consistent.

When this will happen:

Microsoft will begin rolling this out in early June and expect to complete rollout by early August (previously late June).

How this will affect your organization:

User Admins, Authentication Admins and Privileged Authentication Admins will be able to manage all sensitive attributes for non-admin users and select admin users based on the same model Microsoft has for password reset here.

The full list of sensitive attributes and tasks is:

• accountEnabled
• altSecId
• auth methods
• deviceKey
• mobile
• onPremisesImmutableId
• otherMail
• passwordProfile
• telephoneNumber
• userPrincipalName
• delete
• restore
• invalidateAllRefreshTokens.

What you need to do to prepare:

Microsoft will align the behavior of managing user attributes with that mentioned above. So, some older roles that were also allowed to manage user attributes (for ex – Directory Writer) will no longer work. Please work with your Privileged Role Admin or Global Admin if new role assignments are needed to avoid any impact on your business operations.

Additional information