EIDTNT-016: Partner Delegated Admin Grant Hygiene (Long-Lived GDAP)

Platform
Entra ID / M365
Category
Entra ID Tenant Configuration
Severity
Medium
Zero Trust pillar
Governance (weight 2)
Golden fixtures
5
Branch coverage
Observed: fixtures prove the verdicts they exercise
Provenance
original

What it checks

A GDAP relationship's duration is its auto-extension window: when it lapses it renews itself for that period without any human review. A long auto-extend (beyond a year) is therefore a standing, self-renewing grant of partner administrative access — the opposite of just-in-time — and is exactly the kind of forgotten relationship that outlives the engagement that created it. This check inspects active delegatedAdminRelationships and warns when any relationship auto-extends beyond 365 days; a relationship whose duration cannot be determined is treated conservatively as long-lived rather than assumed fine. It passes only when all active relationships auto-extend within a year. This is a hygiene/governance signal that complements EIDTNT-015 (which grades the privilege the partner holds); here the concern is how long the grant persists unreviewed.

Recommended value

All active GDAP relationships auto-extend within 365 days and are reviewed on each renewal

Remediation

For each active partner delegated admin (GDAP) relationship, set the shortest auto-extension duration that fits the engagement (avoid multi-year standing grants), and schedule a review at each renewal. In the Microsoft 365 admin center under Settings > Partner relationships, confirm each relationship is still required and terminate stale ones. Prefer short, renewable delegations over long-lived auto-extending access so that partner administration is re-authorized deliberately rather than by default.

Fixture-proven verdicts

Every verdict below is proven by a golden fixture in the module's gating test suite. This table derives from the last green run; it cannot be edited by hand.

Verdict scenarios for EIDTNT-016
ScenarioExpected verdict
long-livedWARN
no-partnersPASS
not-assessedNot Assessed
shortPASS
unparseable-durationWARN

Framework mappings

NIST SP 800-53
AC-2, AC-2(3), PS-7, SA-9
CIS M365 Benchmark
1.1.3