AuthorizationFailed
Azure Resource Manager returns `AuthorizationFailed` when the authenticated principal lacks permission for the requested action at the target scope.
Last reviewed: February 2, 2026|Editorial standard: source-backed technical guidance
What Does Authorization Failed Mean?
ARM blocks the operation before state changes, so deployments or updates fail until effective permissions at subscription, resource group, or resource scope are corrected.
Common Causes
- -Required Azure RBAC role assignment is missing for the caller principal at the target scope.
- -Role assignment exists but only at a narrower or unrelated scope.
- -Deny assignment or policy restriction overrides expected allow permissions.
- -New role assignment has not fully propagated across ARM control plane yet.
How to Fix Authorization Failed
- 1Capture denied
actionandscopefrom the error payload or deployment operation details. - 2Inspect effective role assignments at resource, resource-group, and subscription scopes.
- 3Apply least-privilege role update at the correct scope, then wait for propagation.
- 4Retry with the same principal after confirming updated role assignment visibility.
Step-by-Step Diagnosis for Authorization Failed
- 1Collect failed request ID, denied action, scope, and principal object ID from ARM response.
- 2List role assignments for the principal at each relevant scope and inheritance level.
- 3Check deny assignments and policy effects that can override role allows.
- 4Retest operation after propagation window and confirm authorization path is now valid.
RBAC Scope and Inheritance Validation
- -Verify role assignment is attached at or above the required scope (example: role at resource group A while deployment targets resource group B).
- -Confirm principal identity matches active caller context (example: managed identity object ID differs from assumed app registration ID).
Deny Assignment and Policy Override Checks
- -Inspect deny assignments and policy effects that block the action (example: deny assignment prevents
Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/write). - -Correlate deployment failure with recent policy changes (example: newly assigned policy initiative introduces unexpected deny effect).
How to Verify the Fix
- -Retry the exact denied operation and verify
AuthorizationFailedno longer appears. - -Confirm Activity Log shows successful execution with the intended principal and scope.
- -Validate least-privilege boundaries by testing adjacent disallowed actions remain blocked.
How to Prevent Recurrence
- -Codify RBAC assignment patterns in IaC and require scope validation in code reviews.
- -Add deployment preflight checks that validate required ARM actions before rollout.
- -Continuously audit high-risk scopes for role and deny-assignment drift.
Pro Tip
- -capture denied action/scope pairs from failed deployments and automatically map them to minimum built-in/custom role changes for faster remediation.
Decision Support
Compare Guide
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Playbook
Authorization Denial Playbook (403 / AccessDenied / PERMISSION_DENIED)
Use this playbook to triage policy-based access denials after authentication succeeds, isolate the deny layer, and apply least-privilege remediation safely.
Playbook
CORS Error Fix Playbook (Preflight / Origin / Credentials)
Use this playbook to separate browser-enforced cross-origin policy failures from server-side CORS header and route defects and apply strict origin and credential controls safely.
Official References
Provider Context
This guidance is specific to Azure services. Always validate implementation details against official provider documentation before deploying to production.