Manage Applications in Azure Active Directory

This section provides comprehensive guidance on how to register, configure, and manage applications within Azure Active Directory (Azure AD). Azure AD enables you to secure your applications and provide single sign-on (SSO) capabilities to your users.

Key Concepts

Understanding these core concepts is crucial for effective application management:

  • App Registrations: The process of registering your application with Azure AD to enable it to authenticate users and obtain tokens.
  • Service Principals: The identity of an application instance in a specific tenant, used for authorization.
  • API Permissions: Defining the access your application has to Azure AD and Microsoft Graph APIs.
  • Credentials: Secrets or certificates used by applications to authenticate themselves to Azure AD.

Registering a New Application

To get started, you need to register your application with Azure AD. This process involves providing basic information about your application and specifying its supported account types.

  1. Navigate to the Azure portal and sign in.
  2. In the left-hand menu, select Azure Active Directory.
  3. Under Manage, select App registrations.
  4. Click New registration.
  5. Fill in the required details:
    • Name: A user-friendly name for your application.
    • Supported account types: Choose who can use the application (e.g., only within your organization, any organizational directory, or accounts in any directory).
    • Redirect URI (optional): The URL where Azure AD will send the authentication response.
  6. Click Register.

Configuring Application Properties

Once registered, you can configure various properties for your application:

Authentication

Configure authentication settings, including redirect URIs, token configuration, and platform-specific settings (e.g., for web, mobile, or desktop applications).

API Permissions

Grant your application the necessary permissions to access data and resources through APIs like Microsoft Graph. You can request delegated permissions (on behalf of a signed-in user) or application permissions (run as a service without a user). Ensure you follow the principle of least privilege.

Certificates & Secrets

Generate and manage client secrets or certificates for your application to authenticate programmatically. Remember to store these securely and rotate them regularly.

Best Practices for Application Security

Security is paramount when managing applications in Azure AD. Follow these best practices:

  • Use strong, regularly rotated secrets or certificates.
  • Grant only the minimum necessary API permissions.
  • Implement proper error handling and logging.
  • Securely store sensitive configuration data.
  • Regularly review application registrations and their assigned permissions.

Working with Service Principals

A service principal is an instance of an application object in a tenant. When you register an application, Azure AD automatically creates a service principal for it in your tenant. You can also create service principals manually for use in other tenants or for specific scenarios.

Service principals are crucial for granting access to Azure resources. You can assign roles to service principals using Azure role-based access control (RBAC).

Example: Registering a Web Application

This is a simplified example. For detailed steps and advanced configurations, refer to the official Microsoft documentation.


# Example command using Azure CLI (az) to register an application
az ad app create --display-name "MyWebApp" --signers "https://login.microsoftonline.com/{tenant_id}" --identifier-uris "https://{tenant_id}/mywebapp" --reply-urls "https://localhost:5000/signin-oidc"

For more in-depth information, including advanced scenarios like token handling, federated identity, and managing enterprise applications, please consult the official Microsoft Azure AD Applications documentation.