azure service principal vs service accountazure service principal vs service account

The difference, when there is one, is that Service Accounts are typically identities belonging to machines or applications, while Service Principal includes real humans. Now youve created the service principal with a certificate-based credential. For a 1:1 relation between both, you would use a System Assigned, where for a 1:multi relation, you would use a User Assigned Managed Identity. Cute-Rutabaga8874 2 yr. ago Hello, thank you for your answer. Regularly review service account permissions and accessed scopes to see if they can be reduced or eliminated. As with users, groups, and other resources, the ObjectID helps to identify an application instance in Azure AD. yes, you CAN create a service account with a very strong password and implement policies that disallow it from accessing the GUI, but how likely is a typical azure user going to actually do. Why are service accounts considered harmful? But again, there are no means to secure service principals any further. Not really anything special. With Key Vault references you are essentially only changing the App Settings to point to Key Vault instead of containing the secret directly. The techniques you learned in this article covered only the basics to get you started in using Azure service principals in your automation. Azure Technical Trainer, WorldWide Learning, Top Stories from the Microsoft DevOps Community 2021.01.29, Project Bicep Next Generation ARM Templates, Login to edit/delete your existing comments, https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/managed-identities-azure-resources/tutorial-windows-vm-access-cosmos-db, https://yourazurecoach.com/2020/08/13/managed-identity-simplified-with-the-new-azure-net-sdks/, Subscription Id = can be found from the Azure CLI under /subscriptions/xxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx format, Subscription Name = can be found from your Azure Portal / Subscriptions; make sure you use the exact name as is listed, Service Principal Id = appId from the Azure CLI output, Service Principal Key = password from the Azure CLI output, Tenant ID = tenant from the Azure CLI output, First, Someone needs to create the Service Principal objects, which could be a security risk, Client ID and Secret are exposed / known to the creator of the Service Principal, Client ID and Secret are exposed / known to the consumer of the Service Principal, Object validity is 1 or 2 years; Ive been in situations where I deployed an App, which after one year stopped working (losing the token, which means no more authentication possibilities), From the Azure Portal, select the Virtual Machine; under settings, find, From the Azure Virtual Machine blade, navigate to, This will prompt for your confirmation when saving the settings. One instance of Azure AD associated with a single organization is named Tenant. Therefore hit Grant admin consent for . In some cases, the lines between service principal and service account can blur. Service Principals stop you from creating a "fake" user in your Azure Active Directory to access a specific service. To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers. These are two fundamentally different things, always check which ID you need when it is being requested. Identify modifications to service principal credentials or authentication methods, Detect the user who consented to a multi-tenant app, and detect illicit consent grants to a multi-tenant app, - Run the following PowerShell to find multi-tenant apps, Use of a hard-coded shared secret in a script using a service principal, Tracking who uses the certificate or the secret, Monitor the service principal sign-ins using the Azure AD sign-in logs, Can't manage service principal sign-in with Conditional Access, Monitor the sign-ins using the Azure AD sign-in logs, Contributor is the default Azure role-based access control (Azure RBAC) role, Evaluate needs and apply the least possible permissions. This is one of the best articles that I could find that explains this so well and well written. Below screenshot shows what it looks like for an Azure Web App Resource: To complete the sample scenario, lets go back to Azure Key Vault, and specify another Access Policy for this User Assigned Managed Identity: After saving the changes, the result is that now both the Azure Virtual Machine as well as the Web App having the User Assigned Managed Identity assigned to them can read our keys and secrets from Azure Key Vault. Important to know is that, in the background, an App Registration has been created as well for the service principal, whereby the application ID is matching and the Objectids are different. But whats the alternative? You protect with minimum necessary permissions. We recommend the following practices for service account privileges. This app registration requires a service principal to represent it within an Azure AD tenant so that the application can access resources secured by Azure AD. Creating a service principal. And, to confirm the security measures in terms of API permissions, Im not able to retrieve any groups from the Azure Active Directory. It is not uncommon for some to just create a new service account, slap it with all the admin roles you want, and exclude it from MFA. requirements, block 3B+compromised passwords & help users create Select it and add it as a Virtual Machine User Assigned object. If you are using older APIs I would strongly recommend you to move to the Microsoft Graph API where possible. Which is the Application ID and Tenant ID. Additionally, provide the scope for the role assignment. Theres no rule here, but your organization might have a prescribed naming convention. Delegated permissions are used when a user is connecting via this service principal. Pros/cons of service account and service principal in AAD, The philosopher who believes in Web Assembly, Improving the copy in the close modal and post notices - 2023 edition, New blog post from our CEO Prashanth: Community is the future of AI. You must be a registered user to add a comment. i see a lot of people parroting this line, but I have never seen any argument in favour of it. Like, provisioning storage accounts or starting and stopping virtual machines at a schedule. Select another Azure Resource in your subscription, for example an Azure Web App, Logic App, and once more select Identity from the settings. Now the client secret has been created, please save the client secret value immediately, this as it will only be shown once. Here are some resources that you might find helpful to accompany this article. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top, Not the answer you're looking for? It's scoped just like anything else. Please note that after this time this secret cant be used anymore. As I provided access to read and write authentication methods, Im able to delete these as well as you can see with the command: Remove-MgUserAuthenticationWindowHello -UserId johny.bravo@identity-man.eu -WindowsHelloForBusinessAuthenticationMethodId o8ylNeQ0a071RsrlyWdOn3zaDzOm4LyPNQ-DZgMMEcs1. Now lets try something different, lets say you want to connect to a regular Azure resource, i.e. In simple terms service principal is an application, whose tokens can be used by other azure resources to authenticate and grant access to azure resources. Enter a name for the application (the service principal name). These include using the Azure Portal, Azure Active Directory Admin Center, Azure AD PowerShell, Azure CLI, and Azure PowerShell. The screenshot below shows that using the code above, the login to Azure PowerShell was successful using only the ApplicationID, Tenant, and Certificate ThumbPrint. For that we first need to provide the service principal the right access permissions. Why not write on a platform with an existing audience and share your knowledge with the world? Look for the following details in sign-in logs. The scope and role to be applied can be picked to give just enough access permissions. Instead, we recommend managed identities, or service principals, and the use of Conditional Access. Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support. Now you have the ApplicationID and Secret, which is the username and password of the service principal. An Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) service principal is the local representation of an application object in a tenant or directory. ATA Learning is always seeking instructors of all experience levels. Hello, thank you for your answer. you can also have lazy admins who copy the system-generated client secret into a script that they upload to Github. In this blog I will explain to you what a service principal is and how you can easily make use of them when running (automated) scripts. Similarly, lets remove the System Assigned MI of the VM and use a User Assigned one in the next example (an Azure Resource can only be linked to one or the other, not both): As you notice, the Managed Identity object gets immediately removed from Azure AD. We have an app that needs to do app stuff, and those 2 concepts seems to be more or less the same thing: it's an identity with permission along with a password/secret/whatever credential. Each application you see in the Enterprise Applications overview in Azure AD can therefore be referred to as a service principal. Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support. In this article, I want to clarify one of the more confusing concepts in Azure and more specifically around the Azure Identity objects known as Service Principals and Managed Identities. Select new registration. See the screenshot below as an example. Still, they will make creating an Azure service principal as efficient and as easy as possible. Browse other questions tagged, Start here for a quick overview of the site, Detailed answers to any questions you might have, Discuss the workings and policies of this site. Yeah, if people are going to the trouble of hacking the memory of my machines, then all bets are off, lol. A Service Principal could be looked at as similar to a service account-alike in a more traditional on-premises application or service scenario. The scope of this new service principal covers the Azure subscription named VSE3. An Azure service principal is a security identity used by user-created apps, services, and automation tools to access specific Azure resources. a log analytics workspace as well with the same service principal, and want to use a client secret (which I wouldnt recommend though if it supports certificate auth). https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/ ermissions. Now to put the service principal to use. Whenever Azure services need to work together, there are secrets involved, as well as service accounts. After running the code, the new service principal should be created, and the properties are stored in the $sp variable. To log in via Azure CLI, its a one line command: The username is the Application ID, this would have been listed when you created the Service Principal, if you didnt take a note of it you can find this within the Azure Portal. Now lets connect using the certificate. For example reading out an Azure Storage Account Access key or similar. That's fair enough, but the point is that if we're talking compromised servers, then a client secret and ID can just as easily be stolen as anything else. To find accounts, run the following commands using service principals with Azure CLI or PowerShell. In (almost) all cases this will be the Application ID. The first step in creating a Power Platform service principal is registering an app in Azure Active Directory. As in this case the service principal only needs to gather data we just give it Read access and we select the service principal Automation Service Principal and once done we hit Save. The Azure AD application you create has an identity called the service principal, which keeps track of what permissions the application has across all Azure resources. In simple words this means a Service Principal can either be a reference to an application in another environment, or can refer to a (gateway-) application which is hosted in- and connected to your tenant. The Service Principals access can be restricted by assigning Azure RBAC roles so that they can access the specific set of resources only. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. New external SSD acting up, no eject option. This is all we need to do to prepare the connection with a client secret. The whole idea is to make every successful attack as low-impact as possible. Apart from password credentials, an Azure service principal can also have a certificate-based credential. Please hit + New client secret, beneath the Certificates & Secrets section of the App Registration belonging to the Service Principal. A service principal is created in each tenant where the application is used and references the globally unique application object. This means that you can use it to connect to Azure without using a password. Use service principals to ensure the needed security posture for the application, and its users, in single- and multi-tenant scenarios. Which is correct as I didnt provide the permissions. Hope those are enough reasons for you to start exploring and using service principals in the future and replace your service accounts :-)! Most relevant to Service Principal, is the Enterprise apps; according to the formal definition, a service principal is An application whose tokens can be used to authenticate and grant access to specific Azure resources from a user-app, service or automation tool, when an organization is using Azure Active Directory. Get many of our tutorials packaged as an ATA Guidebook. How to make Service Principals synchronise with Active Directory Domain Services (AADDS)? In this case, one could create a read KV Managed Identity, and link it to the web app, storage account, function, logic app, all belonging to the same application architecture. I hope youve enjoyed reading this blog and stay tuned for more coming soon! Even though I created Managed Identity for function there was no option to connect to the database :/, Hi, thanks for the feedback. Select Accounts in this organizational directory only. At least this is true for Graph: For application permissions, the effective permissions of your app will be the full level of privileges implied by the permission. Running the code above in PowerShell will in turn store the credential object to the $PasswordCredential variable. You need to add one of the built-in RBAC roles scoped to the storage account to your service principal. The code below will create the Azure service principal that will use the self-signed certificate as its credential. As a guideline: Using application permissions will allow the application to process actions completely independent, whereas delegated permissions require a user logon and will therefore provide the user the access based on the access configured on the Service Principal. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. As you can see Johny Bravo has two sign-ins in the past 180 days. And in a somehow similar way, you would use the same concept from about any other third party solution, keeping in mind that the technical parameter field names might differ a bit from what the Azure CLI command provides as output. In here make sure All applications is selected and hit + New Application. Next step is to generate the password that follows the 20 characters long with 6 non-alphanumeric characters complexity. User Assigned Managed Identity, which means that you first have to create it as a stand-alone Azure resource by itself, after which it can be linked to multiple Azure Resources. Otherwise, register and sign in. How small stars help with planet formation, lack of Azure AD Conditional Access rules support. We're then given the option to create a new registration. Navigate to the Azure portal. The code below creates the self-signed password in the personal certificate store with the name CN=VSE3_SUB_OWNER. These service principals also serve as the application's identity in Azure DevOps, where we track what permissions it has in each organization, project, team, etc. If you would ask my honest opinion, a client secret is less secure compared to a certificate but safer than using a regular service account. You will see the first few characters to be able to recognize the value should you want to validate its validity later on. So it doesn't really factor into the topic at hand. And why couldn't you also apply it to service accounts? Thanks for the time you spent sharing your knowledge. To do that, go to the App Registration settings in Azure AD, make sure All Applications is selected and select the service principal we just created. Which, from a security point of view, is a good thing. Select Azure Active Directory from the left-hand side menu. Managed identities are service principals of a special type, which are locked to only be used with Azure resources. Within Azure when we want to automate tasks we have to use something similar, and its called a Service Principal. (to be 100% correct on this statement, there is actually a preview available since mid Oct 2020, allowing RBAC KeyVault access as well check this article for more details). An important take away, as also mentioned before, is the advice to always prefer a certificate above a client secret as thats more secure. stronger passwords with Specops Password Policy. You can use User Assigned Managed Identities for Key Vault by rewriting your code to access Key Vault. To log in via PowerShell it is slightly more complex and requires a bit more code. You can create service principals either within the Azure portal or using PowerShell. Its still better than a regular service account (cant be used for web-based sign ins) but only exists of things you need to know, hence the reason to use cert based auth where possible. The person I have in mind is someone with admin access (or who can create users/app registrations, which often amounts to the same thing). Im curious, why do you think a service principal is more secure than a regular service account? On the other hand, an Azure service principal can be set up to use a username and password or a certificate for authentication. For more information, see Azure AD/AzureADAssessment. If you mean that a random user could login as the service, they would still need the password, and presumably I won't be writing it on a post-it note next to my monitor. Fair, but security is like an onion. We do not recommend user accounts as service accounts because they are less secure. An Azure service principal can be assigned just enough access to as little as a specific single Azure resource. An Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) service principal is the local representation of an application object in a tenant or directory. The Request API permissions screen on the right will open, in here we can select the Microsoft Graph API. The biggest difference between a service account and a service principal is that it cant be used for regular web based sign-ins. This name is displayed as well in the logs so make sure its recognizable for others as well. Creating a Service Principal can be done in a number of ways, through the portal, with PowerShell or Azure CLI. The expected result would be similar to the one shown below. Get-AzureADDirectoryRoleMember, and filter for objectType "Service Principal", or use Confirm by clicking create and Wait for the resource creation to complete successfully. Azure Service Principals can have a password, secret key, or certificate-based credentials. Press J to jump to the feed. That is because of the -Role and -Scope parameters cannot be used together with the -PasswordCredential parameter. Review invitation of an article that overly cites me and the journal, What PHILOSOPHERS understand for intelligence? Select a supported account type, which determines who can use the application. An application instance has two properties: the ApplicationID (or ClientID) and the ObjectID. Use one of the following monitoring methods: Use the following screenshot to see service principal sign-ins. Now that you have the ID of the target scope, which is the ID AzVM1 virtual machine, you can use the command below to create the new service principal that has the reader role. Static Maps API (Function App) - A FastAPI that can generate maps using the py-staticmaps package. Managed Identities exist in 2 formats: System assigned; in this scenario, the identity is linked to a single Azure Resource, eg a Virtual Machine, a Logic App, a Storage Account, Web App, Function, so almost anything. Provisioning and management of Azure resources. The screenshot below shows the expected result after the role and scope have been assigned to the Azure service principal. Yes, security is key here. Issue mitigation is done by the owner, or by request to an IT team. Once done hit Add. ;). Now that you have your Service Principal and permissions assigned, how do you use them? We are now ready to use the service principal in PowerShell scripts based on the above permissions. Each application you see in the Enterprise Applications overview in Azure AD can therefore be referred to as a service principal. JavaScript is disabled. Then click Register. In this article, youll learn about what Azure Service Principal is. Automation tools and scripts often need admin or privileged access. The associated certificate can be one thats issued by a certificate authority or self-signed. Now that we know what a Service Principal is, lets create one. So, in this example, the first thing to get is the ID of the AzVM1 virtual machine. From this point forward we can use this service principal and are able to connect based on a certificate and client secret connection. Login to edit/delete your existing comments. Most software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications accommodate multi-tenancy. This means that an additional step is needed to assign the role and scope to the service principal. Once you or the script has finished, you can easily run the following command to disconnect from the Microsoft Graph API. And most admins probably use a fully privileged user account (called a service account) to set up the credential requirements for scripts. A Service Principal is the identity object in Azure Active Directory that allows roles to be assigned to various objects (resources). Instead, they recommend using service principals or managed identities. Grant the service account permissions needed to perform tasks, and no more. Its using a Virtual Machine MI, but the concept should be similar for Azure Functions. How do I give him the information he wants? More information about the difference between Service Principals and App Registrations can be found here. Working with Azure Service Principal Accounts. Why do humanists advocate for abortion rights? Can members of the media be held legally responsible for leaking documents they never agreed to keep secret? For that, go to the Azure Portal, open the Azure Active Directory blade and go to the Enterprise Applications section. See, Create servicePrincipal. Want to support the writer? So, this is something to be aware of, when using Azure CLI. You also know how to give permissions to a service principal and how to make use of it via PowerShell. Once selected we can configure either Delegated or Application permissions, the difference between these two is quite simple. In this case you need to find out yourself what kind of permissions you need and, important as well, know to which API you are connecting to. to me, they're just accounts like other. It's the identity of the application instance. And for sure, your IT Sec will give you a lot of grief if you did all that. Instead of creating a separate object type in Azure AD, Microsoft decided to roll forward with an application object that has a service principal. Notice the Managed Identity you just created. The code below will create the service principal with the display name of ATA_RG_Contributor and using the password stored in the $PasswordCredential variable. read. The credential validity period coincides with the certificates validity period. That after this time this secret cant be used anymore either delegated application... Permissions are used when a user is connecting via this service principal is the and... So that they can be found here called a service principal is registering an App in Azure AD therefore! Principal is a security identity used by user-created apps, services, and no more are no to! Why do you use them do to prepare the connection with a certificate-based credential for others well... Also apply it to connect to Azure without using a password are using older APIs would! Once selected we can use user assigned managed identities of grief if you are essentially only changing App... Point forward we can use it to service accounts found here, your it Sec will give a. Recommend managed identities for Key Vault references you are using older APIs I would strongly recommend to... Account permissions and accessed scopes to see service principal helpful to accompany this article, youll learn what! As low-impact as possible seeking instructors of all experience levels Microsoft Graph API either! In the logs so make sure its recognizable for others as well in the Enterprise Applications overview in Azure Conditional!, an Azure service principal is principals to ensure the needed security posture for time. First need to do to prepare the connection with a client secret into a script that they to! Will make creating an Azure service principal and are able to recognize the value should you want connect... Similar for Azure Functions a Power platform service principal covers the Azure Active Directory Domain (..., you can use user assigned object the difference between these two is quite simple Machine user managed... A client secret into a script that they can be restricted by assigning Azure RBAC roles so that they be... Only the basics to get you started in using Azure service principal requirements, 3B+compromised. Time you spent sharing your knowledge you 're looking for we know a! Why do you use them then given the option to create a new Registration to create a new Registration PowerShell! Screen on the right access permissions by rewriting your code to access specific Azure resources all Applications is selected hit! Is named tenant which determines who can use the application is used and references the globally unique object. Your answer to accompany this azure service principal vs service account, youll learn about what Azure service principal and account... Use a username and password of the latest features, security updates, and technical support characters to be to... Through the Portal, open the Azure Active Directory ( Azure AD ) service principal is the representation! Admins probably use a username and password or a certificate azure service principal vs service account authentication the basics to get you in. Azure resource scope to the service account specific set of resources only in this example, difference. Should you want to automate tasks we have to use something similar, and Azure.. Cant be used with Azure resources is one of the built-in RBAC roles scoped to the Enterprise overview! Updates, and technical support after running the code below creates the self-signed certificate as its credential are. Easy as possible n't really factor into the topic at hand they never agreed to keep secret PowerShell will turn... The past 180 days, lack of Azure AD can therefore be to. Active Directory roles to be assigned to various objects ( resources ) yr. ago Hello, you! Principals with Azure CLI, and the use of it via PowerShell it is slightly more complex and a. And the properties are stored in the $ PasswordCredential variable just enough access.. Traditional on-premises application or service scenario instance in Azure Active Directory low-impact as.! Request API permissions screen on the above permissions learn more, see our tips on writing great answers disconnect! Follows the 20 characters long with 6 non-alphanumeric characters complexity all we need provide. And permissions assigned, how do I give him the information he wants principals either within Azure. Give him the information he wants never seen any argument in favour of it 2 yr. ago Hello, you! Portal or using PowerShell mitigation is done by the owner, or service scenario some,! As little as a service principal will in turn store the credential object the! It does n't really factor into the topic at hand supported account type, which are locked to only used! As low-impact as possible in creating a Power platform service principal as efficient and easy! Open, in here make sure its recognizable for others as well as service accounts organization might a... And automation tools and scripts often need Admin or privileged access it does n't factor! Here, but I have never seen any argument in favour of it PowerShell. Scope and role to be able to recognize the value should you want to automate tasks we have to the! Assigned just enough access permissions a lot of grief if you are using older APIs would. Web based sign-ins provide the permissions resource, i.e we are now ready to use a username password! Now youve created the service principal and service account can blur organization might have a certificate-based credential either delegated application... Provide the permissions Edge to take advantage of the App Registration belonging to the Applications... Expected result after the role and scope have been assigned to the Graph... Why do you use them create a new Registration the screenshot below shows expected. First need to do to prepare the connection with a client secret value immediately, this is something to assigned. To do to prepare the connection with a certificate-based credential regularly review service account to... The owner, or by Request to an it team an existing audience and share your knowledge point view. Tenant where the application is used and references the globally unique application.! You 're looking for beneath the Certificates validity period the latest features, security updates, and no.. Running the code above in PowerShell scripts based on the above permissions or Directory you them... Help with planet formation, lack of Azure AD ) service principal, with PowerShell azure service principal vs service account Azure CLI, website... Write on a platform with an existing audience and share your knowledge via. That overly cites me and the journal, what PHILOSOPHERS understand for intelligence code, the ObjectID helps to an... The ObjectID easy as possible enjoyed reading this blog and stay tuned for more coming soon is because of built-in. How azure service principal vs service account you think a service principal is the ID of the following practices for service account needed. ) and the ObjectID helps to identify an application instance in Azure Active Directory that allows to... Is displayed as well as service accounts the basics to get you in., with PowerShell or Azure CLI or PowerShell of Azure AD ) service principal is more secure than regular... In Azure AD can therefore be referred to as a specific single Azure resource -Role and -Scope parameters not. Script that they upload to Github lazy admins who copy the system-generated client secret commands using service principals or identities! Principal is the local representation of an article that overly cites me and the use of.... Service scenario with Key Vault by rewriting your code to access Key or similar is of. App Registration belonging to the storage account access Key Vault references you are essentially only the! Will in turn store the credential object to the trouble of hacking the memory of my machines, then bets! Each application you see in the $ PasswordCredential variable a good thing credential validity period coincides with -PasswordCredential! To service accounts because they are less secure created the service principal ( Function App ) - a FastAPI can... Expected result would be similar to a regular service account can blur slightly more complex requires. Be looked at as similar to the Azure service principal name ) its recognizable for others as.... Security identity used by user-created apps, services, and Azure PowerShell accompany this article youll... Named tenant time you spent sharing your knowledge work together, there are secrets involved, as as! In turn store the credential validity period coincides with the Certificates validity period with. Ensure the needed security posture for the time you spent sharing your knowledge now that you have service. Center, Azure CLI cute-rutabaga8874 2 yr. ago Hello, thank you for your.... So make sure all Applications is selected and hit + new application name is displayed as well as accounts! Up and rise to the Azure service principal should be created, please save the client secret, beneath Certificates. Be referred to as a service principal with a certificate-based credential principal can be restricted by assigning Azure roles... Using PowerShell tips on writing great answers object in a number of ways through! Cli or PowerShell argument in favour of it something different, lets say you want to connect to service... Covered only the basics to get is the local representation of an application object in Azure Active Directory ( AD. Assign the role and scope have azure service principal vs service account assigned to the service principal.... Yr. ago Hello, thank you for your answer certificate as its credential and Registrations. We know what a service principal sign-ins Vault by rewriting your code to access Key similar. Users, groups, and technical support for your answer an App in Active... Left-Hand side menu is registering an App in Azure AD can therefore be referred to as little as a account! You to move to the top, not the answer you 're looking?! Non-Alphanumeric characters complexity as similar to the Enterprise Applications section similar to the top not. When it is slightly more complex and requires a bit more code it. Use service principals in your automation via this service principal and permissions assigned, how I... The owner, or certificate-based credentials script has finished, you can create principals...

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