Azure Identity client library for .NET

The Azure Identity library provides Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) token authentication support across the Azure SDK. It provides a set of TokenCredential implementations that can be used to construct Azure SDK clients that support Microsoft Entra token authentication.

Source code | Package (NuGet) | API reference documentation | Microsoft Entra ID documentation

Getting started

Install the package

Install the Azure Identity client library for .NET with NuGet:

dotnet add package Azure.Identity

Prerequisites

• An Azure subscription.
• The Azure CLI can also be useful for authenticating in a development environment, creating accounts, and managing account roles.

Authenticate the client

When debugging and executing code locally, it's typical for a developer to use their own account for authenticating calls to Azure services. There are several developer tools that can be used to perform this authentication in your development environment.

Authenticate via Visual Studio

Developers using Visual Studio 2017 or later can authenticate a Microsoft Entra account through the IDE. Apps using DefaultAzureCredential or VisualStudioCredential can then use this account to authenticate calls in their app when running locally.

To authenticate in Visual Studio, select the Tools > Options menu to launch the Options dialog. Then navigate to the Azure Service Authentication options to sign in with your Microsoft Entra account.

Authenticate via Visual Studio Code

Developers using Visual Studio Code can use the Azure Account extension to authenticate via the editor. Apps using DefaultAzureCredential or VisualStudioCodeCredential can then use this account to authenticate calls in their app when running locally.

It's a known issue that VisualStudioCodeCredential doesn't work with Azure Account extension versions newer than 0.9.11. A long-term fix to this problem is in progress. In the meantime, authenticate via the Azure CLI.

Authenticate via the Azure CLI

Developers coding outside of an IDE can also use the Azure CLI to authenticate. Apps using DefaultAzureCredential or AzureCliCredential can then use this account to authenticate calls in their app when running locally.

To authenticate with the Azure CLI, run the command az login. For users running on a system with a default web browser, the Azure CLI launches the browser to authenticate the user.

For systems without a default web browser, the az login command uses the device code authentication flow. The user can also force the Azure CLI to use the device code flow rather than launching a browser by specifying the --use-device-code argument.

Authenticate via the Azure Developer CLI

Developers coding outside of an IDE can also use the Azure Developer CLI to authenticate. Apps using DefaultAzureCredential or AzureDeveloperCliCredential can then use this account to authenticate calls in their app when running locally.

To authenticate with the Azure Developer CLI, run the command azd auth login. For users running on a system with a default web browser, the Azure Developer CLI launches the browser to authenticate the user. For systems without a default web browser, the azd auth login --use-device-code command uses the device code authentication flow.

Authenticate via Azure PowerShell

Developers coding outside of an IDE can also use Azure PowerShell to authenticate. Apps using DefaultAzureCredential or AzurePowerShellCredential can then use this account to authenticate calls in their app when running locally.

To authenticate with Azure PowerShell, run the command Connect-AzAccount. For users running on a system with a default web browser and version 5.0.0 or later of Azure PowerShell, it launches the browser to authenticate the user. For systems without a default web browser, the Connect-AzAccount command uses the device code authentication flow. The user can also force Azure PowerShell to use the device code flow rather than launching a browser by specifying the UseDeviceAuthentication argument.

Key concepts

Credentials

A credential is a class that contains or can obtain the data needed for a service client to authenticate requests. Service clients across the Azure SDK accept credentials when they're constructed. Service clients use those credentials to authenticate requests to the service.

The Azure Identity library focuses on OAuth authentication with Microsoft Entra ID. It offers numerous credentials capable of acquiring a Microsoft Entra token to authenticate service requests. Each credential in this library is an implementation of the TokenCredential abstract class in Azure.Core, and any of them can be used to construct service clients capable of authenticating with a TokenCredential.

See Credential classes for a complete listing of available credential types.

DefaultAzureCredential

DefaultAzureCredential simplifies authentication while developing apps that deploy to Azure by combining credentials used in Azure hosting environments with credentials used in local development. For more information, see DefaultAzureCredential overview.

Continuation policy

As of version 1.10.1, DefaultAzureCredential attempts to authenticate with all developer tool credentials until one succeeds, regardless of any errors previous developer tool credentials experienced. For example, a developer tool credential may attempt to get a token and fail, so DefaultAzureCredential will continue to the next credential in the flow. Deployed service credentials stop the flow with a thrown exception if they're able to attempt token retrieval but don't receive one. Prior to version 1.10.1, developer tool credentials would similarly stop the authentication flow if token retrieval failed.

This behavior allows for trying all of the developer tool credentials on your machine while having predictable deployed behavior.

Examples

Authenticate with DefaultAzureCredential

This example demonstrates authenticating SecretClient from the Azure.Security.KeyVault.Secrets client library with DefaultAzureCredential:

// Create a secret client using the DefaultAzureCredential
var client = new SecretClient(new Uri("https://myvault.vault.azure.net/"), new DefaultAzureCredential());

Specify a user-assigned managed identity with DefaultAzureCredential

Many Azure hosts allow the assignment of a user-assigned managed identity. The following examples demonstrate configuring DefaultAzureCredential to authenticate a user-assigned managed identity when deployed to an Azure host. The sample code uses the credential to authenticate a BlobClient from the Azure.Storage.Blobs client library. It also demonstrates how you can specify a user-assigned managed identity either by a client ID or a resource ID.

Client ID

To use a client ID, take one of the following approaches:

1. Set the DefaultAzureCredentialOptions.ManagedIdentityClientId property. For example:

// When deployed to an Azure host, DefaultAzureCredential will authenticate the specified user-assigned managed identity.

string userAssignedClientId = "<your managed identity client ID>";
var credential = new DefaultAzureCredential(
    new DefaultAzureCredentialOptions
    {
        ManagedIdentityClientId = userAssignedClientId
    });

var blobClient = new BlobClient(
    new Uri("https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/mycontainer/myblob"),
    credential);

2. Set the AZURE_CLIENT_ID environment variable.

Resource ID

To use a resource ID, set the DefaultAzureCredentialOptions.ManagedIdentityResourceId property. The resource ID takes the form /subscriptions/{subscriptionId}/resourceGroups/{resourceGroupName}/providers/Microsoft.ManagedIdentity/userAssignedIdentities/{identityName}. Because resource IDs can be built by convention, they can be more convenient when there are a large number of user-assigned managed identities in your environment. For example:

string userAssignedResourceId = "<your managed identity resource ID>";
var credential = new DefaultAzureCredential(
    new DefaultAzureCredentialOptions
    {
        ManagedIdentityResourceId = new ResourceIdentifier(userAssignedResourceId)
    });

var blobClient = new BlobClient(
    new Uri("https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/mycontainer/myblob"),
    credential);

Define a custom authentication flow with ChainedTokenCredential

While DefaultAzureCredential is generally the quickest way to authenticate apps for Azure, you can create a customized chain of credentials to be considered. ChainedTokenCredential enables users to combine multiple credential instances to define a customized chain of credentials. For more information, see ChainedTokenCredential overview.

Managed identity support

Managed identity authentication is supported either indirectly via DefaultAzureCredential or directly via ManagedIdentityCredential for the following Azure services:

• Azure App Service and Azure Functions
• Azure Arc
• Azure Cloud Shell
• Azure Kubernetes Service
• Azure Service Fabric
• Azure Virtual Machines
• Azure Virtual Machines Scale Sets

As of version 1.8.0, ManagedIdentityCredential supports token caching.

Examples

These examples demonstrate authenticating SecretClient from the Azure.Security.KeyVault.Secrets client library with ManagedIdentityCredential.

Authenticate with a user-assigned managed identity

To authenticate with a user-assigned managed identity, you must specify one of the following IDs for the managed identity.

Client ID

string userAssignedClientId = "some client ID";

var credential = new ManagedIdentityCredential(
    ManagedIdentityId.FromUserAssignedClientId(userAssignedClientId));
var client = new SecretClient(new Uri("https://myvault.vault.azure.net/"), credential);

Resource ID

ResourceIdentifier userAssignedResourceId = new ResourceIdentifier(
    "/subscriptions/<subscriptionID>/resourcegroups/<resource group>/providers/Microsoft.ManagedIdentity/userAssignedIdentities/<MI name>");

var credential = new ManagedIdentityCredential(
    ManagedIdentityId.FromUserAssignedResourceId(userAssignedResourceId));
var client = new SecretClient(new Uri("https://myvault.vault.azure.net/"), credential);

Object ID

string userAssignedObjectId = "some object ID";

var credential = new ManagedIdentityCredential(
    ManagedIdentityId.FromUserAssignedObjectId(userAssignedObjectId));
var client = new SecretClient(new Uri("https://myvault.vault.azure.net/"), credential);

Authenticate with a system-assigned managed identity

var credential = new ManagedIdentityCredential(ManagedIdentityId.SystemAssigned);
var client = new SecretClient(new Uri("https://myvault.vault.azure.net/"), credential);

Sovereign cloud configuration

By default, credentials authenticate to the Microsoft Entra endpoint for the Azure Public Cloud. To access resources in other clouds, such as Azure US Government or a private cloud, use one of the following solutions:

1. Configure credentials with the AuthorityHost property. For example:

var credential = new DefaultAzureCredential(
    new DefaultAzureCredentialOptions
    {
        AuthorityHost = AzureAuthorityHosts.AzureGovernment
    });

AzureAuthorityHosts defines authorities for well-known clouds.

2. Set the AZURE_AUTHORITY_HOST environment variable to the appropriate authority host URL. For example, https://login.microsoftonline.us/. Note that this setting affects all credentials in the environment. Use the previous solution to set the authority host on a specific credential.

Not all credentials require this configuration. Credentials that authenticate through a developer tool, such as AzureCliCredential, use that tool's configuration.

Credential classes

Credential chains

Authenticate Azure-hosted apps

Authenticate service principals

Authenticate users

Authenticate via development tools

Note: All credential implementations in the Azure Identity library are threadsafe, and a single credential instance can be used by multiple service clients.

Environment variables

DefaultAzureCredential and EnvironmentCredential can be configured with environment variables. Each type of authentication requires values for specific variables.

Service principal with secret

Service principal with certificate

Username and password

Managed identity (DefaultAzureCredential)

Configuration is attempted in the order in which these environment variables are listed. For example, if values for a client secret and certificate are both present, the client secret is used.

Continuous Access Evaluation

As of version 1.10.0, accessing resources protected by Continuous Access Evaluation (CAE) is possible on a per-request basis. This behavior can be enabled by setting the IsCaeEnabled property of TokenRequestContext via its constructor. CAE isn't supported for developer and managed identity credentials.

Token caching

Token caching is a feature provided by the Azure Identity library. The feature allows apps to:

• Cache tokens in memory (default) or on disk (opt-in).
• Improve resilience and performance.
• Reduce the number of requests made to Microsoft Entra ID to obtain access tokens.

The Azure Identity library offers both in-memory and persistent disk caching. For more information, see the token caching documentation.

Brokered authentication

An authentication broker is an app that runs on a user's machine and manages the authentication handshakes and token maintenance for connected accounts. Currently, only Windows is supported via Web Account Manager (WAM). To enable support, use the Azure.Identity.Broker package.

Troubleshooting

See the troubleshooting guide.

Error handling

Errors arising from authentication can be raised on any service client method that makes a request to the service. This is because the first time the token is requested from the credential is on the first call to the service. Any subsequent calls might need to refresh the token. To distinguish these failures from failures in the service client, Azure Identity classes raise the AuthenticationFailedException with details on the error source in the exception message and possibly the error message. Depending upon the app, these errors may or may not be recoverable.

using Azure.Identity;
using Azure.Security.KeyVault.Secrets;

// Create a secret client using the DefaultAzureCredential
var client = new SecretClient(new Uri("https://myvault.vault.azure.net/"), new DefaultAzureCredential());

try
{
    KeyVaultSecret secret = await client.GetSecretAsync("secret1");
}
catch (AuthenticationFailedException e)
{
    Console.WriteLine($"Authentication Failed. {e.Message}");
}

For more information on handling errors from failed requests to Microsoft Entra ID or managed identity endpoints, see the Microsoft Entra ID documentation on authorization error codes.

Logging

See Enable and configure logging.

Thread safety

We guarantee that all credential instance methods are thread-safe and independent of each other (guideline). This ensures that the recommendation of reusing credential instances is always safe, even across threads.

Additional concepts

Client options | Accessing the response | Diagnostics | Mocking | Client lifetime

Next steps

Client libraries supporting authentication with Azure Identity

Many of Azure.Core-dependent client libraries support authenticating with TokenCredential and therefore the Azure Identity library. To learn more, see the library-specific docs.

Known issues

This library doesn't currently support scenarios relating to the Azure AD B2C service.

Open issues for the Azure.Identity library can be found here.

Contributing

This project welcomes contributions and suggestions. Most contributions require you to agree to a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) declaring that you have the right to, and actually do, grant us the rights to use your contribution. For details, visit https://cla.microsoft.com.

When you submit a pull request, a CLA-bot will automatically determine whether you need to provide a CLA and decorate the PR appropriately (e.g., label, comment). Simply follow the instructions provided by the bot. You'll only need to do this once across all repos using our CLA.

This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct. For more information, see the Code of Conduct FAQ or contact [email protected] with any additional questions or comments.