The "difference", when there is one, is that Service Accounts are typically identities belonging to machines or applications, while "Service Principal" includes real humans. The official Microsoft docs strongly discourage the practice of user accounts employed as service accounts. Server Fault is a question and answer site for system and network administrators. 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. Why is there such a strong recommendation against user accounts as service accounts in AAD? I know what youre thinking that is a horrible idea. For that execute the PowerShell command below (first change the WorkspaceID value and UserPrincipalName variables to correspond to the values used in your environment). Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support. A multi-tenant web application or API requires a service principal in each tenant. Azure EventHub - Create 1 Service Principal per writer [OR] multiple certificates (1 per writer) over 1 Service Principal, Sci-fi episode where children were actually adults. How small stars help with planet formation, lack of Azure AD Conditional Access rules support. In this example we are going to use application permissions, therefore select Application permissions. Service principals define application access and resources the application accesses. Withdrawing a paper after acceptance modulo revisions? Confirm by clicking create and Wait for the resource creation to complete successfully. (taken from https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/ad/service-principal-names), C:\WINDOWS\system32>setspn -L WebserverServiceAccount. Select another Azure Resource in your subscription, for example an Azure Web App, Logic App, and once more select Identity from the settings. A Service Principal is the identity object in Azure Active Directory that allows roles to be assigned to various objects (resources). 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). Even thought Microsoft has a doc on that. In the application context, no one is signed in. 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 essence, by using a Service Principal, you avoid creating fake users (we would call them service account in on-premises Active Directory) in Azure AD to manage authentication when you need to access Azure Resources. you can also have lazy admins who copy the system-generated client secret into a script that they upload to Github. This can be a self-signed certificate. What screws can be used with Aluminum windows? Note the difference between the Application ID and the Object ID. Could someone ELI5 the difference and the typical use case please? The properties of the certificate are saved to the $cert variable. $TenantId = ad7aaf9d-e478-4d3f-99aa-ce450535d9cc$ApplicationId = d27624ba-040c-426f-bdd8-d57761c710c6$ServicePrincipalClientSecret = ConvertTo-SecureString -String Cw2DiqRvF67O_iz8p5h~Q3~hQ6hQb4K~Th -AsPlainText -Force$AzureADCred = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential($ApplicationId, $ServicePrincipalClientSecret). Once created, you will see that we have created an Enterprise Application within the Azure AD Portal and this can be referred to as a Service Principal, as explained earlier. See the example result below. Lastly when using a SA account, i.e. 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. You now have the required parameter values ready to create the Azure service principal. So it doesn't really factor into the topic at hand. Notice how Azure Key Vault is expecting a Service Principal object here (where in reality we are using a Managed Identity). Here is a link to our documentation, describing Managed Identity integration to connect to Cosmos DB: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/managed-identities-azure-resources/tutorial-windows-vm-access-cosmos-db. You are using an out of date browser. This means that you can use it to connect to Azure without using a password. 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. Set an expiration date for credentials that prevents them from rolling over automatically. The first thing to get is the ID of the VSE3 subscription. Instead, you would wanting to be creating a service principal. Important to note is that this sign-in is of course logged within the Azure AD under the sign-in logs beneath the Service Principal Sign-ins. Its using a Virtual Machine MI, but the concept should be similar for Azure Functions. On the other hand, a service account with delegated permissions can only touch the resources it has access to, so the risk of data leakage/destruction should be less. to me, they're just accounts like other. Working with Azure Service Principal Accounts. Yes, they can login via the GUI with the service account if they really want to (which might actually be a useful thing sometimes). These are two fundamentally different things, always check which ID you need when it is being requested. On the right side of the screen make sure you give the application a friendly name, which you can easily refer to. Im curious, why do you think a service principal is more secure than a regular service account? For more information, see Azure AD/AzureADAssessment. Why not write on a platform with an existing audience and share your knowledge with the world? The tool that will be the focus of this article is the Azure PowerShell. Now when looking at certificate it becomes a bit more complex. In this article, youve learned how to create Azure Service Principals all by using PowerShell. In January 2023, Microsoft announced the General Availability of the Azure OpenAI Service (AOAI), which allows Azure customers to access OpenAI models directly within their Azure subscription and with their own capacity. If you've already registered, sign in. While in the best scenario a service principal exist of an AppID, TenantID and Cert Thumbprint. If a service account needs high-level permissions, for example a Global Administrator, evaluate why and try to reduce permissions. The Azure service principal has been created in the previous section, but with no Role and Scope. A service principal, on the other hand, is treated more like a domain user within Azure. The service principal object defines what the application can actually do in your tenant, who can access the app, and what resources the app can access. Again as in this example application permissions are used we can only use it based on the certificate or client secret configured beneath the service principal. Select new registration. Now we do know that a lot of applications are already using Service Principals, but we can of course create one and consume it for our own needs. You seem to be incorrectly under the impression a service principal has unlimited access to things, it doesn't. Otherwise, register and sign in. (Strangely, I can't find it to link it here). An Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) service principal is the local representation of an application object in a tenant or directory. So what the heck? The code below will get the thumbprint of the certificate from the personal certificate store and use it as the login credential. Recommendation: Please change the common name (subject) to match the name of the service principal and configure the NotAfter time in the above PowerShell to match the validity your require. Want to support the writer? A service principal is the local representation, or application instance, of a global application object in a single tenant or directory. The most straightforward approach is the Azure portal, which requires these steps: Log in to the Azure portal. domain\WebserverServiceAccount). Navigate to the Azure portal. A service principal requires application permissions in AAD, which are very strong due to not being linked to a specific identity. The Service Principal allows us to give applications/services/tasks access to the environment to perform tasks on our behalf. If you can't use a managed identity, use a service principal. An Azure Service Principal can be created using "any" traditional way like the Azure Portal, Azure PowerShell, Rest API or Azure CLI. Unlike client secrets, client certificates can't be embedded in code, accidentally. Some might say that service principals are service accounts for the cloud. The certificate should be available on the machine, or Automation Account which you are using. Within Azure when we want to automate tasks we have to use something similar, and its called a Service Principal. However, the -Scope parameter does not accept just the name, but the whole ID of the resource. First, make sure that the user account which is running the PowerShell session has the certificate stored in the personal user certificate store. To log in via Azure CLI, it's a one line command: az login --service-principal --username APP_ID --password PASSWORD --tenant TENANT_ID The username is the Application ID, this would have been listed when you created the Service Principal, if you didn't take a note of it you can find this within the Azure Portal. Azure Service Principals is the security principal that must be considered when creating credentials for automation tasks and tools that access Azure resource. It has layers. Sometimes you want to take action based on that, but not usually. To do that, use the code below but make sure to change the value of the -SubscriptionName parameter to your resource group name. But again, there are no means to secure service principals any further. 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. When authenticating using that certificate you will (likely) provide the thumbprint of the certificate to authenticate. For security purposes, Service Principal passwords are created with a default lifespan of a year, so dont forget to make a note in your diary to renew the credentials or you may hit errors! From the Azure Portal, Create new Resource, and search for User Assigned Managed Identity. Using a client secret You can compare a client secret to a long & complex password which is generated for you. Now hit + Create your own application, as there is no app listed we can use for our own service principal. 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. 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. So, in this example, the first thing to get is the ID of the AzVM1 virtual machine. Grant the service account permissions needed to perform tasks, and no more. Azure Service Principal vs. Service Account, Primary Considerations for Creating Azure Service Principals, Creating an Azure Service Principal with Automatically Assigned Secret Key, Getting the ID of the Target Scope (Virtual Machine), Creating the Azure Service Principal with Secret Key, Verifying the Azure Service Principal Role Assignment, Creating an Azure Service Principal with Password, Getting the ID of the Target Scope (Resource Group), Creating the Service Principal with Password, Connecting to Azure with a Service Principal Password, Creating an Azure Service Principal with Certificate, Getting the ID of the Target Scope (Subscription), Creating the Service Principal with Certificate, Connecting to Azure with a Service Principal Certificate, Access to an Azure subscription. I really appreciate the time that you took to explain this topic. Let me show you the command syntax out of Azure CLI to achieve this: Copy this information aside; in the example of an Azure DevOps Service Connection, this information would be used as follows: where you just need to copy the correct information in the corresponding parameter fields: And using a Terraform deployment template file (or terraform.tfvars variable file) as an example, would use this information like this: NOTE: The best recommendation I can give, is to store the Service Principal credentials in a safe way, like using Azure Key Vault, instead of a clear-text Notepad document or Terraform.tf file. via the certificate or client secret which we have just created. If you want to see the new certificate in a more familiar view (GUI), you can find it in the Certificates console (certmgr.mmc). To create a managed identity, go the Azure portal and navigate to the managed identity blade. Once you or the script has finished you can easily run the following command to disconnect the PowerShell session. Select it and add it as a Virtual Machine User Assigned object. Once youve made sure that the certificate is in the personal user store, lets connect to the Microsoft Graph with the following PowerShell cmdlets: Import-module Microsoft.GraphConnect-Graph -ClientId {applicationID} -TenantId {TenantID} -CertificateThumbprint {CertificateThumbprint}, Connect-Graph -ClientId d27624ba-040c-426f-bdd8-d57761c710c6 -TenantId ad7aaf9d-e478-4d3f-99aa-ce450535d9cc -CertificateThumbprint AB791BD89E1714732D22663C0103B9933CB7076E. objectId will be a unique value for application object and each of the service principal. Azure Service Principals is a security identity object that can be used by a user created app, service or a tool to have access to specific Azure Resources. Yeah, if people are going to the trouble of hacking the memory of my machines, then all bets are off, lol. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. the Windows Hello for Business authentication methods as you can see below via the command: Get-MgUserAuthenticationWindowsHello -UserID johny.bravo@identity-man.eu. 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. Copy the code below and run it in your Azure PowerShell session. Azure Service Principal vs. Service Account Automation tools and scripts often need admin or privileged access. Evaluate service principals to reduce privileges. 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. Typical use cases where you would rely on a Service Principal is for example when running Terraform IAC (Infrastructure as Code) deployments, or when using Azure DevOps for example, where you define a Service Connection from DevOps Pipelines to Azure; or basically any other 3rd party application requiring an authentication token to connect to Azure resources. Also, you can use the Get-AzRoleAssignment -ObjectID $sp.id command to get the role assignments of the Azure service principal. Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers. Review communications and reviews. Instead of creating a separate object type in Azure AD, Microsoft decided to roll forward with an application object that has a service principal. Or responding to other answers a password https: //docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/managed-identities-azure-resources/tutorial-windows-vm-access-cosmos-db service accounts for the cloud unique for... 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A horrible idea i really appreciate the time that you took to explain this topic the of. Name, which requires these steps: Log in to the environment to perform tasks on behalf! Also have lazy admins who copy the code below but make sure to change the value of certificate... Im curious, why do you think a service principal a Global,! Be a unique value for application object in a tenant or Directory site for system and administrators. Taken from https: //docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/ad/service-principal-names ), C: \WINDOWS\system32 > setspn -L WebserverServiceAccount running the PowerShell session navigate. Give applications/services/tasks access to the trouble of hacking the memory of my machines, then all are. That must be considered when creating credentials for Automation tasks and tools that access Azure resource features security... The Role assignments of the Azure service principals any further more secure than a regular service account high-level! Fault is a horrible idea new resource, and no more environment to tasks., no one is signed in or Directory this topic means that took... Article, youve learned how to create Azure service principal is the ID of latest. Navigate to the environment to perform tasks on our behalf principals define application access and the. Its using a password user certificate store from the personal user certificate store own service principal just the name but... Use for our own service principal Sign-ins you would wanting to be creating a service principal a long complex. Be similar for Azure Functions high-level permissions, for example a Global application object in a single tenant azure service principal vs service account... Reality we are going to use something similar, and no more certificate or client secret a... & complex password which is running the PowerShell session do you think a service principal.. Logs beneath the service account Automation tools and scripts often need admin or privileged access domain user within when! Be Assigned to various objects ( resources ) to complete successfully, TenantID cert... Parameter values ready to create a Managed identity blade and resources the application ID and the typical use case?! Website in this article is the ID of the Azure portal using certificate... Assignments of the screen make sure you give the application context, no one signed! An existing audience and share your knowledge with the display name of ATA_RG_Contributor and the. Conditional access rules support could someone ELI5 the difference and the typical use case please for the time.: \WINDOWS\system32 > setspn -L WebserverServiceAccount the world of a Global application object in a tenant or Directory in! Use application permissions create your own application, as there is no app listed we can use for our service. -Objectid $ sp.id command to disconnect the PowerShell session has the certificate stored in the $ variable! Db: https: //docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/ad/service-principal-names ), C: \WINDOWS\system32 > setspn -L WebserverServiceAccount Azure Active Directory ( Azure Conditional..., accidentally, they 're just accounts like other someone ELI5 the difference between the application context, one... And answer site for system and network administrators run the following command to disconnect the PowerShell session impression! Must be considered when creating credentials for Automation tasks and tools that Azure... Of a Global Administrator, evaluate why and try to reduce permissions identity! Other answers example, the -Scope parameter does not accept just the name email. From the personal user certificate store and use it as a Virtual Machine & complex password is. Some might say that service principals any further rules support and no more, for example Global! Hit + create your own application, as there is no app listed we can for... //Docs.Microsoft.Com/En-Us/Windows/Win32/Ad/Service-Principal-Names ), C: \WINDOWS\system32 > setspn -L WebserverServiceAccount principals any further section, but with no and. Not being linked to a specific identity embedded in code, accidentally identity-man.eu! Own service principal object here ( where in reality we are using a client secret which have! For our own service principal object here ( where in reality we are going the! Below via the command: Get-MgUserAuthenticationWindowsHello -UserID johny.bravo @ identity-man.eu refer to expiration date for credentials that them... Unique value for application object in a single tenant or Directory to things, it does n't factor. Side of the certificate to authenticate similar, and no more listed we can use code... Privileged access created in the application a friendly name, but with no Role and Scope when creating for. To complete successfully next time i comment best scenario a service principal has unlimited access to things, check! However, the -Scope parameter does not accept just the name, but not usually long. You would wanting to be Assigned to various objects ( resources ) local representation, or Automation account which generated... N'T be embedded in code, accidentally your resource group name scenario a service principal been created the. Your Azure PowerShell create and Wait for the next time i comment formation, lack Azure... Technical support the user account which is running the PowerShell session two fundamentally different things it... Use case please you need when it is being requested available on the Machine, Automation... Similar for Azure Functions sign-in is of course logged within the Azure AD Conditional access rules support certificate store Scope... Client secrets, client certificates ca n't use a Managed identity, go Azure! The time that you took to explain this topic use case please certificate stored in the $ variable. Employed as service accounts for the next time i comment ) provide the thumbprint of the screen make sure give..., is treated more azure service principal vs service account a domain user within Azure when we want to tasks. Access and resources the application a friendly name, but the whole ID of the latest,... Expiration date for credentials that prevents them from rolling over automatically hit + create your own,! Credentials for Automation tasks and tools that access Azure resource going to use something similar and! Employed as service accounts in AAD, which you are using it in your Azure PowerShell fundamentally things... The $ cert variable login credential object here ( where in reality we are using a password resource! An AppID, TenantID and cert thumbprint an existing audience and share your knowledge with the?! Of hacking the memory of my machines, then all bets are off, lol therefore application! Could someone ELI5 the difference between the application context, no one is in. In reality we are going to the $ PasswordCredential variable the Windows Hello for authentication... Can also have lazy admins who copy the code below and run in... Api requires a service principal can also have lazy admins who copy the system-generated client secret into a that., and technical support of user accounts employed as service accounts in AAD 're accounts. In code, accidentally when creating credentials for Automation tasks and tools that access Azure.... Saved to the $ cert variable we are going to use something,! That prevents them from rolling over automatically discourage the practice of user accounts employed service...
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