Entra ID Managed Identity: Revolutionize App Security & Eliminate Secrets!

Key insights

• Microsoft Entra ID Managed Identities provide Azure resources with an automatically managed identity, eliminating the need for managing credentials in code. This enhances security and simplifies development.


• There are two types of managed identities: System-Assigned Managed Identity, which is tied to a specific Azure resource and shares its lifecycle, and User-Assigned Managed Identity, which is created as a standalone resource with an independent lifecycle.


• The use of managed identities offers several benefits, including the elimination of credential management, enhanced security through Azure-managed credentials, seamless integration with Microsoft Entra authentication-supported resources, and no additional costs.


• Authentication Methods Migration Wizard and bulk user management are new features introduced in 2025 to enhance the usability of managed identities by streamlining migration processes and improving efficiency in user management tasks.


• Managed identities can authenticate to any resource that supports Microsoft Entra authentication, allowing secure communication between services without handling credentials directly.


• You can manage operations on managed identities using various tools such as Azure Resource Manager templates, the Azure portal, CLI, PowerShell, and REST APIs. These include enabling/disabling identities at the resource level and using role-based access control (RBAC) for permissions.

Secure Your Applications with Microsoft Entra ID Managed Identities – No More Secrets!

In today's digital landscape, securing applications and managing credentials are paramount concerns for developers and IT professionals. Microsoft Entra ID's Managed Identities offer a robust solution to these challenges by automating identity management and eliminating the need for manual credential handling.

Understanding Microsoft Entra ID Managed Identity

Managed Identities in Microsoft Entra ID provide Azure resources with an automatically managed identity. This identity can be used to authenticate to any service that supports Microsoft Entra authentication, without the need to manage credentials in your code. This approach enhances security and simplifies development by removing the overhead of credential management.

Managed Identities eliminate the need for developers to handle secrets, credentials, certificates, and keys, which are often used to secure communication between services. Instead, these identities provide an automatically managed identity in Microsoft Entra ID for applications to use when connecting to resources that support Microsoft Entra authentication. Applications can use managed identities to obtain Microsoft Entra tokens without having to manage any credentials.

Advantages of Using Managed Identities

• Elimination of Credential Management: With Managed Identities, there's no need to store or manage credentials within your applications. Azure handles the provisioning and rotation of these credentials, reducing the risk of leaks and simplifying security management.


• Enhanced Security: Since credentials are managed by Azure and not accessible to developers or administrators, the risk of accidental exposure is minimized.


• Seamless Integration: Managed Identities can authenticate to any resource that supports Microsoft Entra authentication, including your own applications, facilitating secure and straightforward communication between services.


• Cost Efficiency: Utilizing Managed Identities incurs no additional costs, making it a cost-effective solution for securing applications.

Basics of Managed Identities

There are two types of Managed Identities:

1. System-Assigned Managed Identity: This identity is tied to a specific Azure resource and shares its lifecycle. When the resource is deleted, the associated identity is automatically removed, preventing orphaned identities.

2. User-Assigned Managed Identity: This identity is created as a standalone Azure resource and can be assigned to multiple Azure resources. It has an independent lifecycle, allowing for greater flexibility in identity management.

To utilize Managed Identities, Azure resources request access tokens from Microsoft Entra ID without handling credentials directly. Azure manages the credentials, and the tokens obtained are used to authenticate and authorize access to target services that support Microsoft Entra authentication.

What's New in Managed Identities?

As of March 2025, Microsoft has introduced several enhancements to Managed Identities:

• Authentication Methods Migration Wizard: This new feature in the Microsoft Entra Admin Center allows for the automatic migration of method management from legacy MFA and SSPR policies to the converged authentication methods policy, streamlining the migration process.


• Bulk User Management: Administrators can now multi-select and edit users simultaneously through the Microsoft Entra Admin Center, improving efficiency in user management tasks.

These updates aim to enhance the usability and functionality of Managed Identities, providing administrators with more efficient tools for managing identities and authentication methods.

Conclusion

Microsoft Entra ID's Managed Identities offer a secure, efficient, and cost-effective solution for managing application identities and eliminating the complexities associated with credential management. By leveraging Managed Identities, developers and IT professionals can focus on building and maintaining applications without the overhead of managing secrets, thereby enhancing overall security posture.

For a deeper understanding of Microsoft Entra Managed Identities, you can learn the basics of deploying and running a secretless app on Azure. This involves creating a secretless app with Azure SDK using Entra ID Managed Identity (System Assigned) and running it on Azure.

Practical Implementation

To implement Managed Identities, you need to follow these steps:

• Create a managed identity in Azure. You can choose between system-assigned managed identity or user-assigned managed identity.


• Authorize the managed identity to have access to the target service.


• Use the managed identity to access a resource. In this step, you can use the Azure SDK with the Azure.Identity library. Some source resources offer connectors that know how to use Managed identities for the connections. In that case, you use the identity as a feature of that source resource.

Managed identities for Azure resources can be used to authenticate to services that support Microsoft Entra authentication. For a list of supported Azure services, see services that support managed identities for Azure resources.

Operations on Managed Identities

Resources that support system-assigned managed identities allow you to:

• Enable or disable managed identities at the resource level.


• Use role-based access control (RBAC) to grant permissions.


• View the create, read, update, and delete (CRUD) operations in Azure Activity logs.


• View sign-in activity in Microsoft Entra ID sign-in logs.

If you choose a user-assigned managed identity instead:

• You can create, read, update, and delete the identities.


• You can use RBAC role assignments to grant permissions.


• User-assigned managed identities can be used on more than one resource.


• CRUD operations are available for review in Azure Activity logs.


• View sign-in activity in Microsoft Entra ID sign-in logs.

Operations on managed identities can be performed by using an Azure Resource Manager template, the Azure portal, Azure CLI, PowerShell, and REST APIs.

In conclusion, Microsoft Entra ID Managed Identities provide a powerful tool for developers to secure their applications without the hassle of managing credentials. By adopting these identities, organizations can enhance their security measures and streamline their development processes.

Keywords

Secure Apps, Entra ID, Managed Identity, App Security, No More Secrets, Identity Management, Secure Authentication, Cloud Security