Rollout strong auth credentials for Workload Identities

Implementation Effort: High – Transitioning to strong authentication methods requires coordinated efforts across IT, security, and application teams to audit, assess, and reconfigure authentication mechanisms for workload identities, often involving multiple systems and stakeholders.

User Impact: Low – These changes are administrative and do not directly affect end-user operations or require user intervention.

Overview

Implementing strong authentication credentials for workload identities involves replacing weak authentication methods, such as client secrets, with more secure alternatives like managed identities, or certificates. Managed identities provide an automatically managed identity for applications to use when connecting to resources that support Entra authentication, eliminating the need for developers to manage credentials. Certificates offer a more secure authentication method compared to client secrets, as they can be stored securely and rotated regularly. Consider rolling out application management policies to prevent usage of client secrets, and to control the validity period of credentials.

This approach aligns with the Zero Trust principle of "Verify explicitly" by ensuring that all identities are authenticated using strong, verifiable credentials. Failure to implement strong authentication methods can result in credential leaks, unauthorized access, and potential breaches.

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