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Shared device mode for iOS devices

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Important

This feature is in public preview. This preview is provided without a service-level agreement and isn't recommended for production workloads. Some features might be unsupported or have constrained capabilities. For more information, see Supplemental terms of use for Microsoft Azure previews.

Frontline workers such as retail associates, flight crew members, and field service workers often use a shared mobile device to perform their work. These shared devices can present security risks if your users share their passwords or PINs, intentionally or not, to access customer and business data on the shared device.

Shared device mode allows you to configure an iOS 13 or higher device to be more easily and securely shared by employees. Employees can sign in and access customer information quickly. When they're finished with their shift or task, they can sign out of the device, and it's immediately ready for use by the next employee.

Shared device mode also provides Microsoft identity-backed management of the device.

This feature uses the Microsoft Authenticator app to manage the users on the device and to distribute the Microsoft Enterprise SSO plug-in for Apple devices.

Create a shared device mode app

To create a shared device mode app, developers and cloud device admins work together:

  1. Application developers write a single-account app (multiple-account apps aren't supported in shared device mode) and write code to handle things like shared device sign-out.

  2. Device administrators prepare the device to be shared by using a mobile device management (MDM) provider like Microsoft Intune to manage the devices in their organization. The MDM pushes the Microsoft Authenticator app to the devices and turns on "Shared Mode" for each device through a profile update to the device. This Shared Mode setting is what changes the behavior of the supported apps on the device. This configuration from the MDM provider sets the shared device mode for the device and enables the Microsoft Enterprise SSO plug-in for Apple devices which is required for shared device mode.

  3. [Required during Public Preview only] A user with Cloud Device Administrator role must then launch the Microsoft Authenticator app and join their device to the organization.

    To configure the membership of your organizational roles in the Azure portal: Azure Active Directory > Roles and Administrators > Cloud Device Administrator

The following sections help you update your application to support shared device mode.

Use Intune to enable shared device mode & SSO extension

Note

The following step is required only during public preview.

Your device needs to be configured to support shared device mode. It must have iOS 13+ installed and be MDM-enrolled. MDM configuration also needs to enable Microsoft Enterprise SSO plug-in for Apple devices. To learn more about SSO extensions, see the Apple video.

  1. In the Intune Configuration Portal, tell the device to enable the Microsoft Enterprise SSO plug-in for Apple devices with the following configuration:

    • Type: Redirect
    • Extension ID: com.microsoft.azureauthenticator.ssoextension
    • Team ID: (this field isn't needed for iOS)
    • URLs:
      • https://login.microsoftonline.com
      • https://login.microsoft.com
      • https://sts.windows.net
      • https://login.partner.microsoftonline.cn
      • https://login.chinacloudapi.cn
      • https://login.microsoftonline.de
      • https://login.microsoftonline.us
      • https://login.usgovcloudapi.net
      • https://login-us.microsoftonline.com
    • Additional Data to configure:
      • Key: sharedDeviceMode
      • Type: Boolean
      • Value: true

    For more information about configuring with Intune, see the Intune configuration documentation.

  2. Next, configure your MDM to push the Microsoft Authenticator app to your device through an MDM profile.

    Set the following configuration options to turn on Shared Device mode:

    • Configuration 1:
      • Key: sharedDeviceMode
      • Type: Boolean
      • Value: true

Modify your iOS application to support shared device mode

Your users depend on you to ensure their data isn't leaked to another user. The following sections provide helpful signals to indicate to your application that a change has occurred and should be handled.

You're responsible for checking the state of the user on the device every time your app is used, and then clearing the previous user's data. This includes if it's reloaded from the background in multi-tasking.

On a user change, you should ensure both the previous user's data is cleared and that any cached data being displayed in your application is removed. We highly recommend you and your company conduct a security review process after updating your app to support shared device mode.

Detect shared device mode

Detecting shared device mode is important for your application. Many applications will require a change in their user experience (UX) when the application is used on a shared device. For example, your application might have a "Sign-Up" feature, which isn't appropriate for a frontline worker because they likely already have an account. You may also want to add extra security to your application's handling of data if it's in shared device mode.

Use the getDeviceInformationWithParameters:completionBlock: API in the MSALPublicClientApplication to determine if an app is running on a device in shared device mode.

The following code snippets show examples of using the getDeviceInformationWithParameters:completionBlock: API.

Swift

application.getDeviceInformation(with: nil, completionBlock: { (deviceInformation, error) in

    guard let deviceInfo = deviceInformation else {
        return
    }

    let isSharedDevice = deviceInfo.deviceMode == .shared
    // Change your app UX if needed
})

Objective-C

[application getDeviceInformationWithParameters:nil
                                completionBlock:^(MSALDeviceInformation * _Nullable deviceInformation, NSError * _Nullable error)
{
    if (!deviceInformation)
    {
        return;
    }

    BOOL isSharedDevice = deviceInformation.deviceMode == MSALDeviceModeShared;
    // Change your app UX if needed
}];

Get the signed-in user and determine if a user has changed on the device

Another important part of supporting shared device mode is determining the state of the user on the device and clearing application data if a user has changed or if there's no user at all on the device. You're responsible for ensuring data isn't leaked to another user.

You can use getCurrentAccountWithParameters:completionBlock: API to query the currently signed-in account on the device.

Swift

let msalParameters = MSALParameters()
msalParameters.completionBlockQueue = DispatchQueue.main

application.getCurrentAccount(with: msalParameters, completionBlock: { (currentAccount, previousAccount, error) in

    // currentAccount is the currently signed in account
    // previousAccount is the previously signed in account if any
})

Objective-C

MSALParameters *parameters = [MSALParameters new];
parameters.completionBlockQueue = dispatch_get_main_queue();

[application getCurrentAccountWithParameters:parameters
                             completionBlock:^(MSALAccount * _Nullable account, MSALAccount * _Nullable previousAccount, NSError * _Nullable error)
{
    // currentAccount is the currently signed in account
    // previousAccount is the previously signed in account if any
}];

Globally sign in a user

When a device is configured as a shared device, your application can call the acquireTokenWithParameters:completionBlock: API to sign in the account. The account will be available globally for all eligible apps on the device after the first app signs in the account.

Objective-C

MSALInteractiveTokenParameters *parameters = [[MSALInteractiveTokenParameters alloc] initWithScopes:@[@"api://myapi/scope"] webviewParameters:[self msalTestWebViewParameters]];

parameters.loginHint = self.loginHintTextField.text;

[application acquireTokenWithParameters:parameters completionBlock:completionBlock];

Globally sign out a user

The following code removes the signed-in account and clears cached tokens from not only the app, but also from the device that's in shared device mode. It doesn't, however, clear the data from your application. You must clear the data from your application, as well as clear any cached data your application may be displaying to the user.

Swift

let account = .... /* account retrieved above */

let signoutParameters = MSALSignoutParameters(webviewParameters: self.webViewParamaters!)
signoutParameters.signoutFromBrowser = true // To trigger a browser signout in Safari.

application.signout(with: account, signoutParameters: signoutParameters, completionBlock: {(success, error) in
    if let error = error {

        // Signout failed

        return

    }

    // Sign out completed successfully

})

Objective-C

MSALAccount *account = ... /* account retrieved above */;

MSALSignoutParameters *signoutParameters = [[MSALSignoutParameters alloc] initWithWebviewParameters:webViewParameters];

signoutParameters.signoutFromBrowser = YES; // To trigger a browser signout in Safari.

[application signoutWithAccount:account signoutParameters:signoutParameters completionBlock:^(BOOL success, NSError * _Nullable error)

{

    if (!success)

    {

        // Signout failed

        return;

    }

    // Sign out completed successfully

}];

The Microsoft Enterprise SSO plug-in for Apple devices clears state only for applications. It doesn't clear state on the Safari browser. You can use the optional signoutFromBrowser property shown in code snippets above to trigger a browser signout in Safari. This will cause the browser to briefly launch on the device.

Receive broadcast to detect global sign out initiated from other applications

To receive the account change broadcast, you'll need to register a broadcast receiver. When an account change broadcast is received, immediately get the signed in user and determine if a user has changed on the device. If a change is detected, initiate data cleanup for previously signed-in account. It's recommended to properly stop any operations and do data cleanup.

The following code snippet shows how you could register a broadcast receiver.

NSString *const MSID_SHARED_MODE_CURRENT_ACCOUNT_CHANGED_NOTIFICATION_KEY = @"SHARED_MODE_CURRENT_ACCOUNT_CHANGED";

- (void) registerDarwinNotificationListener 

{ 

   CFNotificationCenterRef center =

   CFNotificationCenterGetDarwinNotifyCenter(); 

   CFNotificationCenterAddObserver(center, nil,

   sharedModeAccountChangedCallback,

   (CFStringRef)MSID_SHARED_MODE_CURRENT_ACCOUNT_CHANGED_NOTIFICATION_KEY, 

   nil, CFNotificationSuspensionBehaviorDeliverImmediately); 

} 

// CFNotificationCallbacks used specifically for Darwin notifications leave userInfo unused 

void sharedModeAccountChangedCallback(CFNotificationCenterRef center, void * observer, CFStringRef name, void const * object, __unused CFDictionaryRef userInfo) 

{ 

    // Invoke account cleanup logic here 

} 

For more information about the available options for CFNotificationAddObserver or to see the corresponding method signatures in Swift, see:

For iOS, your app will require a background permission to remain active in the background and listen to Darwin notifications. The background capability must be added to support a different background operation – your app may be subject to rejection from the Apple App Store if it has a background capability only to listen for Darwin notifications. If your app is already configured to complete background operations, you can add the listener as part of that operation. For more information about iOS background capabilities, see Configuring background execution modes

Next steps

To see shared device mode in action, the following code sample on GitHub includes an example of running a frontline worker app on an iOS device in shared device mode:

MSAL iOS Swift Microsoft Graph API Sample