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Additional Azure AD requirements for Azure Information Protection

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Note

Are you looking for Microsoft Purview Information Protection, formerly Microsoft Information Protection (MIP)?

The Azure Information Protection add-in for Office is now in maintenance mode and will be retired April 2024. Instead, we recommend you use labels that are built in to your Office 365 apps and services. Learn more about the support status of other Azure Information Protection components.

An Azure AD directory is a requirement for using Azure Information protection. Use an account from an Azure AD directory to sign in to the Azure portal, where you can configure Azure Information Protection settings.

If you have a subscription that includes Azure Information Protection or Azure Rights Management, your Azure AD directory is automatically created for you if needed.

The following sections list additional AIP and Azure AD requirements for specific scenarios.

Support for certificate-based authentication (CBA)

The Azure Information Protection apps for iOS and Android support certificate-based authentication.

For more information, see Get started with certificate-based authentication in Azure Active Directory.

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) and Azure Information Protection

To use multi-factor authentication (MFA) with Azure Information Protection, you must have at least one of the following installed:

  • Microsoft Office, version 2013 or higher
  • An AIP client. No minimum version required. The AIP clients for Windows, as well as the viewer apps for iOS and Android all support MFA.
  • The Rights Management sharing app for Mac computers. The RMS sharing apps have supported MFA since the September 2015 release.

Note

If you have Office 2013, you might need to install an additional update to support Active Directory Authentication Library (ADAL), such as the June 9, 2015, update for Office 2013 (KB3054853).

Once you've confirmed these prerequisites, do one of the following, depending on your tenant configuration:

Rights Management connector / AIP scanner requirements

The Rights Management connector and the Azure Information Protection scanner do not support MFA.

If you deploy the connector or scanner, the following accounts must not require MFA:

  • The account that installs and configures the connector.
  • The service principal account in Azure AD, Aadrm_S-1-7-0, that the connector creates.
  • The service account that runs the scanner.

User UPN values don't match their email addresses

Configurations where users' UPN values don't match their email addresses is not a recommended configuration, and does not support single-sign on for Azure Information Protection.

If you cannot change the UPN value, configure alternate IDs for the relevant users, and instruct them how to sign in to Office by using this alternate ID.

For more information, see:

Tip

If the domain name in the UPN value is a domain that is verified for your tenant, add the user's UPN value as another email address to the Azure AD proxyAddresses attribute. This allows the user to be authorized for Azure Rights Management if their UPN value is specified at the time the usage rights are granted.

For more information, see Preparing users and groups for Azure Information Protection.

Authenticating on-premises using AD FS or another authentication provider

If you're using a mobile device or Mac computer that authenticates on-premises using AD FS, or an equivalent authentication provider, you must use AD FS on one of the following configurations:

  • A minimum server version of Windows Server 2012 R2
  • An alternative authentication provider that supports the OAuth 2.0 protocol

Next steps

To check for other requirements, see Requirements for Azure Information Protection.