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Authorization and the Microsoft Graph Security API

  • Raksts

Security data accessible via the Microsoft Graph Security API is sensitive and protected by both permissions and Microsoft Entra roles.

The Microsoft Graph Security API supports two types of authorization:

  • Application-level authorization: There is no signed-in user (for example, a SIEM scenario). The permissions granted to the application determine authorization.

    Note

    This option can also support cases where Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) is managed by the application.

  • User-delegated authorization: A user who is a member of the Microsoft Entra tenant is signed in. The user must be a member of a Microsoft Entra ID Limited Admin role—either Security Reader or Security Administrator—in addition to the application having been granted the required permissions.

If you're calling the Microsoft Graph Security API from Graph Explorer:

  • The Microsoft Entra tenant admin must explicitly grant consent for the requested permissions to the Graph Explorer application.

  • The user must be a member of the Security Reader Limited Admin role in Microsoft Entra ID (either Security Reader or Security Administrator).

    Note

    Graph Explorer does not support application-level authorization.

If you're calling the Microsoft Graph Security API from a custom or your own application:

  • The Microsoft Entra tenant admin must explicitly grant consent to your application. This is required both for application-level authorization and user delegated authorization.
  • If you're using user delegated authorization, the user must be a member of the Security Reader or Security Administrator Limited Admin role in Microsoft Entra ID.

Manage authorization in security API client applications

Security data provided via the Microsoft Graph Security API is sensitive and must be protected by appropriate authentication and authorization mechanisms. The following table lists the steps to register and create a client application that can access the Microsoft Graph Security API.

Who Action
Application developer or owner Register the application as an enterprise application.
Tenant admin Grant permissions to the application.
Tenant admin Assign roles to users.
Application developer Sign in as the user and use the application to access the Microsoft Graph Security API.

Application registration only defines which permissions the application needs in order to run. It does NOT grant these permissions to the application.

The Microsoft Entra tenant administrator MUST explicitly grant the permissions to the application. This must be done per tenant and must be performed every time the application permissions are changed in the application registration portal.

For example, assume that you have an application, two Microsoft Entra tenants, T1 and T2, and two permissions, P1 and P2. The following is the authorization process:

  • The application registers to require permission P1.

  • When users in tenant T1 get a Microsoft Entra token for this application, the token does not contain any permissions.

  • The Microsoft Entra admin of tenant T1 explicitly grants permissions to the application. When users in tenant T1 get a Microsoft Entra token for the application, it will contain permission P1.

  • When users in tenant T2 get a Microsoft Entra token for the application, the token does not contain any permissions because the admin of tenant T2 did not yet grant permissions to the application. Permission must be granted per tenant and per application.

  • The application has its registration changed to now require permissions P1 and P2.

  • When users in tenant T1 get a Microsoft Entra token for the application, it only contains permission P1. Permissions granted to an application are recorded as snapshots of what was granted; they do not change automatically after the application registration (permission) changes.

  • The admin of tenant T2 grants permissions P1 and P2 to the application. Now, when users in tenant T2 get a Microsoft Entra token for the application, the token will contain permissions P1 and P2.

    Note

    The Microsoft Entra tokens for the application in tenant T1 and the application in tenant T2 contain different permissions, because each tenant admin has granted different permissions to the application.

  • To make the application work again in tenant T1, the admin of tenant T1 must explicitly grant permissions P1 and P2 to the application.

Register an application with the Microsoft identity platform endpoint

To register an application to the Microsoft identity platform endpoint, you'll need:

  • Application name: A string used for the application name.
  • Redirect URL: The URL where the authentication response from Microsoft Entra ID is sent. To start, you can use the test client web app homepage.
  • Required Permissions: The permissions that your application requires to be able to call Microsoft Graph.

To register your application:

  1. Go to the Azure app registration portal and sign in.

    Note

    You don't have to be a tenant admin. You will be redirected to the My applications list.

  2. Choose New registration.

  3. On the registration page for the new application, enter a value for Name and select the account types you wish to support. In the Redirect URI field, enter the redirect URL.

  4. Select Register to create the app and view its overview page. *

  5. Go to the app's API permissions page.

  6. Select Add a permission and then choose Microsoft Graph in the flyout. Select Delegated permissions. Use the search box to find and select the required permissions. For a list of permissions, see Security permissions.

    Note

    The Microsoft Graph Security API requires the *.Read.All scope for GET queries, and the *.ReadWrite.All scope for PATCH/POST/DELETE queries.

    Permission Entity Supported requests
    SecurityActions.Read.All • securityActions (preview) GET
    SecurityActions.ReadWrite.All • securityActions (preview) GET, POST
    SecurityEvents.Read.All • alerts
    • secureScores
    • secureScoreControlProfiles    		 GET
    SecurityEvents.ReadWrite.All • alerts
    • secureScores
    • secureScoreControlProfiles    		 GET, POST, PATCH
    ThreatIndicators.ReadWrite.OwnedBy • tiIndicator (preview) GET, POST, PATCH, DELETE

  7. Choose Add permissions.

Save the following information:

  • Application (client) ID
  • Redirect URL
  • List of required permissions

*Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (WDATP) requires additional user roles than what is required by the Microsoft Graph Security API; therefore, only the users in both WDATP and Microsoft Graph Security API roles can have access to the WDATP data. Application-only authentication is not limited by this; therefore, we recommend that you use an app-only authentication token.

For more information, see Register your app with the Microsoft identity platform.

Grant permissions to an application

Application registration only defines which permission the application requires; it does not grant these permissions to the application. A Microsoft Entra tenant administrator must explicitly grant these permissions by making a call to the admin consent endpoint. For details, see Using the admin consent endpoint.

To grant permissions to an application, you'll need:

  • Application ID: The application ID from the Azure application registration portal.
  • Redirect URL: The string you set in the Azure application registration portal for authentication response.

To grant the permissions:

  • In a text editor, create the following URL string:

    https://login.microsoftonline.com/common/adminconsent?client_id=<Application Id>&state=12345&redirect_uri=<Redirect URL>

  • In a web browser, go to this URL, and sign in as a tenant administrator. The dialog box shows the list of permission the application requires, as specified in the application registration portal. Choose OK to grant the application these permissions.

    Note

    This step grants permissions to the application, not to users. This means that all users belonging to the Microsoft Entra tenant that use this application will be granted these permissions—even non-admin users.

Assign Microsoft Entra roles to users

After an application is granted permissions, everyone with access to the application (that is, members of the Microsoft Entra tenant) receives the granted permissions. To further protect sensitive security data, the Microsoft Graph Security API also requires users to be assigned the Microsoft Entra ID Security Reader role. For details, see Administrator role permissions in Microsoft Entra ID and Assign administrator and non-administrator roles to users with Microsoft Entra ID.

Note

You must be a tenant admin to perform this step.

To assign a role to a user:

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center.
  2. Expand the Identity menu > expand Users > select All users.
  3. Select the user.
  4. Choose Assigned roles, and then Add assignment.
  5. Select Security reader, and click Add.

Create an authentication code

To create an authentication code, you'll need:

  • Application ID: The application ID from application registration portal.
  • Redirect URL: The URL where the authentication response from Microsoft Entra ID is sent. To start, you can use https://localhost or the test client web app homepage.
  • Application Key (optional): The key of the application. This applies when you're developing an application that will use application-only authentication code (that is, will not support user delegated authentication).

The following table lists resources that you can use to create an authentication code.

Type of application Authentication library
Desktop apps - iOS MSAL.framework: Microsoft Authentication Library Preview for iOS
Desktop apps - Android Microsoft Authentication Library (MSAL)
Desktop apps - .Net Microsoft Authentication Library (MSAL)
Web apps - JavaScript SPA Microsoft Authentication Library for JavaScript Preview
Web apps - .NET Web Server OpenIdConnection, Cookies, SystemWeb
Web apps - NodeJS Web App

For applications that don't use any of the existing libraries, see Get access on behalf of a user.

  1. Get a code from Microsoft Entra ID. The query to call contains parameter for Application ID, Redirect URl, and required permissions.
  2. Use the code to get an access token.

If you use OpenId Connect library, see Authenticate using Microsoft Entra ID and OpenID Connect and call app.UseOpenIdConnectAuthentication().

Note

If you're requesting user delegated authentication tokens, the parameter for the library is Requested Scopes. Use User.Read for this parameter instead of what the registered application requires. The Requested Scopes parameter does NOT affect the permissions contained in the returned authentication tokens. These are determined by the permissions that the tenant admin granted the application.

For example, if you're using the .NET MSAL library, call the following:

var accessToken = (await client.AcquireTokenAsync(scopes)).AccessToken;

Note

This example should use the least privileged permission, such as User.Read. However, the returned access token can contain permissions that were granted by the tenant admin for the current user tenant, such as User.Read.All or User.ReadWrite.All.

A token (string) is returned by Microsoft Entra ID that contains your authentication information and the permissions required by the application. Assign this token to the HTTP header as a bearer token, as shown in the following example.

request.Headers.Authorization = new AuthenticationHeaderValue("bearer", accessToken);

Microsoft Graph will validate the information contained in this token and grant, or reject, access.

To view claims contained in the returned token, use NuGet library System.IdentityModel.Tokens.Jwt.

JwtSecurityTokenHandler tokenHandler = new JwtSecurityTokenHandler();
var securityToken = tokenHandler.ReadToken(accessToken) as JwtSecurityToken;

The response from Microsoft Graph contains a header called client-request-id, which is a GUID. If access is denied, please specify this GUID when seeking support at Microsoft Tech Community, so we can help investigate the cause of this authentication failure.