This troubleshooting guide covers failure investigation techniques, common errors for the credential types in the azidentity module, and mitigation steps to resolve these errors.
- Azure App Service and Azure Functions managed identity - Azure Virtual Machine managed identity
Any service client method that makes a request to the service may return an error due to authentication failure. This is because the credential authenticates on the first call to the service and on any subsequent call that needs to refresh an access token. Authentication errors include a description of the failure and possibly an error message from Microsoft Entra ID. Depending on the application, these errors may or may not be recoverable.
Service client errors with a status code of 401 or 403 often indicate that authentication succeeded but the caller doesn't have permission to access the specified API. Check the service documentation to determine which RBAC roles are needed for the request, and ensure the authenticated user or service principal has the appropriate role assignments.
Authentication errors can include responses from Microsoft Entra ID and often contain information helpful in diagnosis. Consider the following error message:
ClientSecretCredential authentication failed
POST https://login.microsoftonline.com/3c631bb7-a9f7-4343-a5ba-a615913/oauth2/v2.0/token
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RESPONSE 401 Unauthorized
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
{
"error": "invalid_client",
"error_description": "AADSTS7000215: Invalid client secret provided. Ensure the secret being sent in the request is the client secret value, not the client secret ID, for a secret added to app '86be4c01-505b-45e9-bfc0-9b825fd84'.\r\nTrace ID: 03da4b8e-5ffe-48ca-9754-aff4276f0100\r\nCorrelation ID: 7b12f9bb-2eef-42e3-ad75-eee69ec9088d\r\nTimestamp: 2022-03-02 18:25:26Z",
"error_codes": [
7000215
],
"timestamp": "2022-03-02 18:25:26Z",
"trace_id": "03da4b8e-5ffe-48ca-9754-aff4276f0100",
"correlation_id": "7b12f9bb-2eef-42e3-ad75-eee69ec9088d",
"error_uri": "https://login.microsoftonline.com/error?code=7000215"
}
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This error contains several pieces of information:
DefaultAzureCredential or ChainedTokenCredential.azidentity provides the same logging capabilities as the rest of the Azure SDK. The simplest way to see the logs to help debug authentication issues is to print credential logs to the console.
import azlog "github.com/Azure/azure-sdk-for-go/sdk/azcore/log"
// print log output to stdout
azlog.SetListener(func(event azlog.Event, s string) {
fmt.Println(s)
})
// include only azidentity credential logs
azlog.SetEvents(azidentity.EventAuthentication)
<a id="dac"></a>
| Error | Description | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|
| "DefaultAzureCredential failed to acquire a token" | No credential in the DefaultAzureCredential chain provided a token | <ul><li>Enable logging to get further diagnostic information.</li><li>Consult the troubleshooting guide for underlying credential types for more information.</li><ul><li>EnvironmentCredential</li><li>ManagedIdentityCredential</li><li>AzureCLICredential</li></ul> |
| Error from the client with a status code of 401 or 403 | Authentication succeeded but the authorizing Azure service responded with a 401 (Unauthorized), or 403 (Forbidden) status code | <ul><li>Enable logging to determine which credential in the chain returned the authenticating token.</li><li>If an unexpected credential is returning a token, check application configuration such as environment variables.</li><li>Ensure the correct role is assigned to the authenticated identity. For example, a service specific role rather than the subscription Owner role.</li></ul> |
| "managed identity timed out" | DefaultAzureCredential sets a short timeout on its first managed identity authentication attempt to prevent very long timeouts during local development when no managed identity is available. That timeout causes this error in production when an application requests a token before the hosting environment is ready to provide one. | Use ManagedIdentityCredential directly, at least in production. It doesn't set a timeout on its authentication attempts. |
| invalid AZURETOKENCREDENTIALS value "..." | AZURETOKENCREDENTIALS has an unexpected value | Specify a valid value as described in DefaultAzureCredential documentation |
| Error Message | Description | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|
| Missing or incomplete environment variable configuration | A valid combination of environment variables wasn't set | Ensure the appropriate environment variables are set for the intended authentication method as described in the module documentation |
<a id="client-secret"></a>
| Error Code | Issue | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|
| AADSTS7000215 | An invalid client secret was provided. | Ensure the secret provided to the credential constructor is valid. If unsure, create a new client secret using the Azure portal. Details on creating a new client secret are in Microsoft Entra ID documentation. |
| AADSTS7000222 | An expired client secret was provided. | Create a new client secret using the Azure portal. Details on creating a new client secret are in Microsoft Entra ID documentation. |
| AADSTS700016 | The specified application wasn't found in the specified tenant. | Ensure the client and tenant IDs provided to the credential constructor are correct for your application registration. For multi-tenant apps, ensure the application has been added to the desired tenant by a tenant admin. To add a new application in the desired tenant, follow the Microsoft Entra ID instructions. |
<a id="client-cert"></a>
| Error Code | Description | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|
| AADSTS700027 | Client assertion contains an invalid signature. | Ensure the specified certificate has been uploaded to the application registration as described in Microsoft Entra ID documentation. |
| AADSTS700016 | The specified application wasn't found in the specified tenant. | Ensure the client and tenant IDs provided to the credential constructor are correct for your application registration. For multi-tenant apps, ensure the application has been added to the desired tenant by a tenant admin. To add a new application in the desired tenant, follow the Microsoft Entra ID instructions. |
<a id="managed-id"></a>
ManagedIdentityCredential is designed to work on a variety of Azure hosts support managed identity. Configuration and troubleshooting vary from host to host. The below table lists the Azure hosts that can be assigned a managed identity and are supported by ManagedIdentityCredential.
| Host Environment | ||
|---|---|---|
| Azure Virtual Machines and Scale Sets | Configuration | Troubleshooting |
| Azure App Service and Azure Functions | Configuration | Troubleshooting |
| Azure Arc | Configuration | |
| Azure Service Fabric | Configuration |
| Error Message | Description | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|
| The requested identity hasn’t been assigned to this resource. | The IMDS endpoint responded with a status code of 400, indicating the requested identity isn’t assigned to the VM. | If using a user assigned identity, ensure the specified ID is correct.<p/><p/>If using a system assigned identity, make sure it has been enabled as described in managed identity documentation. |
| The request failed due to a gateway error. | The request to the IMDS endpoint failed due to a gateway error, 502 or 504 status code. | IMDS doesn't support requests via proxy or gateway. Disable proxies or gateways running on the VM for requests to the IMDS endpoint http://169.254.169.254 |
| No response received from the managed identity endpoint. | No response was received for the request to IMDS or the request timed out. | <ul><li>Ensure the VM is configured for managed identity as described in managed identity documentation.</li><li>Verify the IMDS endpoint is reachable on the VM. See below for instructions.</li></ul> |
| Multiple attempts failed to obtain a token from the managed identity endpoint. | The credential has exhausted its retries for a token request. | <ul><li>Refer to the error message for more details on specific failures.<li>Ensure the VM is configured for managed identity as described in managed identity documentation.</li><li>Verify the IMDS endpoint is reachable on the VM. See below for instructions.</li></ul> |
If you have access to the VM, you can use curl to verify the managed identity endpoint is available.
curl 'http://169.254.169.254/metadata/identity/oauth2/token?resource=https://management.core.windows.net&api-version=2018-02-01' -H "Metadata: true"
This command's output will contain an access token and SHOULD NOT BE SHARED, to avoid compromising account security.
| Error Message | Description | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|
Get "http://169.254.169.254/..." i/o timeout | The App Service host hasn't set environment variables for managed identity configuration. | <ul><li>Ensure the App Service is configured for managed identity as described in App Service documentation.</li><li>Verify the App Service environment is properly configured and the managed identity endpoint is available. See below for instructions.</li></ul> |
If you can SSH into the App Service, you can verify managed identity is available in the environment. First ensure the environment variables IDENTITY_ENDPOINT and IDENTITY_SECRET are set. Then you can verify the managed identity endpoint is available using curl.
curl "$IDENTITY_ENDPOINT?resource=https://management.core.windows.net&api-version=2019-08-01" -H "X-IDENTITY-HEADER: $IDENTITY_HEADER"
This command's output will contain an access token and SHOULD NOT BE SHARED, to avoid compromising account security.
<a id="azure-cli"></a>
| Error Message | Description | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|
| Azure CLI not found on path | The Azure CLI isn’t installed or isn't on the application's path. | <ul><li>Ensure the Azure CLI is installed as described in Azure CLI documentation.</li><li>Validate the installation location is in the application's PATH environment variable.</li></ul> |
| Please run 'az login' to set up account | No account is currently logged into the Azure CLI, or the login has expired. | <ul><li>Run az login to log into the Azure CLI. More information about Azure CLI authentication is available in the Azure CLI documentation.</li><li>Verify that the Azure CLI can obtain tokens. See below for instructions.</li></ul> |
| Subscription "[your subscription]" contains invalid characters. If this is the name of a subscription, use its ID instead | The subscription name contains a character that may not be safe in a command line. | Use the subscription's ID instead of its name. You can get this from the Azure CLI: az account show --name "[your subscription]" --query "id" |
You can manually verify that the Azure CLI can authenticate and obtain tokens. First, use the account command to verify the logged in account.
az account show
Once you've verified the Azure CLI is using the correct account, you can validate that it's able to obtain tokens for that account.
az account get-access-token --output json --resource https://management.core.windows.net
This command's output will contain an access token and SHOULD NOT BE SHARED, to avoid compromising account security.
<a id="azd"></a>
| Error Message | Description | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|
| Azure Developer CLI not found on path | The Azure Developer CLI isn't installed or couldn't be found. | <ul><li>Ensure the Azure Developer CLI is properly installed. See the installation instructions at Install or update the Azure Developer CLI.</li><li>Validate the installation location has been added to the PATH environment variable.</li></ul> |
| Please run "azd auth login" | No account is logged into the Azure Developer CLI, or the login has expired. | <ul><li>Log in to the Azure Developer CLI using the azd login command.</li><li>Validate that the Azure Developer CLI can obtain tokens. For instructions, see Verify the Azure Developer CLI can obtain tokens.</li></ul> |
You can manually verify that the Azure Developer CLI is properly authenticated and can obtain tokens. First, use the config command to verify the account that is currently logged in to the Azure Developer CLI.
azd config list
Once you've verified the Azure Developer CLI is using correct account, you can validate that it's able to obtain tokens for this account.
azd auth token --output json --scope https://management.core.windows.net/.default
>Note that output of this command will contain a valid access token, and SHOULD NOT BE SHARED to avoid compromising account security.
<a id="azure-pwsh"></a>
AzurePowerShellCredential authentication issues| Error Message | Description | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|
| executable not found on path | No local installation of PowerShell was found. | Ensure that PowerShell is properly installed on the machine. Instructions for installing PowerShell can be found here. |
| Az.Accounts module not found | The Az.Account module needed for authentication in Azure PowerShell isn't installed. | Install the latest Az.Account module. Installation instructions can be found here. |
| Please run "Connect-AzAccount" to set up account. | No account is currently logged into Azure PowerShell. | <ul><li>Log in to Azure PowerShell using the Connect-AzAccount command. More instructions for authenticating Azure PowerShell can be found at Sign in with Azure PowerShell.</li><li>Validate that Azure PowerShell can obtain tokens. For instructions, see Verify Azure PowerShell can obtain tokens.</li></ul> |
You can manually verify that Azure PowerShell is authenticated and can obtain tokens. First, use the Get-AzContext command to verify the account that is currently logged in to Azure PowerShell.
PS C:\> Get-AzContext
Name Account SubscriptionName Environment TenantId
---- ------- ---------------- ----------- --------
Subscription1 (xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxx... test@outlook.com Subscription1 AzureCloud xxxxxxxx-x...
Once you've verified Azure PowerShell is using correct account, validate that it's able to obtain tokens for this account:
Get-AzAccessToken -ResourceUrl "https://management.core.windows.net"
>Note that output of this command will contain a valid access token, and SHOULD NOT BE SHARED to avoid compromising account security.
<a id="workload"></a>
WorkloadIdentityCredential authentication issues| Error Message | Description | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|
| no client ID/tenant ID/token file specified | Incomplete configuration | In most cases these values are provided via environment variables set by Azure Workload Identity.<ul><li>If your application runs on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) or a cluster that has deployed the Azure Workload Identity admission webhook, check pod labels and service account configuration. See the AKS documentation and Azure Workload Identity troubleshooting guide for more details.<li>If your application isn't running on AKS or your cluster hasn't deployed the Workload Identity admission webhook, set these values in WorkloadIdentityCredentialOptions |
<a id="apc"></a>
| Error Message | Description | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|
| AADSTS900023: Specified tenant identifier 'some tenant ID' is neither a valid DNS name, nor a valid external domain. | The tenantID argument to NewAzurePipelinesCredential is incorrect | Verify the tenant ID. It must identify the tenant of the user-assigned managed identity or service principal configured for the service connection. |
| No service connection found with identifier | The serviceConnectionID argument to NewAzurePipelinesCredential is incorrect | Verify the service connection ID. This parameter refers to the resourceId of the Azure Service Connection. It can also be found in the query string of the service connection's configuration in Azure DevOps. Azure Pipelines documentation has more information about service connections. |
| 401 (Unauthorized) response from OIDC endpoint | The systemAccessToken argument to NewAzurePipelinesCredential is incorrect | Check pipeline configuration. This value comes from the predefined variable System.AccessToken as described in Azure Pipelines documentation. |
azidentity/cache encrypts persistent caches with the system Keychain on macOS. You may see build and runtime errors there because calling the Keychain API requires cgo and macOS prohibits Keychain access in some scenarios.
Build errors about undefined accessor symbols indicate that cgo wasn't enabled. For example:
$ GOOS=darwin go build
# github.com/Azure/azure-sdk-for-go/sdk/azidentity/cache
../../go/pkg/mod/github.com/!azure/azure-sdk-for-go/sdk/azidentity/cache@v0.3.0/darwin.go:18:19: undefined: accessor.New
../../go/pkg/mod/github.com/!azure/azure-sdk-for-go/sdk/azidentity/cache@v0.3.0/darwin.go:18:38: undefined: accessor.WithAccount
Try go build again with CGO_ENABLED=1. You may need to install native build tools.
macOS prohibits Keychain access from environments without a GUI such as SSH sessions. If your application calls the persistent cache constructor (cache.New) from an SSH session on a macOS host, you'll see an error like
persistent storage isn't available due to error "User interaction is not allowed. (-25308)". This doesn't mean authentication is impossible, only that credentials can't persist data and the application must reauthenticate the next time it runs.
Additional information on ways to reach out for support can be found in SUPPORT.md.