Application object vs service principal

In Microsoft Entra ID, two objects define how apps are secured and used across tenants: the Application Object and the Service Principal.

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Implement Azure Security for Developers

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Implement Azure Security for Developers

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In this chapter, you’ll first get hands-on with Microsoft Entra ID to manage users, groups, and roles in a secure, centralized way. Then, you’ll build a solid foundation in identity management, exploring how authentication, authorization, and service principals work together to control access. Finally, you’ll learn to use Shared Access Signatures to grant limited, time-bound access to storage without exposing sensitive credentials.

Exercise 1: Getting started with Azure security Exercise 2: Microsoft Entra ID overview Exercise 3: Selecting the right security tool Exercise 4: Authentication and authorization in Entra ID Exercise 5: Creating users in Entra ID Exercise 6: Secure access Exercise 7: Authentication vs. authorization Exercise 8: Microsoft identity platform Exercise 9: Application object vs service principal

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Exercise 10: App-only access scenarios Exercise 11: Shared Access Signatures (SAS)Exercise 12: Choosing the right SAS Exercise 13: Creating a SAS token Exercise 14: Secure vs. insecure SAS practices

In this chapter, you'll build a strong foundation in securing app settings and sensitive data using Azure App Configuration and Key Vault. You’ll explore how to manage configurations, enable feature flags, and safeguard settings using encryption, private endpoints, and managed identities. Moving into Key Vault, you’ll learn how it stores secrets, keys, and certificates, and how to apply authentication and authorization best practices. Finally, you'll examine advanced protections like Soft Delete and Purge Protection to ensure your critical data remains safe and recoverable.

Exercise 1: Azure App configuration Exercise 2: Deploying App Configuration Exercise 3: Storing settings in App Configuration Exercise 4: Classify feature management components Exercise 5: Getting started with Key vault Exercise 6: Classifying keys, secrets, and certificates Exercise 7: Retrieve Key Vault secrets in Logic App Exercise 8: Managing secrets in Key Vault Exercise 9: Advanced Key vault settings Exercise 10: Choosing the right authorization model Exercise 11: Soft delete & purge protection

In this part of the course, you’ll begin with Azure Managed Identities, seeing how they let applications access resources securely without managing credentials. You’ll then move into Microsoft Graph, where you’ll explore its unified API and practice queries in Graph Explorer. Finally, you’ll advance to techniques like pagination and batching to handle data more efficiently and build scalable integrations.

Exercise 1: Secure access with managed identities Exercise 2: Managed identities: system vs user assigned Exercise 3: Assigning UAMI for multiple resources Exercise 4: Introduction to Microsoft Graph Exercise 5: Classifying HTTP methods Exercise 6: Exploring data with Graph explorer Exercise 7: Microsoft Graph explorer's quick tour Exercise 8: Advanced usage of Microsoft Graph Exercise 9: Client-side pagination with $top Exercise 10: Match responses to requests