Call the Microsoft Graph API -and- your own API from a Single Page (JavaScript) Application

Introduction

If you have gone through the typical authentication scenarios, then you’ve probably seen that almost every single one is calling the Graph API. Where that is already cool as such, we’re all probably more interesting in using our own APIs… Today’s post will go through the process of calling -both- the Microsoft Graph API and your own API from the same code base.

 

Starting Knowledge Assumption

My assumption is that you are already familiar with the basics of Oauth, where you’re aware that a Single Page Application (SPA) is using an “Implicit Grant Flow“. Also be aware that the Azure Active Directory (AAD) v1 endpoint differs from the v2 endpoint in terms of resources & scopes.

In the v1 endpoint, you would target a “resource” in order to get authorization ;

Where the v2 endpoint rotates around the usage of scopes ;

The latter indicates both the resource & the permission that is targeted…

 

Setup of the day

As our test bed for today, we’re having a Single Page Application that has its own “Application ID” (clientid in Oauth). Which will be linked to two backend APIs; Microsoft’s Graph API and our own

Both our APIs have a given set of scopes that indicate the permissions that a user grants towards these APIs…

Integration MSAL (Microsoft Authentication Library) into VueJS

Introduction

Probably everyone can relate that they do not want to invest the time in something “as commodity” as authentication when developing. Though on the other hand, the “identity” part is a key part to keeping your application (and thus your organization’s data) secure. So how to find the perfect fit in terms of this balance? Leveraging identity providers is the typical path to take here. Where there are quite a few in a SaaS service model even. From the Microsoft stables, you can find both Azure Active Directory & Azure Active Directory B2C to play an important role in this space.

When looking in this space, the defacto protocol standards here are Oauth2 & OpenID Connect. Where OIDC (OpenID Connect) is actually a layer built on top of Oauth2. Anyhow, where they provide a very good / robust security layer, the flip side of the coin is that (like with any security product) there is a given entry barrier in terms of understanding the complexity it brings (in terms of authentication flows).

Now when looking at JavaScript, it’s safe to say that this language has a significant place in the front-end side of development. There are several JavaScript frameworks that hope to make the life of the developer using it a bit more easy… Where VueJS is one of those. Why pick one over another? It all depends on when you start, and it’s kinda like with religions I guess. There are a big of nuance differences, though in essence they all have the same goal (give or take). 😉 As my personal experience situates itself on the VueJS side of things, this post will cover the VueJS integration.

 

Challenges

Using Azure Key Vault with your application settings (environment variables) powering Azure Functions

Introduction

Last week the blog post “Simplifying security for serverless and web apps with Azure Functions and App Service” was published. In essence, it talks about how you can integrate Azure Functions with Azure Key Vault in order to retrieve secrets and import them into the application settings (being environment variables). You can do this in a secure manner, by providing the Azure Functions platform with a Managed Service Identity, and granting its underlying service principle with (limited: list & read) rights to the Key Vault.

 

Let’s take a look!

The first thing we’ll need to do, is to enable the “Managed service identity” for our Azure Function plan. Let’s browse to our Azure Function plan, and then select “Platform features”.

Traffic Light Protocol alike Security Reference Architecture for Azure

Introduction

The way how organizations categorize/handle classified information can vary significantly. Where it can go from about 6 categories towards a more “limited” set of 3 to 4 categories. Where you see that some government organizations have even tried to reduce this in an effort to make it more accessible.

 

So for today, we’ll be looking at how we can handle sensitive/classified information in Azure. And to ensure you that you Azure implementations can facilitate sensitive data.

 

Side Story : Security should be like a roundabout

Though I don’t remember which conference talk it was… One visual has always stuck with me when talking about security. Imagine security like road infrastructure. Having a complex situation might be needed at times, though it will increase the risk that the drivers (~users) will make mistakes.

Taking a look under the hood of the Linux VM Authentication

Introduction

Today we’ll do a deep-dive into how you can log into an Azure Linux VM with Azure Active Directory (AAD). In essence, we’ll go through the following documentation flow, and then take a look how that looks under the hood.

 

Part one : “Creation”

The part on creating & integrating the VM is VERY straightforward…

• Create a resource group
  
• Create a Linux virtual machine
  
• Add the “Azure AD login VM”-extension
  

And that’s it! Really, that’s it…

Taking a peek at the Azure Management Groups

Introduction

A few days ago the “Azure Management Groups” got into Public Preview. The pitch as mentioned to the docs ;

You can build a flexible structure of management groups and subscriptions to organize your resources into a hierarchy for unified policy and access management.

During the current preview, policies aren’t yet part of the preview. Though they will be included later on. So for the moment you can use them to setup a unified access management structure for your governance.

 

Taking a peek

So let’s take a look at how it looks?

Hardening Azure Functions when exposing them via Azure API Management

Introduction

In my discussions with customers about “serverless”, we often talk about the typical security patterns when embarking on the deployment of functions for Enterprise organizations. A typical combination we see here is where Azure API Management is used in front of Azure Functions. Today we’ll talk about the options at hand here. In essence this will related to a choice where an organization will need to choose between “Fully Isolated” and “Full Flexibility”!

Azure IoT Hub – Generating & using SAS tokens for a device

Introduction

Today we’ll talk about two connection flows you can do with an IoT setup when using keys. An alternative might be to use certificates, but I won’t cover that one today.

When talking about keys, there are two common patterns ;

• one where the IoT device has a symmetric key (used to generate SAS tokens)
• another where the IoT device is only provided with the SAS token (which is generated by another service)

Azure Networking : Blueprint patterns for enterprises

Introduction

When moving to the cloud, one cannot imagine this without some kind of network integration. Taking a look at “Infrastructure-as-a-Service”, there are several common patterns that are utilized by enterprises. Today we’ll discuss these patterns…

 

Update – June 2018

Despite that this post isn’t even a year old, I’ll be updating it with the new guidance that come from the introduction of the standard LB. Here we advise to use a single legged deployment.

 

Typical Network Maturity Models

Embarking on a cloud journey? You’ll typically go through the following patterns depending on your “maturity level” in working with the cloud ;

1. “Island” : The first approach is typically “the island”. The VMs reside in a VNET that is not connected/integrated with any other networks, except for (maybe) the internet.
2. “Hybrid Connection” : The first step towards integration is creating a hybrid connection. Here you want to access “On Premises” resources, though the mass of the resources on Azure do not justify the investment into a “Network Virtual Appliance” (AKA Firewall). Two flavours typically arise here;
   1. “Forced Tunneling” : Here you set up a “UDR” (User Defined Route, AKA Static Route), where you force all traffic to go back to the “On Premises” network.
   2. “Azure = Internet Zone” : Here you assume that the Azure zone is does what it needs to do to protect its resources Though you’ll protect your “On Prem” zone by considering the Azure VNET as being “the bad internet”.
3. “Single VNET with DMZ” : One step beyond “forced tunneling”, is moving towards the typical DMZ-alike pattern, where you setup a HA-pair of “Network Virtual Appliances” and segregate network zones.
4. “Hub & Spoke”-model : Growing even further, you’ll have multiple subscriptions. Setting up “NVAs” on all of those can be quite expensive. In terms of governance, this also a nice model, where you can consolidate all network integration into a segregated subscription/vnet.

The advantage of these patterns is that you can evolve into another pattern without breaking anything in terms of design.

Azure : IT Governance in the cloud

Introduction

During the weekend I saw the following tweet passing by …

Hosting company Verelox has had all their customers dedicated and virtual servers wiped. Their statement: pic.twitter.com/XvAQcofJKu

— Kevin Beaumont (@GossiTheDog) June 10, 2017

Apparently, a hosting company (allegedly) got all their data wiped by an ex-admin. Now I can imagine people thinking that this is something that is part of the territory when it boils down to cloud. So I wanted to write a blog post entailing what you do to set up a governance structure in Azure. Here I’m aware that the above tweet is more related to the security aspect of governance, it’s a part of it nevertheless.

 

Governance?!?

Let’s get started on our scope… IT Governance can cover a lot of ground. In essence, the goal is to assure that the investment in IT generates business value and the risks that are associated with IT projects are mitigated. Though I found that CIO.com has a nice definition on it ;

Simply put, it’s putting structure around how organizations align IT strategy with business strategy, ensuring that companies stay on track to achieve their strategies and goals, and implementing good ways to measure IT’s performance. It makes sure that all stakeholders’ interests are taken into account and that processes provide measurable results. An IT governance framework should answer some key questions, such as how the IT department is functioning overall, what key metrics management needs and what return IT is giving back to the business from the investment it’s making.

So let’s take a look at how we can put an enterprise-grade structure around the management of Azure!

 

TL;DR = Azure Enterprise Scaffold

For those who want to skip the post below… When talking about governance in Azure, the best place that summarizes it the following page in our documentation ; “The Azure Enterprise Scaffold“.