Desktop app that calls web APIs: Acquire a token using username and password

Article
01/15/2024

In your desktop applications, you can use the username and password flow, also known as Resource Owner Password Credentials (ROPC), to acquire a token silently.

Warning

The username and password flow is not recommended as the application will be asking a user for their password directly, which is an insecure pattern. For more information about the risks and challenges the ROPC flow poses, refer to "What’s the solution to the growing problem of passwords?.

Additionally, by using a username and password, developers give up a number of things, including:

Core tenets of modern identity - A password can get phished and replayed because a shared secret can be intercepted.
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) - Users can't sign in because there's no interaction.
Single sign-on (SSO) capabilities.

The username and password flow also has the following constraints:

The username and password flow isn't compatible with Conditional Access and multi-factor authentication. If your app runs in a Microsoft Entra tenant where the admin requires multi-factor authentication, like most organizations do, you can't use this flow.
It only works for work and school accounts, not personal Microsoft Accounts.
The flow is available on .NET desktop and .NET, but not on UWP.

Using a username and password is useful in some cases, such as DevOps scenarios. However, if you want to use a username and password in interactive scenarios where you provide your own UI, consider moving away from it.

The preferred flow for acquiring a token silently on Windows is using the Windows authentication broker. Alternatively, developers can also use the Device code flow on devices without access to the web browser.

If you're building a desktop application that signs in users with social identities using the Resource Owner Password Credentials (ROPC) flow, see how to sign in users with social identities by using Azure AD B2C

Use the ROPC flow

IPublicClientApplicationcontains the method AcquireTokenByUsernamePassword.

The following sample presents a simplified case.

static async Task GetATokenForGraph()
{
 string authority = "https://login.microsoftonline.com/contoso.com";
 string[] scopes = new string[] { "user.read" };
 IPublicClientApplication app;
 app = PublicClientApplicationBuilder.Create(clientId)
       .WithAuthority(authority)
       .Build();
 var accounts = await app.GetAccountsAsync();

 AuthenticationResult result = null;
 if (accounts.Any())
 {
  result = await app.AcquireTokenSilent(scopes, accounts.FirstOrDefault())
                    .ExecuteAsync();
 }
 else
 {
  try
  {
   var securePassword = new SecureString();
   foreach (char c in "dummy")        // you should fetch the password
    securePassword.AppendChar(c);  // keystroke by keystroke

   result = await app.AcquireTokenByUsernamePassword(scopes,
                                                    "[email protected]",
                                                     securePassword)
                      .ExecuteAsync();
  }
  catch(MsalException)
  {
   // See details below
  }
 }
 Console.WriteLine(result.Account.Username);
}

The following sample presents the most current case, with explanations of the kind of exceptions you can get and their mitigations.

static async Task GetATokenForGraph()
{
 string authority = "https://login.microsoftonline.com/contoso.com";
 string[] scopes = new string[] { "user.read" };
 IPublicClientApplication app;
 app = PublicClientApplicationBuilder.Create(clientId)
                                   .WithAuthority(authority)
                                   .Build();
 var accounts = await app.GetAccountsAsync();

 AuthenticationResult result = null;
 if (accounts.Any())
 {
  result = await app.AcquireTokenSilent(scopes, accounts.FirstOrDefault())
                    .ExecuteAsync();
 }
 else
 {
  try
  {
   var securePassword = new SecureString();
   foreach (char c in "dummy")        // you should fetch the password keystroke
    securePassword.AppendChar(c);  // by keystroke

   result = await app.AcquireTokenByUsernamePassword(scopes,
                                                    "[email protected]",
                                                    securePassword)
                    .ExecuteAsync();
  }
  catch (MsalUiRequiredException ex) when (ex.Message.Contains("AADSTS65001"))
  {
   // Here are the kind of error messages you could have, and possible mitigations

   // ------------------------------------------------------------------------
   // MsalUiRequiredException: AADSTS65001: The user or administrator has not consented to use the application
   // with ID '{appId}' named '{appName}'. Send an interactive authorization request for this user and resource.

   // Mitigation: you need to get user consent first. This can be done either statically (through the portal),
   /// or dynamically (but this requires an interaction with Azure AD, which is not possible with
   // the username/password flow)
   // Statically: in the portal by doing the following in the "API permissions" tab of the application registration:
   // 1. Click "Add a permission" and add all the delegated permissions corresponding to the scopes you want (for instance
   // User.Read and User.ReadBasic.All)
   // 2. Click "Grant/revoke admin consent for <tenant>") and click "yes".
   // Dynamically, if you are not using .NET (which does not have any Web UI) by
   // calling (once only) AcquireTokenInteractive.
   // remember that Username/password is for public client applications that is desktop/mobile applications.
   // If you are using .NET or don't want to call AcquireTokenInteractive, you might want to:
   // - use device code flow (See https://aka.ms/msal-net-device-code-flow)
   // - or suggest the user to navigate to a URL to consent: https://login.microsoftonline.com/common/oauth2/v2.0/authorize?client_id={clientId}&response_type=code&scope=user.read
   // ------------------------------------------------------------------------

   // ------------------------------------------------------------------------
   // ErrorCode: invalid_grant
   // SubError: basic_action
   // MsalUiRequiredException: AADSTS50079: The user is required to use multi-factor authentication.
   // The tenant admin for your organization has chosen to oblige users to perform multi-factor authentication.
   // Mitigation: none for this flow
   // Your application cannot use the Username/Password grant.
   // Like in the previous case, you might want to use an interactive flow (AcquireTokenInteractive()),
   // or Device Code Flow instead.
   // Note this is one of the reason why using username/password is not recommended;
   // ------------------------------------------------------------------------

   // ------------------------------------------------------------------------
   // ex.ErrorCode: invalid_grant
   // subError: null
   // Message = "AADSTS70002: Error validating credentials.
   // AADSTS50126: Invalid username or password
   // In the case of a managed user (user from an Azure AD tenant opposed to a
   // federated user, which would be owned
   // in another IdP through ADFS), the user has entered the wrong password
   // Mitigation: ask the user to re-enter the password
   // ------------------------------------------------------------------------

   // ------------------------------------------------------------------------
   // ex.ErrorCode: invalid_grant
   // subError: null
   // MsalServiceException: ADSTS50034: To sign into this application the account must be added to
   // the {domainName} directory.
   // or The user account does not exist in the {domainName} directory. To sign into this application,
   // the account must be added to the directory.
   // The user was not found in the directory
   // Explanation: wrong username
   // Mitigation: ask the user to re-enter the username.
   // ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  }
  catch (MsalServiceException ex) when (ex.ErrorCode == "invalid_request")
  {
   // ------------------------------------------------------------------------
   // AADSTS90010: The grant type is not supported over the /common or /consumers endpoints.
   // Please use the /organizations or tenant-specific endpoint.
   // you used common.
   // Mitigation: as explained in the message from Azure AD, the authority you use in the application needs
   // to be tenanted or otherwise "organizations". change the
   // "Tenant": property in the appsettings.json to be a GUID (tenant Id), or domain name (contoso.com)
   // if such a domain is registered with your tenant
   // or "organizations", if you want this application to sign-in users in any Work and School accounts.
   // ------------------------------------------------------------------------

  }
  catch (MsalServiceException ex) when (ex.ErrorCode == "unauthorized_client")
  {
   // ------------------------------------------------------------------------
   // AADSTS700016: Application with identifier '{clientId}' was not found in the directory '{domain}'.
   // This can happen if the application has not been installed by the administrator of the tenant or consented
   // to by any user in the tenant.
   // You may have sent your authentication request to the wrong tenant
   // Cause: The clientId in the appsettings.json might be wrong
   // Mitigation: check the clientId and the app registration
   // ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  }
  catch (MsalServiceException ex) when (ex.ErrorCode == "invalid_client")
  {
   // ------------------------------------------------------------------------
   // AADSTS70002: The request body must contain the following parameter: 'client_secret or client_assertion'.
   // Explanation: this can happen if your application was not registered as a public client application in Azure AD
   // Mitigation: in the Azure portal, edit the manifest for your application and set the `allowPublicClient` to `true`
   // ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  }
  catch (MsalServiceException)
  {
   throw;
  }

  catch (MsalClientException ex) when (ex.ErrorCode == "unknown_user_type")
  {
   // Message = "Unsupported User Type 'Unknown'. Please see https://aka.ms/msal-net-up"
   // The user is not recognized as a managed user, or a federated user. Azure AD was not
   // able to identify the IdP that needs to process the user
   throw new ArgumentException("U/P: Wrong username", ex);
  }
  catch (MsalClientException ex) when (ex.ErrorCode == "user_realm_discovery_failed")
  {
   // The user is not recognized as a managed user, or a federated user. Azure AD was not
   // able to identify the IdP that needs to process the user. That's for instance the case
   // if you use a phone number
   throw new ArgumentException("U/P: Wrong username", ex);
  }
  catch (MsalClientException ex) when (ex.ErrorCode == "unknown_user")
  {
   // the username was probably empty
   // ex.Message = "Could not identify the user logged into the OS. See https://aka.ms/msal-net-iwa for details."
   throw new ArgumentException("U/P: Wrong username", ex);
  }
  catch (MsalClientException ex) when (ex.ErrorCode == "parsing_wstrust_response_failed")
  {
   // ------------------------------------------------------------------------
   // In the case of a Federated user (that is owned by a federated IdP, as opposed to a managed user owned in an Azure AD tenant)
   // ID3242: The security token could not be authenticated or authorized.
   // The user does not exist or has entered the wrong password
   // ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  }
 }

 Console.WriteLine(result.Account.Username);
}

For more information on all the modifiers that can be applied to AcquireTokenByUsernamePassword, see AcquireTokenByUsernamePasswordParameterBuilder.

The following extract is from the MSAL Java code samples.

 PublicClientApplication pca = PublicClientApplication.builder(clientId)
                .authority(authority)
                .build();

        //Get list of accounts from the application's token cache, and search them for the configured username
        //getAccounts() will be empty on this first call, as accounts are added to the cache when acquiring a token
        Set<IAccount> accountsInCache = pca.getAccounts().join();
        IAccount account = getAccountByUsername(accountsInCache, username);

        //Attempt to acquire token when user's account is not in the application's token cache
        IAuthenticationResult result = acquireTokenUsernamePassword(pca, scope, account, username, password);
        System.out.println("Account username: " + result.account().username());
        System.out.println("Access token:     " + result.accessToken());
        System.out.println("Id token:         " + result.idToken());
        System.out.println();

        accountsInCache = pca.getAccounts().join();
        account = getAccountByUsername(accountsInCache, username);

        //Attempt to acquire token again, now that the user's account and a token are in the application's token cache
        result = acquireTokenUsernamePassword(pca, scope, account, username, password);
        System.out.println("Account username: " + result.account().username());
        System.out.println("Access token:     " + result.accessToken());
        System.out.println("Id token:         " + result.idToken());
    }

    private static IAuthenticationResult acquireTokenUsernamePassword(PublicClientApplication pca,
                                                                      Set<String> scope,
                                                                      IAccount account,
                                                                      String username,
                                                                      String password) throws Exception {
        IAuthenticationResult result;
        try {
            SilentParameters silentParameters =
                    SilentParameters
                            .builder(scope)
                            .account(account)
                            .build();
            // Try to acquire token silently. This will fail on the first acquireTokenUsernamePassword() call
            // because the token cache does not have any data for the user you are trying to acquire a token for
            result = pca.acquireTokenSilently(silentParameters).join();
            System.out.println("==acquireTokenSilently call succeeded");
        } catch (Exception ex) {
            if (ex.getCause() instanceof MsalException) {
                System.out.println("==acquireTokenSilently call failed: " + ex.getCause());
                UserNamePasswordParameters parameters =
                        UserNamePasswordParameters
                                .builder(scope, username, password.toCharArray())
                                .build();
                // Try to acquire a token via username/password. If successful, you should see
                // the token and account information printed out to console
                result = pca.acquireToken(parameters).join();
                System.out.println("==username/password flow succeeded");
            } else {
                // Handle other exceptions accordingly
                throw ex;
            }
        }
        return result;
    }

This extract is from the MSAL Node dev samples. In the following code snippet, the username and password are hardcoded for illustration purposes only. This should be avoided in production. Instead, a basic UI prompting the user to enter her username/password would be recommended.

const msal = require("@azure/msal-node");

const msalConfig = {
    auth: {
        clientId: "your_client_id_here",
        authority: "your_authority_here",
    }
};

const pca = new msal.PublicClientApplication(msalConfig);

// For testing, enter your username and password below.
// In production, replace this with a UI prompt instead.
const usernamePasswordRequest = {
    scopes: ["user.read"],
    username: "", // Add your username here
    password: "", // Add your password here
};

pca.acquireTokenByUsernamePassword(usernamePasswordRequest).then((response) => {
    console.log("acquired token by password grant");
}).catch((error) => {
    console.log(error);
});

This extract is from the MSAL Python dev samples.

# Create a preferably long-lived app instance which maintains a token cache.
app = msal.PublicClientApplication(
    config["client_id"], authority=config["authority"],
    # token_cache=...  # Default cache is in memory only.
                       # You can learn how to use SerializableTokenCache from
                       # https://msal-python.rtfd.io/en/latest/#msal.SerializableTokenCache
    )

# The pattern to acquire a token looks like this.
result = None

# Firstly, check the cache to see if this end user has signed in before
accounts = app.get_accounts(username=config["username"])
if accounts:
    logging.info("Account(s) exists in cache, probably with token too. Let's try.")
    result = app.acquire_token_silent(config["scope"], account=accounts[0])

if not result:
    logging.info("No suitable token exists in cache. Let's get a new one from AAD.")
    # See this page for constraints of Username Password Flow.
    # https://github.com/AzureAD/microsoft-authentication-library-for-python/wiki/Username-Password-Authentication
    result = app.acquire_token_by_username_password(
        config["username"], config["password"], scopes=config["scope"])

Next steps

Move on to the next article in this scenario, Call a web API from the desktop app.

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Desktop app that calls web APIs: Acquire a token using username and password

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