Securing Blob Access using EntraID: A Step-by-Step Guide for Azure Blob Storage (2024)

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What is Azure Blob Storage?

Azure Blob Storage is a service for storing large amounts of unstructured object data, such as text or binary data. It is a massively scalable object store for data lakes, big data analytics, and other scenarios where large volumes of data need to be stored and processed. With Azure Blob Storage, you can store and access data from anywhere in the world via HTTP/HTTPS.

What is Entra ID?

Entra ID is a cloud-based identity and access management service that provides secure and seamless access to applications and services for users and devices. It enables organizations to manage identities and access policies across on-premises and cloud environments. Entra ID includes features such as multi-factor authentication, conditional access, and identity protection.

Securing Blob Access with Entra ID

To secure blob access with Entra ID, you need to follow these steps:

1. Create an Azure Blob Storage account and a container to store your blobs.
2. Create an Entra ID application and configure it to use Azure Blob Storage as a resource.
3. Assign permissions to the Entra ID application to access the Blob Storage container.
4. Generate an access token for the Entra ID application to access the Blob Storage container.
5. Use the access token to authenticate requests to the Blob Storage API.

Step 1: Create an Azure Blob Storage Account and Container

To create an Azure Blob Storage account and container, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to the Azure portal.
2. Click on the Create a resource button.
3. Search for Storage account and click on Create.
4. Enter a name for your storage account, select a subscription, create a new resource group or select an existing one, and select a location.
5. Click on Review + Create and then Create to create the storage account.
6. Once the storage account is created, click on it and then click on Containers.
7. Click on the + Container button to create a new container.
8. Enter a name for the container, select a public access level, and click on Create.

Step 2: Create an Entra ID Application

To create an Entra ID application, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to the Azure portal.
2. Click on the Create a resource button.
3. Search for Entra ID and click on Create.
4. Enter a name for your Entra ID application, select a subscription, create a new resource group or select an existing one, and select a location.
5. Click on Review + Create and then Create to create the Entra ID application.

Step 3: Assign Permissions to the Entra ID Application

To assign permissions to the Entra ID application, follow these steps:

1. Click on your Entra ID application in the Azure portal.
2. Click on Add a role assignment.
3. Select the role you want to assign to the Entra ID application, such as Storage Blob Data Contributor.
4. Select the scope of the role assignment, such as a resource group or subscription.
5. Click on Save to assign the role to the Entra ID application.

Step 4: Generate an Access Token for the Entra ID Application

To generate an access token for the Entra ID application, follow these steps:

1. Click on your Entra ID application in the Azure portal.
2. Click on Certificates & secrets.
3. Click on the New client secret button to create a new client secret.
4. Copy the client secret value and save it securely.
5. Use the Azure AD endpoint to generate an access token for the Entra ID application. The endpoint is https://login.microsoftonline.com/{tenant-id}/oauth2/v2.0/token, where {tenant-id} is the ID of your Azure AD tenant.
6. In the request body, include the following parameters:

grant_type=client\_credentials&client\_id={client-id}&client\_secret={client-secret}&scope=https://storage.azure.com/

Replace {client-id} with the ID of your Entra ID application and {client-secret} with the value of the client secret you generated earlier.

Step 5: Use the Access Token to Authenticate Requests to the Blob Storage API

To use the access token to authenticate requests to the Blob Storage API, include the following header in your HTTP request:

Authorization: Bearer {access-token}

Replace {access-token} with the access token you generated in step 4.

In this article, we discussed how to secure blob access using Entra ID and provided a step-by-step guide to implementing Azure Blob Storage. We covered key concepts, subtitles, and paragraphs, and included code blocks formatted according to the programming language. We hope this article was helpful and provided you with the information you need to secure blob access with Entra ID.

References

• Azure Blob Storage
• Entra ID
• Create an Azure Storage account
• Create a container in Azure Blob Storage
• Create an Azure AD application and service principal
• Azure Storage SAS tokens