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Version: Secure Access

Microsoft External Authentication Methods (EAM)

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Beyond Identity phishing-resistant passwordless authentication for Microsoft Entra ID​

Integrate Beyond Identity with Microsoft Entra ID using the External Authentication Methods (EAM) configuration for users to have phishing-resistant and passwordless authentication to Entra ID logons.

This guide covers the process of configuring Microsoft Entra ID and Beyond Identity. Each section contains instructions for that specific platform. View the overall summary in the list below.

  • Set up configurations for Beyond Identity
  • Register a new app in Microsoft Entra ID to configure EAM
  • Configure API permissions for Microsoft Graph
  • Validate administrator consent for Microsoft EAM
  • Assign new identities in Beyond Identity
  • Configure Microsoft conditional access policy
  • User login verification for testing

Prerequisites​

To get started with the integration, view the following prerequisites.

Microsoft Entra ID requirements​

This information contains the necessary items for integrating with Beyond Identity.

  • Microsoft Entra ID global administrator privileges
  • Active Entra ID P1 license
  • SCIM implementation for Microsoft Entra as upstream directory source to Beyond Identity

Beyond Identity requirements​

The list below covers the basic Beyond Identity requirements for the integration.

  • Secure Access Tenant with Super Admin Role
    • Use an existing account, or sign up here to create a new Beyond Identity account
  • Have at least two devices and two Super Admin roles configured*
    • *Recommended, optional

Steps

Follow the steps in the sections below to complete your integration for Beyond Identity and Microsoft EAM.

Legend​

The sections below use these two color codings to identify the steps for separate platforms. Use a separate browser window when following instructions for each platform.

🔵 Beyond Identity - Beyond Identity platform tasks are highlighted in blue.

🟠 Microsoft Entra ID - Microsoft EAM platform tasks are highlighted in orange.

🔵 Set up Beyond Identity console​

The following section covers the 🔵 Beyond Identity console and related steps. For convenience, use a separate browser window for this section.

  1. Navigate to your Beyond Identity console.
  2. On the left-hand navigation under Access Control, click Applications.
  3. Select the Browse Applications tab.
  4. Click Entra ID (External Authentication Methods).
  5. Click Add OIDC.
  6. Under General, update the Display Name text field.
  7. Click Save Changes at the top of the page.
  8. Scroll down to Client Information & Endpoints.
  9. Copy the Issuer Endpoint value. This is for registering a new app in Microsoft Entra ID.

🟠 Register new app in Microsoft Entra ID​

The steps below are for configuring a new app registration in 🟠 Microsoft Entra ID. Follow the instructions in this section using a separate browser window.

  1. Navigate to your Entra ID platform.
  2. On the left-hand navigation under Manage, click App Registrations.
  3. Click + New Registration at the top of the page.
  4. Under the Name section, update the user-facing display name in the text field.
  5. Under supported account types, select Accounts in any organizational directory (Any Microsoft Entra ID tenant - Multitenant).
  6. Under Redirect URI (optional) → Select a platform dropdown, select Web.
  7. Paste the Issuer Endpoint value from the Client Information & Endpoints of Step 8 of the previous section into the Redirect URI text field.
  8. Click Register.

🟠 Enable ID tokens for flows​

The steps in this section go over enabling ID tokens for authentication after registering a new application.

  1. Under the new application's registration page and the Manage section, click Authentication.
  2. Scroll to the Implicit grant and hybrid flows section.
  3. Check the box for ID tokens (used for implicit and hybrid flows).
  4. Click Save.

🟠 Configure API permissions for Microsoft​

This section contains the instructions for updating permissions in 🟠 Microsoft Entra.

  1. On the left-hand navigation under Manage, click API permissions.
  2. Under Configured permissions, click + Add a permission.
  3. On the Request API permissions page, click Microsoft Graph.
  4. On the Microsoft Graph permissions page, click Delegated permissions.
  5. Scroll down the Select permissions section pop up.
  6. Under the Permission table column, click the checkboxes for openid and profile.
  7. Click Add permissions at the bottom of the page.

🟠 Create a Microsoft external method and validate consent​

The steps below cover setting up important values in 🟠 Microsoft Entra ID for Beyond Identity validation after registering the new application.

  1. While on the new application landing page, on the left-hand navigation, click Overview.
  2. Under the Essentials section, copy the Application (client) ID value.
  3. Navigate to the platform home page for your organization.
  4. On the left-hand navigation under Manage, click Security.
  5. On the Security page under Manage, click Authentication methods.
  6. On the Authentication methods page, click + Add external method (Preview).
  7. Under the Method Properties section, input the name in the Name* field.
  8. Paste the Application (client) ID value from Step 2 in the text field for App ID*.

Follow the steps below to copy important values from 🔵 Beyond Identity and paste them into 🟠 Microsoft Entra ID.

  1. From 🔵 Step 8 of the Set Up Beyond Identity console section, copy the Client ID value.
  2. 🟠 Go back to the Method Properties section in Microsoft Entra and paste the Client ID value from the previous step in the Client ID field.
  3. From 🔵 Step 9 of the Beyond Identity console configuration section, copy the Discovery Endpoint value.
  4. 🟠 In Microsoft Entra, go back to the Method Properties section and paste the value from the previous step into the Discovery Endpoint field.
  5. Next to Request admin consent, click Request permission. This prompts the Microsoft account account login. Administrator privilege is required to request permissions.
  6. Login to the account and click Accept.

🟠 Add directory member groups to configuration​

As 🟠 Microsoft validates administrator consent, these steps are for adding targets of existing users.

  1. Under the Enable and target section, click + Add target ⌄ for the dropdown menu.
  2. Click Select targets.
  3. On the Add directory members page, use the search field to find the user group for the login configuration.
  4. Click the checkbox to select that group.
  5. Click Select at the bottom of the page.
  6. On the Add external method (Preview) page and under the Enable and target section, toggle Enable to On.
  7. Click Save at the bottom of the page.

🔵 Assign identities in Beyond Identity console​

After configuring Microsoft Entra ID, use the 🔵 Beyond Identity console to assign an identity. Before continuying with the next steps, complete the sections in the Generic SCIM guide for configuring users from the upstream directory source.

note

Before continuing with the integration, confirm that the user objectid value for your Entra users is the same as the externalid value in Beyond Identity. See the EAM missing for users in Microsoft section for more information.

  1. Navigate to your Beyond Identity console.
  2. On the left-hand navigation under Access Control, click Applications.
  3. Under the Installed Applications tab, click the appropriate Entra ID (External Authentication Methods) application.
  4. Click Assignments.
  5. Under the Assignments tab, click + Add Assignments ⌄ for the dropdown menu.
  6. Click By Identity.
  7. On the Assign Identities pop up, select the user.
  8. Click Assign Identities.

EAM missing for users in Microsoft​

Without the correct mapping for Entra user objectid to the Beyond Identity externalid field, users logging in to Microsoft protected resources do not have the option for External Authentication Methods (EAM).

Confirm that the user objectid value for your Entra users is the same as the externalid value in Beyond Identity. Review your SCIM mapping as needed.

🟠 Configure conditional access in Microsoft​

The steps below cover setting up important values in 🟠 Microsoft Entra ID for Beyond Identity validation.

🟠 Create a new policy​

The steps here are to add a new policy for your app.

  1. On the platform organization home page, under Manage, click Security.
  2. Under the ⌄ Protect dropdown, click Conditional Access.
  3. Click + Create new policy at the top of the page.

🟠 Configure the policy​

This section goes over the configurations required for your policy.

  1. On the New Conditional Access policy page, input a name for the policy in the Name* field.
  2. Configure your policy assignment requirements for Users and Target resources. NOTE: Confirm that you can continue accessing your portal with the app under Target resources.
  3. Under the Access Controls → Grant, click 0 controls selected.
  4. Check the box for Require multifactor authentication under Grant Access.
  5. Scroll down to the For multiple controls section.
  6. Click Require one of the selected controls.
  7. Click Select.
  8. Under the Enable policy section, toggle On.
  9. Click Create.
tip

Congratulations! You've completed your Beyond Identity integration with Microsoft Entra ID!

Process for Microsoft user login​

Microsoft end users follow these steps to login and authenticate using Beyond Identity.

  1. Navigate to the Microsoft login page.
  2. Type the login information in the Email, phone, or Skype field.
  3. Click Next.
  4. Input the login password for the Microsoft account.
  5. The Verify your identity pop up appears. Click Approve with {Your Entra ID App registration name}. This redirects to the Beyond Identity verification process.
  6. On the Beyond Identity Authenticator app, select the correct user for the Microsoft account.
  7. Continue with the Microsoft login procedure.