Microsoft Entra Workload ID addresses the identities that are not people: applications, services, scripts, and containers that need to authenticate to other systems.
What is Microsoft Entra Workload ID?
A workload identity is an identity you assign to a software workload so it can authenticate and access other services and resources. In Microsoft Entra, these are applications, service principals, and managed identities.
Microsoft states the need plainly: solutions increasingly rely on non-human entities, and their number is growing dramatically. Microsoft observes that adversaries are increasingly targeting non-human identities. Unlike a human user, who typically uses a single identity across many resources, a software workload often deals with multiple credentials that must be stored securely. It is also hard to track when a workload identity was created or when it should be revoked.
Most identity and access management solutions on the market focus only on human identities, per Microsoft. Microsoft Entra Workload ID closes that gap.
Core Features
- Conditional Access for workload identities: apply Conditional Access policies to service principals owned by your organization
- Continuous access evaluation: real-time enforcement of location and risk policies for workload identities
- Microsoft Entra ID Protection: detect risks such as leaked credentials, contain threats, and reduce risk
- Managed identities: access Microsoft Entra protected resources without managing secrets for workloads running on Azure
- Workload identity federation: secret-free access for scenarios such as GitHub Actions, Kubernetes workloads, and compute platforms outside Azure
- Access reviews for service principals: review service principals and applications assigned to privileged directory roles
- Custom security attributes: manage your own security attributes for apps
Typical Use Cases
CI/CD pipelines without stored secrets
A service principal enables a pipeline to deploy a web app from GitHub to Azure App Service; workload identity federation removes the need to manage a secret.
Access to Azure resources
A managed identity provisions a service with access to resources such as Azure Key Vault or Azure Storage without developers managing credentials.
Delegated access to Microsoft Graph
An app enables a web app to access Microsoft Graph based on admin or user consent, either on behalf of the user or on behalf of the application.
Containing compromised identities
Risks detected by ID Protection, such as leaked credentials, feed directly into access decisions via Conditional Access.
Recertifying privileged access
Access reviews check which service principals and applications are assigned to privileged directory roles.
Benefits
- Protection for non-human identities that classic IAM solutions often leave out
- Adaptive access control for service principals instead of static permissions
- No secret management thanks to managed identities and workload identity federation
- Real-time response to risk through continuous access evaluation
- Recertifiable privileged workload access through access reviews
Integration with innFactory
As an indirect Microsoft CSP partner, innFactory helps you inventory your workload identities, replace stored secrets with managed identities and workload identity federation, and build Conditional Access policies for service principals.
This is usually anchored in platform governance; we describe our approach in our article on Azure Landing Zones.
Contact us for a no-obligation consultation on securing workload identities.
Typical Use Cases
Technical Specifications
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a workload identity?
A workload identity is an identity you assign to a software workload - such as an application, service, script, or container - to authenticate and access other services and resources. In Microsoft Entra, workload identities are applications, service principals, and managed identities.
How do application, service principal, and managed identity differ?
An application is an abstract entity or template defined by its application object; it is the global representation of your application across all tenants. A service principal is the local representation of that global object in a specific tenant and defines what the app can actually do there. A managed identity is a special type of service principal that eliminates the need for developers to manage credentials.
Why do workload identities need dedicated protection?
Microsoft explains that solutions increasingly rely on non-human entities and that their number is growing dramatically. Unlike a human user, a software workload may deal with multiple credentials for different resources that need to be stored securely. It is also hard to track when a workload identity is created or when it should be revoked.
Which protections does Entra Workload ID provide?
Microsoft names three areas: secure access with adaptive policies through Conditional Access for workload identities and continuous access evaluation; intelligent detection of compromised identities through Microsoft Entra ID Protection; and simplified lifecycle management through managed identities, workload identity federation, and access reviews for service principals in privileged directory roles.
How can secrets be avoided in CI/CD pipelines?
Through workload identity federation. Microsoft explicitly names supported scenarios such as GitHub Actions, workloads running on Kubernetes, and workloads running on compute platforms outside of Azure. For workloads running on Azure, managed identities achieve the same effect.
How does Workload ID relate to Entra Agent ID?
Microsoft treats AI agents as a distinct category of machine identity because they make dynamic decisions and adapt behavior. Microsoft Entra Agent ID provides purpose-built agent identities for them, with enforced human sponsorship, lifecycle governance from provisioning through deactivation, and at-scale management across all agent instances of a given type.
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