Azure AD B2C vs Entra ID for Identity and Access Management

Azure AD B2C and Entra ID are both identity and access management solutions offered by Microsoft, but they serve different purposes and have distinct features. Azure AD B2C is designed for customer-facing applications, providing a seamless and secure experience for users.

Entra ID, on the other hand, is a more comprehensive identity solution that offers advanced features and security. It's designed for enterprises and organizations that need to manage a large number of users and devices.

One key difference between the two is that Azure AD B2C is primarily used for external-facing applications, while Entra ID is used for internal and external applications. This distinction is crucial for organizations that need to manage different types of users and applications.

Azure AD B2C is designed to allow businesses to build customer-facing applications where anyone can sign-up and into those applications, whereas Azure AD is primarily used for enterprise identity management.

Azure AD B2C enables users to use their preferred social identity, enterprise identity, or local accounts for single sign-on (SSO) access to a wide range of applications and APIs.

The key difference between Azure AD and Azure B2C is that Azure B2C is built on the same technology as Azure AD, but it's designed to meet the needs of customer-facing applications, whereas Azure AD is designed for enterprise identity management.

Azure AD B2C is built on the same technology as Azure AD, but it's designed for customer-facing applications where anyone can sign-up and in. This is a key difference between the two.

One of the main differences between Azure AD and Azure B2C is that Azure AD is designed for enterprise use, whereas Azure B2C is designed for customer use. Azure AD allows businesses to manage their employees' identities, while Azure B2C allows businesses to manage their customers' identities.

Azure AD B2C is a Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) solution, which means it's specifically designed for managing customer identities and access to applications. This is in contrast to Azure AD, which is designed for managing enterprise identities.

Azure AD B2C uses the Microsoft Identity Experience Framework (IEF) to orchestrate authentication, user registration, profile editing, and account recovery services. This framework is a powerful tool that allows businesses to customize the entire experience to meet their needs.

The power of Azure AD B2C lies in its ability to allow users to sign-in with their preferred social identity, enterprise identity, or local accounts for single sign-on (SSO) access to a wide range of applications and APIs. This is a key feature of Azure AD B2C that sets it apart from Azure AD.

Recommended read: Azure Entra Conditional Access

Application registrations are a crucial part of Azure AD B2C. They establish a unidirectional trust relationship between the application and the Microsoft identity platform.

Here's an interesting read: Azure Application Id

These registrations allow administrators to control functions such as supported account types, redirect settings, certificates and secrets, permissions, token scopes, and user roles. This enables administrators to tailor the registration to fit the type of platform hosting the application.

You can configure registrations for various platforms, including web, single-page applications, iOS/macOS, Android, and mobile and desktop applications. The Microsoft Authentication Library (MSAL) is a common tool used to interface between the application code and the app registrations in B2C.

MSAL handles user authentications and token requests automatically using the specified App registration. A common design pattern is to configure one app registration per application code base. This means that for applications with a Front-End and a Backend component, each would receive its own registration.

Permissions between the two components can be configured using the "Expose an API" and "API Permissions" menus within the registrations' pages. This allows you to control what the Front-End and Backend components can access and do.

Here are the main types of platforms that can be configured for app registrations:

Securing your Azure AD B2C or Entra ID setup is crucial, and one way to do this is by using the Microsoft.Identity.Web library, which has been used in demos for Cloudbrew. This library helps with authentication and reading app roles claims from tokens.

If you're experiencing issues with authentication, such as not correctly reading app roles claims, you can check out the full code on GitHub for reference. The code is available for public viewing, and you can use it as a starting point for your own setup.

To enhance security, you can use features like OpenID Connect, OAuth 2.0, and SAML 2.0, which provide protection against common attacks and allow easy connection with SaaS applications that support external identity providers. These protocols can be easily implemented using libraries like the Microsoft Authentication Library (MSAL).

Here are some benefits of using these protocols:

Securing .NET API is crucial for protecting your application from unauthorized access. Microsoft.Identity.Web can help resolve issues with authentication, as seen in the author's experience with .NET 5 and 6 demos.

You can use the AuthenticationExtensions.cs and appsettings.json files to secure your .NET API, just like the author did. These files are the only ones that differ from a new project.

To update the tenant and application IDs, you'll need to replace the ones in the sample code with your own, as the author did when setting up demo tenants. This is because IDs in source control can be a security risk.

Using the Microsoft Entra ID method to define an AzureAd section in the appsettings.json file is a common approach for securing APIs. This method is also used when you've secured your API with Microsoft Entra ID before.

Related reading: Azure Auth Json Website Azure Ad Authentication

When working with Azure B2C, it's essential to understand the different authentication protocols it supports. Azure B2C supports OpenID Connect, OAuth 2.0, and SAML 2.0, which can enhance security and protect against common attacks.

Enhancing security is a top priority, and Azure B2C makes it easy to do so by supporting these protocols. You can connect easily from bespoke applications using libraries such as the Microsoft Authentication Library (MSAL).

A different take: Azure Ad Authentication

To connect with SaaS applications that support external identity providers, Azure B2C makes it a breeze. This allows you to easily integrate with various applications and services.

Here are some key benefits of using Azure B2C's supported authentication protocols:

Passwordless MFA is a game-changer for security. It's designed to protect against credential stuffing attacks.

By ditching passwords, you can significantly enhance security. This is because passwords are often the weakest link in the security chain.

Passwordless MFA reduces the risk of breaches by eliminating the need for passwords. This is especially important for businesses that handle sensitive customer information.

Here are some key benefits of passwordless MFA:

Conditional Access is a crucial aspect of modern security and authentication. It's designed to ensure adaptability in the face of changing security threats.

By implementing Conditional Access, you can comply with regulatory requirements, which is essential for organizations that handle sensitive data. This not only helps you avoid fines but also maintains your reputation.

Here's an interesting read: Is Access Control Iam Now Entra Id in Azure

One of the biggest benefits of Conditional Access is that it reduces administrative overheads with manual access management. This means you can focus on more important tasks while the system takes care of access control.

Here are some key benefits of Conditional Access: