Azure DevOps Personal Access Token Management and Security Guide

Managing personal access tokens (PATs) in Azure DevOps is crucial for securing your projects and preventing unauthorized access.

A PAT is a string of characters that provides access to your Azure DevOps resources without needing a username and password.

To generate a PAT, navigate to your Azure DevOps profile and click on the "Personal access tokens" tab.

PATs can be used to authenticate to Azure DevOps services, such as Azure Repos, Azure Pipelines, and Azure Test Plans.

To manage your PATs, you can create, edit, or delete them as needed, and you can also set expiration dates to ensure they're periodically refreshed.

Remember to store your PAT securely, such as in a password manager or a secure note-taking app, to prevent unauthorized access.

To get started with Azure DevOps Personal Access Tokens (PATs), you'll need to meet certain prerequisites.

First and foremost, you'll need to have at least Basic access. This is a fundamental requirement to proceed.

In addition to access levels, it's essential to familiarize yourself with security best practices for managing PATs. This includes using them only when necessary and regularly rotating them.

To give you a better idea, here are some specific security best practices for PATs:

By following these best practices, you'll be able to effectively manage your PATs and keep your Azure DevOps account secure.

Creating and managing personal access tokens (PATs) is a crucial part of using Azure DevOps. To create a PAT, sign in to your organization, open user settings, select Personal access tokens, and click + New Token.

You can name your token, select the organization where you want to use it, and set it to automatically expire after a set number of days. It's also essential to choose the scopes for this token to authorize for your specific tasks.

For example, to create a token for a build and release agent to authenticate to Azure DevOps, set the token's scope to Agent Pools (Read & manage). To read audit log events and manage or delete streams, select Read Audit Log.

You might be restricted from creating full-scoped PATs, so check with your Azure DevOps Administrator in Microsoft Entra ID to see if they have enabled a policy that limits you to a specific custom-defined set of scopes.

A PAT is used as an alternative to using a password to authenticate into Azure DevOps. You can use a PAT with HTTP basic authentication, Base64-encode your PAT, and use it in your code to authenticate API requests and automate workflows.

To use a PAT in your code, include it in the authorization header of your HTTP requests. Convert the PAT to a Base64 string and provide it as an HTTP header in the following format. You can also use variables, adding a $ at the beginning of the string.

To modify a PAT, regenerate it to create a new token, which invalidates the previous one. You can also extend a PAT to increase its validity period or alter the scope of a PAT to change its permissions.

To set the maximum lifespan for new PATs, the Azure DevOps Administrator in Microsoft Entra ID can define the maximum lifespan of a PAT, specifying it in days. By default, this policy is set to off.

Here's a summary of the steps to create and manage PATs:

To keep your Azure DevOps Personal Access Token safe, follow these security best practices:

Avoid embedding the secret directly in your code, as this increases the risk of exposure. Instead, use environment variables or secrets managers to store the token securely.

Secure storage is crucial: store the token in a secure location, such as a password manager or a secrets management service, to prevent unauthorized access.

Regular rotation of the token is essential to minimize the risk of long-term exposure. This means periodically rotating the API key to prevent hackers from exploiting it.

Restrict permissions by only granting the key the minimum necessary permissions, as excessive permissions can lead to security breaches.

Monitor usage regularly to check for unusual activity or unauthorized access attempts, and implement access controls to limit the number of users who have access to the secret.

Use a secrets manager, such as CyberArk or AWS Secrets Manager, to enhance security and protect your token from unauthorized access.

Here are some key benefits of using environment variables for Azure DevOps Personal Access Tokens:

You'll receive two notifications related to your Personal Access Token (PAT): one when it's created and another seven days before it expires. This is a confirmation that your PAT was successfully added to your organization.

You can expect to receive a notification like the following example, serving as a reminder that your PAT is about to expire.

You'll receive two notifications during the lifespan of a Personal Access Token (PAT): one at the time of creation and another seven days before it expires. This is to keep you informed about the token's status.

The first notification is a confirmation that your PAT was successfully added to your organization. You'll receive a notification similar to the following example.

Here are some examples of unexpected PAT notifications that might occur:

If you suspect an unexpected PAT exists in error, it's best to revoke it and change your password.

Automatic Renewal is a must-have feature, especially when dealing with Personal Access Tokens (PATs) that can be vulnerable to leaking.

You can use the system.accesstoken predefined variable in a pipeline to call the REST API, but this isn't always the best option.

A PAT is only assigned to an actual user and can't be used in other situations, making it less versatile than an access token.

To mitigate the risk of leaking, it's recommended to use PATs with a short lifetime, and to renew them periodically.

This can be done using a newly introduced API, which allows for automatic renewal of PATs.

In fact, the API is specifically designed for this purpose, making it a game-changer for anyone working with PATs.

By using this API, you can ensure that your PATs are always up-to-date and secure, even in situations where they're used in other contexts, like DSC or Azure Policy scripts.

To generate a Personal Access Token (PAT) in Azure DevOps, sign in to your account and click on your profile icon to select "Security". Under the "Personal access tokens" section, click on "New Token".

You can name your token and select the organization where you want to use it. The token will automatically expire after a set number of days, which you can choose when creating it.

To create a PAT, select the scopes or permissions that the token should have. If your Azure DevOps Administrator has enabled a policy to restrict full-scoped PATs, you will only be able to select a specific custom-defined set of scopes.

Sign in to your organization and go to Organization settings to find the Restrict full-scoped personal access token creation policy and move the toggle on.

Here's a summary of the steps to create a PAT:

Remember to treat your PAT with the same caution as your password and keep it confidential. If your organization is backed by Microsoft Entra ID, you should sign in with your new PAT within 90 days to keep it active.