Service principal
A service principal is a nonhuman application or service identity that authenticates and receives authorized access to resources.
Azure Security
A service principal is an application identity in Microsoft Entra ID that represents software and can authenticate to access Azure resources.
- How it is used
- Provides an application identity for Azure resource access and CI/CD deployments.
- How deep it goes
- Shows creation commands, credential options, and RBAC role-and-scope setup; defers detailed permission coverage.
- Examples
- Uses MyAmazingApp and githubActionsApp identities for Azure access and Defender for Cloud automation.
- What you can do after
- Operate/configure it with Azure CLI credentials, an RBAC role, and a resource scope for CI/CD use.
Microsoft Azure in Action
A service principal is a nonhuman identity used by an application or service to authenticate to Azure resources.
- How it is used
- Gives applications, scripts, and deployment pipelines a nonhuman identity for accessing Azure resources.
- How deep it goes
- Defines the identity and walks through portal registration and client-secret creation, including expiry and safe handling.
- Examples
- Uses Terraform and GitHub Actions deployments, plus an Azure portal app-registration and client-secret workflow.
- What you can do after
- Operate/configure it by registering an application, creating a client secret, and retaining the IDs needed for authentication.
Read how Microsoft Azure in Action explains service principal →
Terraform in Depth: Infrastructure as Code with Terraform and OpenTofu
A service principal is an identity representing an application or automated service for authentication and authorization.
- How it is used
- Uses a service principal to authorize automated identities after OpenID Connect authentication succeeds.
- How deep it goes
- Explains the identity-mapping model and access restrictions, but defers concrete Azure configuration details.
- Examples
- Uses GitHub Actions and Spacelift identities mapped to cloud authorization identities, contrasting Azure service principals with AWS IAM roles.
- What you can do after
- Evaluate how an automated identity becomes authorized and where repository, workflow, or stack restrictions must apply.
Related concepts
- managed identityalternative to · A managed identity is a nonhuman digital identity whose credentials and lifecycle are administered by a cloud or infrastructure service, allowing workloads to authenticate to supported resources without managing credentials directly.
- openid connectalternative to · OpenID Connect is an identity layer built on OAuth 2.0 that enables clients to authenticate end users and obtain standardized identity claims.
- password authenticationuses · Password authentication is an authentication method that verifies a claimed identity or access by checking a supplied secret password or passphrase.
- certificateuses · A digital certificate is a digitally signed credential that binds an identity to a public key and supports authentication or secure communication.
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