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Microsoft Entra Blog
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Secure authentication method provisioning with Temporary Access Pass

Alex_Simons's avatar
Alex_Simons
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
Jun 22, 2022

Howdy folks,  

 

I’m happy to announce the general availability of Temporary Access Pass (TAP). We’ve made a lot of progress since we announced the public preview of TAP.  

 

 

“…We use the MS Authenticator for passwordless sign in. That is the only way employees can access resources.

Enrollment is based on TAP, and we do not hand over a traditional password to the users…” - Global Toy Manufacturer, EU 

 

 

I’ve asked Tim Larson, one of the Product Managers behind this release, to give you the low down on all these updates, and explain how you can start using TAP to address many of your passwordless account onboarding and recovery scenarios. You’ll find Tim’s blog post below. 

 

Best regards, 

 

Alex Simons (Twitter: @alex_a_simons)

Corporate Vice President, Product Management

Microsoft Identity Division

 

----------------

 

Hi everyone,  

 

I am excited to share with you the changes and improvements we’ve made and how you can start using TAP to progress on your passwordless journey! 

 

What is TAP? 

TAP is a time-limited passcode that allows users to register passwordless authentication methods and recover access to their account without needing a password. You can also use a TAP to set up Windows devices, whether your users are directly setting up their own devices or they’re using Windows AutoPilot, joining devices to Azure AD, or even setting up Windows Hello for Business. 

 

Admin experience 

You can set up and configure TAP for your organization with the authentication methods policy. For example, you can limit TAP assignment to specific users and groups, limit the use for a short period, or set it for one-time use.  

 

 

Temporary Access Pass authentication method policy

 

Once the authentication method is enabled by policy, a privileged authentication administrator or an authentication administrator can create a TAP for the user either by visiting the user's authentication methods blade or accessing via an API. We’ve also added the ability for admins to override existing TAPs. If a user forgets or loses a TAP that was previously created, just follow the same process to add a TAP to the users account, and we’ll handle the deletion of the old one.   

 

Creating a new Temporary Access Pass on a user from the Azure AD portal

 

End user experience 

Once a user has a valid TAP, they can use it to sign in and register security information, such as passwordless phone signin directly from the Authenticator app, to add a FIDO2 key from the My Security Info page, or even to set up Windows Hello for Business on Azure AD Joined and Hybrid Azure AD Joined machines. In scenarios where MFA is required, TAP can also be used as an additional factor.   

 

Learn more 

You can learn how to configure TAP in our documentation. 

 

New employee onboarding experiences can vary for every organization. TAP is available through the Microsoft Graph APIs, so you can incorporate it into your existing applications or your HR driven provisioning process. Learn more about policy APIs to configure TAP to suit your needs. 

 

Tell us what you think 

We hope TAP helps you on your passwordless journey—give it a try and let us know if you have questions or feedback. 

 

Tim Larson (@tim_c_larson) 

Senior Product Manager 

Microsoft Identity Division 

 

 

Learn more about Microsoft identity: 

 

Updated Feb 02, 2023
Version 10.0

30 Comments

  • Sander de Wit's avatar
    Sander de Wit
    Brass Contributor

    Gonwild We are using pre-provisioning and the logon screen immediately shows TAP. We are using Windows 11. I haven't tested it with Windows 10. 

    For Windows Hello for Business(WHfB), after the logon is complete with TAP. It automatically launches WHfB without prompting for MFA or anything else. 

    Do you get the TAP when you just try to sign in with the browser?

  • Sander de Wit's avatar
    Sander de Wit
    Brass Contributor

    Gonwild Most likely the credential provider is defaulting to password.
    Did you try select the options on the logon screen to use WHfB?
    You can modify the default credential provider; https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/client-management/mdm/policy-csp-admx-credentialproviders#admx-credentialproviders-defaultcredentialprovider 

    by setting the ADMX_CredentialProviders/DefaultCredentialProvider policy.
    Alternatively you can exclude the password credential provider by setting the ADMX_CredentialProviders/ExcludedCredentialProviders policy.

     

    Face{8AF662BF-65A0-4D0A-A540-A338A999D36F}
    Fingerprint{BEC09223-B018-416D-A0AC-523971B639F5}
    PIN{D6886603-9D2F-4EB2-B667-1971041FA96B}
    Trusted Signal (when used){27FBDB57-B613-4AF2-9D7E-4FA7A66C21AD}
    Fido{F8A1793B-7873-4046-B2A7-1F318747F427}
    Password{60b78e88-ead8-445c-9cfd-0b87f74ea6cd}

     

  • Gonwild's avatar
    Gonwild
    Copper Contributor

    great feature, I was hoping this might be the nail in the coffin for passwords here, as this blog mentions it can be used to setup Hello for Business.

    However when testing, after using the TAP to AAD join and Windows autopilot completes, I am presented with the standard email/password login screen.

     

    How can a new user setup Hello for Business on a new device with this? (The documentation states that it's just gonna work..and no, I have not set the TAP to 'one time use only')

    Sander de Wit: how did you get this working?

  • Sander de Wit's avatar
    Sander de Wit
    Brass Contributor

    It's great that this feature is General Available.
    We've been testing it successfully, just some things to take into account.

     

    Using TAP for Windows Hello for Business in Autopilot works perfectly (for those use-cases where Authenticator app is not wanted), however using it with SSPR enrollment enabled, trigger the enrollment of authenticator app.(depending on your SSPR requirements). It does also provide the MFA for the requirement of device join/registration into Azure AD if your CA policies require that.

     

     

     

     

  • Tim Larson 

    I suggest NOT just a phonetic alphabet (e.g. apple-dog-tree-car), but specifically NATO/ICAO phonetic alphabet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_phonetic_alphabet
    "The words were chosen to be accessible to speakers of French and Spanish in addition to English; the spellings of a couple of code words were changed to facilitate their use."

  • GKN01's avatar
    GKN01
    Copper Contributor

    Hello,

     

    Will we ever be able to define the characters used to generate a TAP ?
    It’s something we really appreciate. 

    Best regards,

    Gokan

  • Hi Deleted - TAP doesn't currently support phonetic alphabet codes (e.g. apple-dog-tree-car), but it is something we are investigating for future functionality. 

  • Tim Larson 

    Is this TAP easily pronounceable over phone to non-English users?
    Have you tried to dictate it to (example) a Frenchman or a Finn?

    Some time ago I suggested use of ICAO phonetic alphabet (yes, longer TAP is necessary to maintain enough entropy/security).

  • Hey NicolasHon - Unfortunately TAP can't be used with Radius or NPS at the moment and can only be issued by a limited set of privileged roles. 

  • NicolasHon's avatar
    NicolasHon
    Brass Contributor

    This new feature looks really cool!

    I've maybe some question to precise abilities of this TAP function.

    Can the TAP be used also in a Radius authentication flow requiring Azure MFA?

    Is the user also able to generate a new TAP him self once in the scope of the TAP policy?

    Thanks!