prowler/docs/tutorials/microsoft365/authentication.md

Microsoft 365 Authentication in Prowler

Prowler for Microsoft 365 supports multiple authentication types. Authentication methods vary between Prowler App and Prowler CLI:

Prowler App:

• Service Principal Application (Recommended)
• Service Principal with User Credentials (Deprecated)

Prowler CLI:

• Service Principal Application (Recommended)
• Interactive browser authentication

Required Permissions

To run the full Prowler provider, including PowerShell checks, two types of permission scopes must be set in Microsoft Entra ID.

Service Principal Authentication Permissions (Recommended)

When using service principal authentication, add these Application Permissions:

Microsoft Graph API Permissions:

• AuditLog.Read.All: Required for Entra service.
• Directory.Read.All: Required for all services.
• Policy.Read.All: Required for all services.
• SharePointTenantSettings.Read.All: Required for SharePoint service.

External API Permissions:

• Exchange.ManageAsApp from external API Office 365 Exchange Online: Required for Exchange PowerShell module app authentication. The Global Reader role must also be assigned to the app.
• application_access from external API Skype and Teams Tenant Admin API: Required for Teams PowerShell module app authentication.

???+ note Directory.Read.All can be replaced with Domain.Read.All for more restrictive permissions, but Entra checks related to DirectoryRoles and GetUsers will not run. If using this option, you must also add the Organization.Read.All permission to the service principal application for authentication.

???+ note This is the recommended authentication method because it allows running the full M365 provider including PowerShell checks, providing complete coverage of all available security checks.

Browser Authentication Permissions

When using browser authentication, permissions are delegated to the user, so the user must have the appropriate permissions rather than the application.

???+ warning With browser authentication, you will only be able to run checks that work through MS Graph API. PowerShell module checks will not be executed.

Step-by-Step Permission Assignment

Create Service Principal Application

1. Access Microsoft Entra ID

   

2. Navigate to "Applications" > "App registrations"

   

3. Click "+ New registration", complete the form, and click "Register"

   

4. Go to "Certificates & secrets" > "Client secrets" > "+ New client secret"

   

5. Fill in the required fields and click "Add", then copy the generated value (this will be AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET)

   

Grant Microsoft Graph API Permissions

1. Go to App Registration > Select your Prowler App > click on "API permissions"

   

2. Click "+ Add a permission" > "Microsoft Graph" > "Application permissions"

   

3. Search and select the required permissions:

   • AuditLog.Read.All: Required for Entra service
   • Directory.Read.All: Required for all services
   • Policy.Read.All: Required for all services
   • SharePointTenantSettings.Read.All: Required for SharePoint service

   

   

4. Click "Add permissions", then click "Grant admin consent for "

Grant PowerShell Module Permissions (For Service Principal Authentication)

1. Add Exchange API:

   • Search and select "Office 365 Exchange Online" API in APIs my organization uses

   

   • Select "Exchange.ManageAsApp" permission and click "Add permissions"

   

   • Assign Global Reader role to the app: Go to Roles and administrators > click here for directory level assignment

   

   • Search for Global Reader and assign it to your application

   

2. Add Teams API:

   • Search and select "Skype and Teams Tenant Admin API" in APIs my organization uses

   

   • Select "application_access" permission and click "Add permissions"

   

3. Click "Grant admin consent for " to grant admin consent

   

Service Principal Authentication (Recommended)

Available for both Prowler App and Prowler CLI

Authentication flag for CLI: --sp-env-auth

Authenticate using the Service Principal Application by configuring the following environment variables:

export AZURE_CLIENT_ID="XXXXXXXXX"
export AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET="XXXXXXXXX"
export AZURE_TENANT_ID="XXXXXXXXX"

If these variables are not set or exported, execution using --sp-env-auth will fail.

Refer to the Step-by-Step Permission Assignment section below for setup instructions.

If the external API permissions described in the mentioned section above are not added only checks that work through MS Graph will be executed. This means that the full provider will not be executed.

???+ note In order to scan all the checks from M365 required permissions to the service principal application must be added. Refer to the PowerShell Module Permissions section for more information.

Interactive Browser Authentication

Available only for Prowler CLI

Authentication flag: --browser-auth

Authenticate against Azure using the default browser to start the scan. The --tenant-id flag is also required.

These credentials only enable checks that rely on Microsoft Graph. The entire provider cannot be run with this method. To perform a full M365 security scan, use the recommended authentication method.

Since this is a delegated permission authentication method, necessary permissions should be assigned to the user rather than the application.

Supported PowerShell Versions

PowerShell is required to run certain M365 checks.

Supported versions:

• PowerShell 7.4 or higher (7.5 is recommended)

Why Is PowerShell 7.4+ Required?

• PowerShell 5.1 (default on some Windows systems) does not support required cmdlets.
• Older cross-platform PowerShell versions are unsupported, leading to potential errors.

???+ note Installing PowerShell is only necessary if you install Prowler via pip or other sources. SDK and API containers include PowerShell by default.

Installing PowerShell

Installing PowerShell is different depending on your OS:

=== "Windows"

[Windows](https://learn.microsoft.com/es-es/powershell/scripting/install/installing-powershell-on-windows?view=powershell-7.5#install-powershell-using-winget-recommended): PowerShell must be updated to version 7.4+ for Prowler to function properly. Otherwise, some checks will not show findings and the provider may not function properly. This version of PowerShell is [supported](https://learn.microsoft.com/es-es/powershell/scripting/install/installing-powershell-on-windows?view=powershell-7.4#supported-versions-of-windows) on Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows Server 2016 and higher versions.

```console
winget install --id Microsoft.PowerShell --source winget
```

=== "MacOS"

[MacOS](https://learn.microsoft.com/es-es/powershell/scripting/install/installing-powershell-on-macos?view=powershell-7.5#install-the-latest-stable-release-of-powershell): installing PowerShell on MacOS needs to have installed [brew](https://brew.sh/), once installed, simply run the command shown above, Pwsh is only supported in macOS 15 (Sequoia) x64 and Arm64, macOS 14 (Sonoma) x64 and Arm64, macOS 13 (Ventura) x64 and Arm64

```console
brew install powershell/tap/powershell
```

Once it's installed run `pwsh` on your terminal to verify it's working.

=== "Linux (Ubuntu)"

[Ubuntu](https://learn.microsoft.com/es-es/powershell/scripting/install/install-ubuntu?view=powershell-7.5#installation-via-package-repository-the-package-repository): The required version for installing PowerShell +7.4 on Ubuntu are Ubuntu 22.04 and Ubuntu 24.04.
The recommended way to install it is downloading the package available on PMC.

Follow these steps:

```console
###################################
# Prerequisites

# Update the list of packages
sudo apt-get update

# Install pre-requisite packages.
sudo apt-get install -y wget apt-transport-https software-properties-common

# Get the version of Ubuntu
source /etc/os-release

# Download the Microsoft repository keys
wget -q https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/$VERSION_ID/packages-microsoft-prod.deb

# Register the Microsoft repository keys
sudo dpkg -i packages-microsoft-prod.deb

# Delete the Microsoft repository keys file
rm packages-microsoft-prod.deb

# Update the list of packages after we added packages.microsoft.com
sudo apt-get update

###################################
# Install PowerShell
sudo apt-get install -y powershell

# Start PowerShell
pwsh
```

=== "Linux (Alpine)"

[Alpine](https://learn.microsoft.com/es-es/powershell/scripting/install/install-alpine?view=powershell-7.5#installation-steps): The only supported version for installing PowerShell +7.4 on Alpine is Alpine 3.20. The unique way to install it is downloading the tar.gz package available on [PowerShell github](https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/releases/download/v7.5.0/powershell-7.5.0-linux-musl-x64.tar.gz).

Follow these steps:

```console
# Install the requirements
sudo apk add --no-cache \
    ca-certificates \
    less \
    ncurses-terminfo-base \
    krb5-libs \
    libgcc \
    libintl \
    libssl3 \
    libstdc++ \
    tzdata \
    userspace-rcu \
    zlib \
    icu-libs \
    curl

apk -X https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/main add --no-cache \
    lttng-ust \
    openssh-client \

# Download the powershell '.tar.gz' archive
curl -L https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/releases/download/v7.5.0/powershell-7.5.0-linux-musl-x64.tar.gz -o /tmp/powershell.tar.gz

# Create the target folder where powershell will be placed
sudo mkdir -p /opt/microsoft/powershell/7

# Expand powershell to the target folder
sudo tar zxf /tmp/powershell.tar.gz -C /opt/microsoft/powershell/7

# Set execute permissions
sudo chmod +x /opt/microsoft/powershell/7/pwsh

# Create the symbolic link that points to pwsh
sudo ln -s /opt/microsoft/powershell/7/pwsh /usr/bin/pwsh

# Start PowerShell
pwsh
```

=== "Linux (Debian)"

[Debian](https://learn.microsoft.com/es-es/powershell/scripting/install/install-debian?view=powershell-7.5#installation-on-debian-11-or-12-via-the-package-repository): The required version for installing PowerShell +7.4 on Debian are Debian 11 and Debian 12. The recommended way to install it is downloading the package available on PMC.

Follow these steps:

```console
###################################
# Prerequisites

# Update the list of packages
sudo apt-get update

# Install pre-requisite packages.
sudo apt-get install -y wget

# Get the version of Debian
source /etc/os-release

# Download the Microsoft repository GPG keys
wget -q https://packages.microsoft.com/config/debian/$VERSION_ID/packages-microsoft-prod.deb

# Register the Microsoft repository GPG keys
sudo dpkg -i packages-microsoft-prod.deb

# Delete the Microsoft repository GPG keys file
rm packages-microsoft-prod.deb

# Update the list of packages after we added packages.microsoft.com
sudo apt-get update

###################################
# Install PowerShell
sudo apt-get install -y powershell

# Start PowerShell
pwsh
```

=== "Linux (RHEL)"

[Rhel](https://learn.microsoft.com/es-es/powershell/scripting/install/install-rhel?view=powershell-7.5#installation-via-the-package-repository): The required version for installing PowerShell +7.4 on Red Hat are RHEL 8 and RHEL 9. The recommended way to install it is downloading the package available on PMC.

Follow these steps:

```console
###################################
# Prerequisites

# Get version of RHEL
source /etc/os-release
if [ ${VERSION_ID%.*} -lt 8 ]
then majorver=7
elif [ ${VERSION_ID%.*} -lt 9 ]
then majorver=8
else majorver=9
fi

# Download the Microsoft RedHat repository package
curl -sSL -O https://packages.microsoft.com/config/rhel/$majorver/packages-microsoft-prod.rpm

# Register the Microsoft RedHat repository
sudo rpm -i packages-microsoft-prod.rpm

# Delete the downloaded package after installing
rm packages-microsoft-prod.rpm

# Update package index files
sudo dnf update
# Install PowerShell
sudo dnf install powershell -y
```

=== "Docker"

[Docker](https://learn.microsoft.com/es-es/powershell/scripting/install/powershell-in-docker?view=powershell-7.5#use-powershell-in-a-container): The following command download the latest stable versions of PowerShell:

```console
docker pull mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:9.0
```

To start an interactive shell of Pwsh you just need to run:

```console
docker run -it mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:9.0 pwsh
```

Required PowerShell Modules

Prowler relies on several PowerShell cmdlets to retrieve necessary data. These cmdlets come from different modules that must be installed.

Automatic Installation

The required modules are automatically installed when running Prowler with the --init-modules flag.

Example command:

python3 prowler-cli.py m365 --verbose --log-level ERROR --sp-env-auth --init-modules

If the modules are already installed, running this command will not cause issues—it will simply verify that the necessary modules are available.

???+ note Prowler installs the modules using -Scope CurrentUser. If you encounter any issues with services not working after the automatic installation, try installing the modules manually using -Scope AllUsers (administrator permissions are required for this). The command needed to install a module manually is: powershell Install-Module -Name "ModuleName" -Scope AllUsers -Force

Modules Version

• ExchangeOnlineManagement (Minimum version: 3.6.0) Required for checks across Exchange, Defender, and Purview.
• MicrosoftTeams (Minimum version: 6.6.0) Required for all Teams checks.
• MSAL.PS: Required for Exchange module via application authentication.
• MSAL.PS: Required for Exchange module via application authentication.