Microsoft

[!NOTE] Entra ID was formerly known as Azure AD.

• Entra ID App Registration Auth using OIDC
• Entra ID SAML Enterprise App Auth using Dex
• Entra ID App Registration Auth using Dex

Entra ID App Registration Auth using OIDC

Configure a new Entra ID App registration

Add a new Entra ID App registration

1. From the Microsoft Entra ID > App registrations menu, choose + New registration
2. Enter a Name for the application (e.g. Argo CD).
3. Specify who can use the application (e.g. Accounts in this organizational directory only).
4. Enter Redirect URI (optional) as follows (replacing my-argo-cd-url with your Argo URL), then choose Add.
   • Platform: Web
   • Redirect URI: https://<my-argo-cd-url>/auth/callback
5. When registration finishes, the Azure portal displays the app registration's Overview pane. You see the Application (client) ID.

Configure additional platform settings for ArgoCD CLI

1. In the Azure portal, in App registrations, select your application.
2. Under Manage, select Authentication.
3. Under Platform configurations, select Add a platform.
4. Under Configure platforms, select the "Mobile and desktop applications" tile. Use the below value. You shouldn't change it.
   • Redirect URI: http://localhost:8085/auth/callback

Add credentials a new Entra ID App registration

Using Workload Identity Federation (Recommended)

1. Label the Pods: Add the azure.workload.identity/use: "true" label to the argocd-server pods.
2. Add Annotation to Service Account: Add azure.workload.identity/client-id: "$CLIENT_ID" annotation to the argocd-server service account using the details from application created in previous step.
3. From the Certificates & secrets menu, navigate to Federated credentials, then choose + Add credential
4. Choose Federated credential scenario as Kubernetes Accessing Azure resources
   • Enter Cluster Issuer URL, refer to retrieve the OIDC issuer URL documentation
   • Enter namespace as the namespace where the argocd is deployed
   • Enter service account name as argocd-server
   • Enter a unique name
   • Click Add.

Using Client Secret

1. From the Certificates & secrets menu, choose + New client secret
2. Enter a Name for the secret (e.g. ArgoCD-SSO).
   • Make sure to copy and save generated value. This is a value for the client_secret.

Setup permissions for Entra ID Application

1. From the API permissions menu, choose + Add a permission
2. Find User.Read permission (under Microsoft Graph) and grant it to the created application:
3. From the Token Configuration menu, choose + Add groups claim

Associate an Entra ID group to your Entra ID App registration

1. From the Microsoft Entra ID > Enterprise applications menu, search the App that you created (e.g. Argo CD).
   • An Enterprise application with the same name of the Entra ID App registration is created when you add a new Entra ID App registration.
2. From the Users and groups menu of the app, add any users or groups requiring access to the service.

Configure Argo to use the new Entra ID App registration

1. Edit argocd-cm and configure the data.oidc.config and data.url section:

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        ConfigMap -> argocd-cm
   
        data:
           url: https://argocd.example.com/ # Replace with the external base URL of your Argo CD
           oidc.config: |
                 name: Azure
                 issuer: https://login.microsoftonline.com/{directory_tenant_id}/v2.0
                 clientID: {azure_ad_application_client_id}
                 clientSecret: $oidc.azure.clientSecret // if using client secret for authentication
                 azure:
                   useWorkloadIdentity: true // if using azure workload identity for authentication
                 requestedIDTokenClaims:
                    groups:
                       essential: true
                       value: "ApplicationGroup"
                 requestedScopes:
                    - openid
                    - profile
                    - email
   

2. Skip this step if using azure workload identity. Edit argocd-secret and configure the data.oidc.azure.clientSecret section:

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        Secret -> argocd-secret
   
        data:
           oidc.azure.clientSecret: {client_secret | base64_encoded}
   

3. Edit argocd-rbac-cm to configure permissions. Use group ID from Azure for assigning roles RBAC Configurations

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        ConfigMap -> argocd-rbac-cm
   
        policy.default: role:readonly
        policy.csv: |
           p, role:org-admin, applications, *, */*, allow
           p, role:org-admin, clusters, get, *, allow
           p, role:org-admin, repositories, get, *, allow
           p, role:org-admin, repositories, create, *, allow
           p, role:org-admin, repositories, update, *, allow
           p, role:org-admin, repositories, delete, *, allow
           g, "84ce98d1-e359-4f3b-85af-985b458de3c6", role:org-admin
   

4. Mapping role from jwt token to argo.
   If you want to map the roles from the jwt token to match the default roles (readonly and admin) then you must change the scope variable in the rbac-configmap.

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        policy.default: role:readonly
        policy.csv: |
           p, role:org-admin, applications, *, */*, allow
           p, role:org-admin, clusters, get, *, allow
           p, role:org-admin, repositories, get, *, allow
           p, role:org-admin, repositories, create, *, allow
           p, role:org-admin, repositories, update, *, allow
           p, role:org-admin, repositories, delete, *, allow
           g, "84ce98d1-e359-4f3b-85af-985b458de3c6", role:org-admin
        scopes: '[groups, email]'
   

   Refer to operator-manual/argocd-rbac-cm.yaml for all of the available variables.

Azure AD Groups Overflow Resolution (200+ Groups)

Overview

Azure AD / Entra ID access tokens can contain a maximum of 200 groups. When a user belongs to more than 200 groups, Azure AD sets overflow indicators (_claim_names and _claim_sources) in the ID token instead of including the groups claim. This causes users to have no group-based RBAC permissions in Argo CD.

Argo CD can automatically detect this overflow and resolve it by calling the Microsoft Graph API to fetch the complete list of group memberships.

Prerequisites

1. The Azure AD app registration must have the User.Read delegated permission. This is granted by default when following the Setup permissions steps above. Azure AD automatically includes approved permissions in the access token's scp claim without needing to explicitly request them in requestedScopes.

Configuration

Add the following to your argocd-cm ConfigMap under oidc.config:

oidc.config: |
  name: Azure
  issuer: https://login.microsoftonline.com/{tenant_id}/v2.0
  clientID: {client_id}
  clientSecret: $oidc.azure.clientSecret
  requestedScopes:
    - openid
    - profile
    - email
  azure:
    enableUserGroupOverageClaim: true

Configuration Options

Sovereign Clouds

For Azure Government, Azure China, or other sovereign clouds, override the Graph API endpoint:

azure:
  enableUserGroupOverageClaim: true
  graphApiEndpoint: https://graph.microsoft.us/v1.0  # Azure Government

How It Works

1. Detection: Argo CD checks the ID token for overflow indicators (_claim_names and _claim_sources).
2. Scope Check: Verifies the access token contains the User.Read scope.
3. Graph API Call: Calls POST /me/getMemberGroups to fetch all group IDs (up to 2048). Only security-enabled groups are returned (not distribution lists), which is appropriate for RBAC evaluation.
4. Caching: Encrypts and caches the resolved groups for the duration of the token or a configured expiration.
5. RBAC Integration: The resolved group IDs are added to the user's claims for RBAC evaluation.

Troubleshooting

[!WARNING] This feature depends on the Microsoft Graph API being reachable at authentication time. If the Graph API is unavailable (network issues, outage, etc.), users with 200+ group memberships will be unable to authenticate until service is restored. Users with fewer than 200 groups are unaffected since their groups are included directly in the ID token.

Graph API failures (missing scope, permission denied, network errors) will cause authentication to fail with a 401 Unauthorized response. This is consistent with how the UserInfo endpoint behaves. Only enable this feature if you need group-based RBAC for users with 200+ groups, and ensure the prerequisites above are met to avoid authentication issues.

Entra ID SAML Enterprise App Auth using Dex

Configure a new Entra ID Enterprise App

1. From the Microsoft Entra ID > Enterprise applications menu, choose + New application
2. Select Non-gallery application
3. Enter a Name for the application (e.g. Argo CD), then choose Add
4. Once the application is created, open it from the Enterprise applications menu.
5. From the Users and groups menu of the app, add any users or groups requiring access to the service.
6. From the Single sign-on menu, edit the Basic SAML Configuration section as follows (replacing my-argo-cd-url with your Argo URL):
   • Identifier (Entity ID): https://<my-argo-cd-url>/api/dex/callback
   • Reply URL (Assertion Consumer Service URL): https://<my-argo-cd-url>/api/dex/callback
   • Sign on URL: https://<my-argo-cd-url>/auth/login
   • Relay State: <empty>
   • Logout Url: <empty>
7. From the Single sign-on menu, edit the User Attributes & Claims section to create the following claims:
   • + Add new claim | Name: email | Source: Attribute | Source attribute: user.mail
   • + Add group claim | Which groups: All groups | Source attribute: Group ID | Customize: True | Name: Group | Namespace: <empty> | Emit groups as role claims: False
   • Note: The Unique User Identifier required claim can be left as the default user.userprincipalname
8. From the Single sign-on menu, download the SAML Signing Certificate (Base64)
   • Base64 encode the contents of the downloaded certificate file, for example:
   • $ cat ArgoCD.cer | base64
   • Keep a copy of the encoded output to be used in the next section.
9. From the Single sign-on menu, copy the Login URL parameter, to be used in the next section.

Configure Argo to use the new Entra ID Enterprise App

1. Edit argocd-cm and add the following dex.config to the data section, replacing the caData, my-argo-cd-url and my-login-url your values from the Entra ID App:

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        data:
          url: https://my-argo-cd-url
          dex.config: |
            logger:
              level: debug
              format: json
            connectors:
            - type: saml
              id: saml
              name: saml
              config:
                entityIssuer: https://my-argo-cd-url/api/dex/callback
                ssoURL: https://my-login-url (e.g. https://login.microsoftonline.com/xxxxx/a/saml2)
                caData: |
                   MY-BASE64-ENCODED-CERTIFICATE-DATA
                redirectURI: https://my-argo-cd-url/api/dex/callback
                usernameAttr: email
                emailAttr: email
                groupsAttr: Group
   

2. Edit argocd-rbac-cm to configure permissions, similar to example below.

   • Use Entra ID Group IDs for assigning roles.

   • See RBAC Configurations for more detailed scenarios.

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     # example policy
     policy.default: role:readonly
     policy.csv: |
        p, role:org-admin, applications, *, */*, allow
        p, role:org-admin, clusters, get, *, allow
        p, role:org-admin, repositories, get, *, allow
        p, role:org-admin, repositories, create, *, allow
        p, role:org-admin, repositories, update, *, allow
        p, role:org-admin, repositories, delete, *, allow
        g, "84ce98d1-e359-4f3b-85af-985b458de3c6", role:org-admin # (azure group assigned to role)
     

Entra ID App Registration Auth using Dex

Configure a new AD App Registration, as above. Then, add the dex.config to argocd-cm:

ConfigMap -> argocd-cm

data:
    dex.config: |
      connectors:
      - type: microsoft
        id: microsoft
        name: Your Company GmbH
        config:
          clientID: $MICROSOFT_APPLICATION_ID
          clientSecret: $MICROSOFT_CLIENT_SECRET
          redirectURI: http://localhost:8080/api/dex/callback
          tenant: ffffffff-ffff-ffff-ffff-ffffffffffff
          groups:
            - DevOps

Validation

Log in to ArgoCD UI using SSO

1. Open a new browser tab and enter your ArgoCD URI: https://<my-argo-cd-url>
2. Click LOGIN VIA AZURE button to log in with your Microsoft Entra ID account. You’ll see the ArgoCD applications screen.
3. Navigate to User Info and verify Group ID. Groups will have your group’s Object ID that you added in the Setup permissions for Entra ID Application step.

Log in to ArgoCD using CLI

1. Open terminal, execute the below command.

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        argocd login <my-argo-cd-url> --grpc-web-root-path / --sso
   

2. You will see the below message after entering your credentials from the browser.

3. Your terminal output will be similar as below.

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        WARNING: server certificate had error: x509: certificate is valid for ingress.local, not my-argo-cd-url. Proceed insecurely (y/n)? y
        Opening browser for authentication
        INFO[0003] RequestedClaims: map[groups:essential:true ]
        Performing authorization_code flow login: https://login.microsoftonline.com/XXXXXXXXXXXXX/oauth2/v2.0/authorize?access_type=offline&claims=%7B%22id_token%22%3A%7B%22groups%22%3A%7B%22essential%22%3Atrue%7D%7D%7D&client_id=XXXXXXXXXXXXX&code_challenge=XXXXXXXXXXXXX&code_challenge_method=S256&redirect_uri=http%3A%2F%2Flocalhost%3A8085%2Fauth%2Fcallback&response_type=code&scope=openid+profile+email+offline_access&state=XXXXXXXX
        Authentication successful
        '[email protected]' logged in successfully
        Context 'my-argo-cd-url' updated
   

   You may get an warning if you are not using a correctly signed certs. Refer to Why Am I Getting x509: certificate signed by unknown authority When Using The CLI?.

Domain hint (optional)

For Microsoft identity platforms, you can set domainHint in oidc.config to provide a domain hint during sign-in.

When configured, Argo CD adds domain_hint=<value> to the authorization request sent to Microsoft.
This can reduce account discovery prompts in multi-tenant or federated environments.

• Field: domainHint
• Type: string
• Required: No
• Default: empty (parameter is not sent)

Example:

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: argocd-cm
  namespace: argocd
data:
  oidc.config: |
    name: Microsoft
    issuer: https://login.microsoftonline.com/<tenant-id>/v2.0
    clientID: <client-id>
    clientSecret: $oidc.microsoft.clientSecret
    requestedScopes: ["openid", "profile", "email", "groups"]
    domainHint: contoso.com