Authentication with Azure Active Directory - how to accept user credentials programmatically

Question

Is there any way to login via web application or web api to Azure Active Directory (with AD credentials) using my own username and password page which is hosted outside of A

Answer 1

The Resource Owner Password Credentials Grant (grant_type=password) flow is supported by Azure Active Directory. However, before using it, consider if it is truly required. As it says in the OAuth 2.0 RFC:

The resource owner password credentials (i.e., username and password) can be used directly as an authorization grant to obtain an access token. The credentials should only be used when there is a high degree of trust between the resource owner and the client (e.g., the client is part of the device operating system or a highly privileged application), and when other authorization grant types are not available (such as an authorization code).

If you have determined that the other supported flows will definitely not work for your scenario, then also be sure to follow the second bit of advice in the RFC:

Even though this grant type requires direct client access to the resource owner credentials, the resource owner credentials are used for a single request and are exchanged for an access token. This grant type can eliminate the need for the client to store the resource owner credentials for future use, by exchanging the credentials with a long-lived access token or refresh token.

(Emphasis added in both cases.)

There's a .NET and ADAL sample on GitHub that uses this flow, and it should be simple enough to implement in Python: https://github.com/AzureADSamples/NativeClient-Headless-DotNet

Edit: You can host your application anywhere you want, it doesn't need to be on Azure. This applies to all flows.