What is @azure/msal-browser?
The @azure/msal-browser package is a library that enables browser-based applications to authenticate users using Azure Active Directory and to obtain tokens to access protected APIs. It implements the OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect protocols in a client-side JavaScript application.
What are @azure/msal-browser's main functionalities?
Authentication
This feature allows users to sign in and obtain an ID token through a popup window.
const msalConfig = {
auth: {
clientId: 'your-client-id',
authority: 'https://login.microsoftonline.com/common',
redirectUri: 'your-redirect-uri'
}
};
const myMSALObj = new msal.PublicClientApplication(msalConfig);
function signIn() {
myMSALObj.loginPopup()
.then(loginResponse => {
console.log('id_token acquired at: ' + new Date().toString());
if (myMSALObj.getAccount()) {
console.log('Logged in');
}
}).catch(error => {
console.error(error);
});
}
Acquiring Tokens
This feature is used to acquire tokens silently or through a popup if required by the application.
const tokenRequest = {
scopes: ['user.read'],
forceRefresh: false
};
function getTokenPopup(request) {
return myMSALObj.acquireTokenSilent(request)
.catch(error => {
console.warn('silent token acquisition fails. acquiring token using popup');
if (error instanceof msal.InteractionRequiredAuthError) {
return myMSALObj.acquireTokenPopup(request)
.then(tokenResponse => {
return tokenResponse;
}).catch(error => {
console.error(error);
});
} else {
console.warn(error);
}
});
}
Single Sign-Out
This feature allows users to sign out of the application and clear the user's session.
function signOut() {
const logoutRequest = {
account: myMSALObj.getAccount()
};
myMSALObj.logout(logoutRequest);
}
Other packages similar to @azure/msal-browser
oidc-client
The oidc-client package is a low-level JavaScript library for implementing OpenID Connect (OIDC) clients in the browser. It provides more granular control over the authentication process compared to @azure/msal-browser but requires more setup and understanding of the OIDC protocol.
react-adal
The react-adal package is a React library that provides Azure Active Directory Authentication in ReactJS applications. It is specifically tailored for React applications and uses the ADAL.js library under the hood. It is less modern and feature-rich compared to @azure/msal-browser, which uses the newer MSAL.js library.
angular-auth-oidc-client
The angular-auth-oidc-client package is an Angular library for implementing OpenID Connect and OAuth2 in Angular applications. It is designed specifically for Angular and provides a similar feature set to @azure/msal-browser but is tailored to the Angular framework.
(Preview) Microsoft Authentication Library for JavaScript (MSAL.js) 2.0 for Browser-Based Single-Page Applications
- About
- FAQ
- Releases
- Prerequisites
- Installation
- Usage
- Samples
- Build and Test
- Authorization Code vs Implicit
- Security Reporting
- License
- Code of Conduct
About
Important: MSAL.js 2.0 with Authorization Code Flow is not yet available for B2C tenants (coming soon).
Want to join our Private Preview and test out the lastest changes to the Azure Portal? Fill out this form
The MSAL library for JavaScript enables client-side JavaScript applications to authenticate users using Azure AD work and school accounts (AAD), Microsoft personal accounts (MSA) and social identity providers like Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft accounts, etc. through Azure AD B2C service. It also enables your app to get tokens to access Microsoft Cloud services such as Microsoft Graph.
The @azure/msal-browser
package described by the code in this folder uses the @azure/msal-common
package as a dependency to enable authentication in Javascript Single-Page Applications without backend servers. This version of the library uses the OAuth 2.0 Authorization Code Flow with PKCE. To read more about this protocol, as well as the differences between implicit flow and authorization code flow, see the section below. If you are looking for the version of the library that uses the implicit flow, please see the msal-core
library.
This is an improvement upon the current msal-core
library which will utilize the authorization code flow in the browser. Most features available in the old library will be available in this one, but there are nuances to the authentication flow in both. The @azure/msal-browser
package does NOT support the implicit flow.
IMPORTANT: Please be aware that this is not a production ready library. We are making changes in the Azure portal to ensure we can deliver a polished end-to-end experience.
FAQ
See here.
Releases
Expect us to detail our major and minor releases moving forward, while leaving out our patch releases. Patch release notes can be found in our change log.
Date | Release | Announcement | Main features |
---|
| @azure/msal-browser v2.0.0-beta | No release notes yet | Beta version of the @azure/msal-browser package; relies on @azure/msal-common v1.0.0-beta |
January 17, 2020 | @azure/msal-browser v2.0.0-alpha | No release notes yet | Alpha version of the @azure/msal-browser package with authorization code flow for SPAs working in dev; relies on msal-common v1.0.0-alpha |
Prerequisites
-
@azure/msal-browser
is meant to be used in Single-Page Application scenarios.
-
Before using @azure/msal-browser
you will need to register an application in Azure AD to get a valid clientId
for configuration, and to register the routes that your app will accept redirect traffic on.
-
Once you have registered your application, you will need to do two things in order to ensure @azure/msal-browser
will successfully retrieve tokens:
- Change your redirect URI type to enable CORS. You can do this by going to the manifest editor for your app registration in the portal, finding the
replyUrlsWithType
section and changing the type of your redirect URI to SPA
. This may remove the affected redirect URIs from the Web platform Authentication tab - that's OK! We are working on getting UI set up for this.
Installation
Via NPM:
npm install @azure/msal-browser
Via CDN:
Usage
Migrating from Previous MSAL Versions
If you have MSAL v1.x currently running in your application, you can follow the instructions here to migrate your application to using the @azure/msal-browser
package.
MSAL Basics
- Initialization
- Logging in a User
- Acquiring and Using an Access Token
- Managing Token Lifetimes
- Logging Out a User
Advanced Topics
Samples
The VanillaJSTestApp2.0
folder contains sample applications for our libraries. You can run any sample by changing the authConfig.js
file in the respective folder to match your app registration and running the npm
command npm start -- -s <sample-name> -p <port>
.
Here is a complete list of samples for the MSAL.js 2.x library:
Sample | Description | How to Run |
---|
Basic Auth Sample | A vanilla Javascript sample showing basic usage of the MSAL 2.0 library (@azure/msal-browser package) with the Microsoft Graph API. | npm start -- -s default |
On Page Load Sample | A vanilla JS sample showing usage of MSAL 2.0 with authentication on page load with a redirect. | npm start -- -s onPageLoad |
ssoSilent() Sample | A vanilla JS sample showing usage of the ssoSilent API, allowing you to sign in a user silently if a context exists on the authentication server. | npm start -- -s ssoSilent |
More instructions to run the samples can be found in the README.md
file of the VanillaJSTestApp2.0 folder.
Build and Test
Build Library
cd microsoft-authentication-library-for-js/
npm install
npm run build
npm run build -- --scope @azure/msal-browser
Alternate Build Instructions
If you are having issues with lerna
, you can try the following:
cd lib/msal-browser/
npm link @azure/msal-common
npm run build
npm run build:all
Running Tests
@azure/msal-browser
uses mocha and chai to run unit tests, as well as Istanbul's nyc tool for code coverage.
npm test
npm run test:coverage:only
- If you are having issues with
lerna
, change to the msal-browser
directory and run the commands directly there.
OAuth 2.0 and the Implicit Flow vs Authorization Code Flow with PKCE
MSAL.js 1.x implemented the Implicit Grant Flow, as defined by the OAuth 2.0 protocol and OpenID.
Our goal is that the library abstracts enough of the protocol away so that you can get plug and play authentication, but it is important to know and understand the implicit flow from a security perspective. The MSAL 1.x client for single-page applications runs in the context of a web browser which cannot manage client secrets securely. It uses the implicit flow, which optimized for single page apps and has one less hop between client and server so tokens are returned directly to the browser. These aspects make it naturally less secure. These security concerns are mitigated per standard practices such as- use of short lived tokens (and so no refresh tokens are returned), the library requiring a registered redirect URI for the app, library matching the request and response with a unique nonce and state parameter. You can read more about the disadvantages of the implicit flow here.
The MSAL library will now support the Authorization Code Flow with PKCE for Browser-Based Applications without a backend web server.
We plan to continue support for the implicit flow in the msal-core
library.
You can learn further details about @azure/msal-browser
functionality documented in our docs folder and find complete code samples.
Security Reporting
If you find a security issue with our libraries or services please report it to secure@microsoft.com with as much detail as possible. Your submission may be eligible for a bounty through the Microsoft Bounty program. Please do not post security issues to GitHub Issues or any other public site. We will contact you shortly upon receiving the information. We encourage you to get notifications of when security incidents occur by visiting this page and subscribing to Security Advisory Alerts.
License
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Licensed under the MIT License (the "License");
We Value and Adhere to the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct
This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct. For more information see the Code of Conduct FAQ or contact opencode@microsoft.com with any additional questions or comments.