Configure Microsoft Azure AD for External OAuth¶

Determine the OAuth flow in Azure AD¶

Azure AD supports two different OAuth flows in which an OAuth Client can get an access token.

1. The authorization server can grant the OAuth client an access token on behalf of the user.

2. The authorization server can grant the OAuth client an access token for the OAuth client itself.

In the first flow, the identity in the access token references the user. In the second flow, the identity in the access token references the OAuth client.

Microsoft Azure AD does not allow the same role format for each of these two OAuth flows. The role format to use depends on the OAuth flow in use. After determining which OAuth flow to use:

• Complete either sub-step 10 or 11 in Configure the OAuth resource in Azure AD.

• Complete either sub-step 13 or 14 in Create an OAuth client in Azure AD.

Configure the OAuth resource in Azure AD¶

1. Navigate to the Microsoft Azure Portal and authenticate.

2. Navigate to Azure Active Directory.

3. Click on App Registrations.

4. Click on New Registration.

5. Enter Snowflake OAuth Resource, or similar value as the Name.

6. Verify the Supported account types is set to Single Tenant.

7. Click Register.

8. Click on Expose an API.

9. Click on the Set link next to Application ID URI to set the Application ID URI.

   Important

   The Application ID URI must be unique within your organization’s directory, such as https://your.company.com/4d2a8c2b-a5f4-4b86-93ca-294185f45f2e. This value will be referred to as the <SNOWFLAKE_APPLICATION_ID_URI> in the subsequent configuration steps.

   For help obtaining your Application ID URI, please contact your internal Microsoft Azure AD administrator.

   If the Application ID URI is not used, then it is necessary to create a security integration with audiences using the Snowflake Account URL (i.e. <account_identifier>.snowflakecomputing.com). For more information, see:

   • The audience integration in Create a security integration in Snowflake.

   • Account identifiers.

10. To add a Snowflake Role as an OAuth scope for OAuth flows where the programmatic client acts on behalf of a user, click on Add a scope to add a scope representing the Snowflake role.

    • Enter the scope by having the name of the Snowflake role with the session:scope: prefix. For example, for the Snowflake Analyst role, enter session:scope:analyst.

    • Select who can consent.

    • Enter a display name for the scope (e.g.: Account Admin).

    • Enter a description for the scope (e.g.: Can administer the Snowflake account).

    • Click Add Scope.

11. To add a Snowflake Role as a Role for OAuth flows where the programmatic client requests an access token for itself:

    • Click on Manifest.

    • Locate the appRoles element.

    • Enter an App Role with the following settings.

      Setting	Description
      allowedMemberTypes	Application.
      description	A description of the role.
      displayName	A friendly name for users to view.
      id	A unique ID. You can use the [System.Guid]::NewGuid() function from PowerShell to generate a unique ID if needed.
      isEnabled	Set to true.
      lang	The language. Set to null.
      origin	Set to Application.
      value	Set to the name of the Snowflake role with the session:role: prefix. . For the Analyst role, enter session:role:analyst.

      The App Role manifests as follows.

      "appRoles":[
          {
              "allowedMemberTypes": [ "Application" ],
              "description": "Account Administrator.",
              "displayName": "Account Admin",
              "id": "3ea51f40-2ad7-4e79-aa18-12c45156dc6a",
              "isEnabled": true,
              "lang": null,
              "origin": "Application",
              "value": "session:role:analyst"
          }
      ]
      

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12. Click Save.

Create an OAuth client in Azure AD¶

1. Navigate to the Microsoft Azure Portal and authenticate.

2. Navigate to Azure Active Directory.

3. Click on App Registrations.

4. Click on New Registration.

5. Enter a name for the client such as Snowflake OAuth Client.

6. Verify the Supported account types is set to Single Tenant.

7. Click Register.

8. In the Overview section, copy the ClientID from the Application (client) ID field. This will be known as the <OAUTH_CLIENT_ID> in the following steps.

9. Click on Certificates & secrets and then New client secret.

10. Add a description of the secret.

11. Select never expire. For testing purposes, select secrets that never expire.

12. Click Add. Copy the secret. This will be known as the <OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET> in the following steps.

13. For programmatic clients that will request an Access Token on behalf of a user, configure Delegated permissions for Applications as follows.

    • Click on API Permissions.

    • Click on Add Permission.

    • Click on My APIs.

    • Click on the Snowflake OAuth Resource that you created in Configure the OAuth resource in Azure AD.

    • Click on the Delegated Permissions box.

    • Check on the Permission related to the Scopes defined in the Application that you wish to grant to this client.

    • Click Add Permissions.

    • Click on the Grant Admin Consent button to grant the permissions to the client. Note that for testing purposes, permissions are configured this way. However, in a production environment, granting permissions in this manner is not advisable.

    • Click Yes.

14. For programmatic clients that will request an Access Token for themselves, configure API permissions for Applications as follows.

    • Click on API Permissions.

    • Click on Add Permission.

    • Click on My APIs.

    • Click on the Snowflake OAuth Resource that you created in Configure the OAuth resource in Azure AD.

    • Click on the Application Permissions.

    • Check on the Permission related to the Roles manually defined in the Manifest of the Application that you wish to grant to this client.

    • Click Add Permissions.

    • Click on the Grant Admin Consent button to grant the permissions to the client.Note that for testing purposes, permissions are configured this way. However, in a production environment, granting permissions in this manner is not advisable.

    • Click Yes.

Collect Azure AD information for Snowflake¶

1. Navigate to the Microsoft Azure Portal and authenticate.

2. Navigate to Azure Active Directory.

3. Click on App Registrations.

4. Click on the Snowflake OAuth Resource that you created in Configure the OAuth resource in Azure AD.

5. Click on Endpoints in the Overview interface.

6. On the right-hand side, copy the OAuth 2.0 token endpoint (v2) and note the URLs for OpenID Connect metadata and Federation Connect metadata.

   • The OAuth 2.0 token endpoint (v2) will be known as the <AZURE_AD_OAUTH_TOKEN_ENDPOINT> in the following configuration steps. The endpoint should be similar to https://login.microsoftonline.com/90288a9b-97df-4c6d-b025-95713f21cef9/oauth2/v2.0/token.

   • For the OpenID Connect metadata, open in a new browser window.

     • Locate the "jwks_uri" parameter and copy its value.

     • This parameter value will be known as the <AZURE_AD_JWS_KEY_ENDPOINT> in the following configuration steps. The endpoint should be similar to https://login.microsoftonline.com/90288a9b-97df-4c6d-b025-95713f21cef9/discovery/v2.0/keys.

   • For the Federation metadata document, open the URL in a new browser window.

     • Locate the "entityID" parameter in the XML Root Element and copy its value.

     • This parameter value will be known as the <AZURE_AD_ISSUER> in the following configuration steps. The entityID value should be similar to https://sts.windows.net/90288a9b-97df-4c6d-b025-95713f21cef9/.

Create a security integration in Snowflake¶

This step involves creating a security integration in Snowflake to ensure that Snowflake can communicate with Microsoft Azure AD securely, validate the tokens from Azure AD, and provide the appropriate Snowflake data access to users based on the user role associated with the OAuth token.

Choose the security integration that best addresses your use case and configuration needs. If your integration is only based on the preceding configuration, use the first security integration. For more information, see CREATE SECURITY INTEGRATION.

Create a security integration for Azure AD

create security integration external_oauth_azure_1
    type = external_oauth
    enabled = true
    external_oauth_type = azure
    external_oauth_issuer = '<AZURE_AD_ISSUER>'
    external_oauth_jws_keys_url = '<AZURE_AD_JWS_KEY_ENDPOINT>'
    external_oauth_token_user_mapping_claim = 'upn'
    external_oauth_snowflake_user_mapping_attribute = 'login_name';

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Create a security integration with audiences

The external_oauth_audience_list parameter of the security integration must match the Application ID URI that you specified while configuring Azure AD.

create security integration external_oauth_azure_2
    type = external_oauth
    enabled = true
    external_oauth_type = azure
    external_oauth_issuer = '<AZURE_AD_ISSUER>'
    external_oauth_jws_keys_url = '<AZURE_AD_JWS_KEY_ENDPOINT>'
    external_oauth_audience_list = ('<SNOWFLAKE_APPLICATION_ID_URI>')
    external_oauth_token_user_mapping_claim = 'upn'
    external_oauth_snowflake_user_mapping_attribute = 'login_name';

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Modifying Your External OAuth Security Integration¶

You can update your External OAuth security integration by executing an ALTER statement on the security integration.

For more information, see ALTER SECURITY INTEGRATION (External OAuth).

Using ANY role with External OAuth¶

In the configuration step to create a security integration in Snowflake, the OAuth access token includes the scope definition. Therefore, at runtime, using the External OAuth security integration allows neither the OAuth client nor the user to use an undefined role in the OAuth access token.

After validating the access token and creating a session, the ANY role can allow the OAuth client and user to decide its role. If necessary, the client or the user can switch to a role that is different that the role defined in the OAuth access token.

To configure ANY role, define the scope as SESSION:ROLE-ANY and configure the security integration with the external_oauth_any_role_mode parameter. This parameter can have three possible string values:

• DISABLE does not allow the OAuth client or user to switch roles (i.e. use role <role>;). Default.

• ENABLE allows the OAuth client or user to switch roles.

• ENABLE_FOR_PRIVILEGE allows the OAuth client or user to switch roles only for a client or user with the USE_ANY_ROLE privilege. This privilege can be granted and revoked to one or more roles available to the user. For example:

  grant USE_ANY_ROLE on integration external_oauth_1 to role1;
  

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  revoke USE_ANY_ROLE on integration external_oauth_1 from role1;
  

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Define the security integration as follows:

create security integration external_oauth_1
    type = external_oauth
    enabled = true
    external_oauth_any_role_mode = 'ENABLE'
    ...

Using secondary roles with External OAuth¶

The desired scope for the primary role is passed in the external token: either the default role for the user (session:role-any) or a specific role that was granted to the user (session:role:<role_name>).

By default, Snowflake does not activate the default secondary roles for a user (i.e. the DEFAULT_SECONDARY_ROLES) user in the session.

To activate the default secondary roles for a user in a session and allow executing the USE SECONDARY ROLES command while using External OAuth, complete the following steps:

1. Configure the security integration for the connection. Set the EXTERNAL_OAUTH_ANY_ROLE_MODE parameter value to either ENABLE or ENABLE_FOR_PRIVILEGE when you create the security integration (using CREATE SECURITY INTEGRATION) or later (using ALTER SECURITY INTEGRATION).

2. Configure the authorization server to pass the static value of session:role-any in the scope attribute of the token. For more information about the scope parameter, see External OAuth overview.

Using Client Redirect with External OAuth¶

Snowflake supports using Client Redirect with External OAuth, including using Client Redirect and OAuth with supported Snowflake Clients.

For more information, see Redirecting client connections.

Using network policies with External OAuth¶

Currently, network policies cannot be added to your External OAuth security integration. However, you can still implement network policies that apply broadly to the entire Snowflake account.

If your use case requires a network policy that is specific to the OAuth security integration, use Snowflake OAuth. This approach allows the Snowflake OAuth network policy to be distinct from other network policies that may apply to the Snowflake account.

For more information, see Network policies.

Using replication with External OAuth¶

Snowflake supports replication and failover/failback of the External OAuth security integration from a source account to a target account.

For details, see Replication of security integrations & network policies across multiple accounts.