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Add Microsoft as an EASIE connection

You will learn the following:

  • Use Microsoft to authenticate users with EASIE SSO.

Enabling EASIE SSO with Microsoft (formerly Active Directory) allows your users to sign up and sign in to your Clerk application with their Microsoft account.

Configure for your development instance

For development instances, Clerk uses preconfigured shared credentials and redirect URIs—no other configuration is needed.

  1. In the Clerk Dashboard, navigate to the SSO connections page.
  2. Select the Add connection button, and select For specific domains.
  3. Under EASIE, select Microsoft as the identity provider.
  4. Add the Specific Domain that you want to allow this connection for. This is the domain of the users you want to allow to sign in to your app.
  5. Select Add connection.

Configure for your production instance

Warning

If you already configured Microsoft as a social provider, you can skip this step. EASIE SSO will automatically use the credentials you configured for your social connection.

For production instances, you must provide custom credentials, which involves generating your own Client ID and Client Secret using your Microsoft Entra ID account.

To make the setup process easier, it's recommended to keep two browser tabs open: one for the Clerk Dashboard and one for your Microsoft Azure portal.

Enable Microsoft as an EASIE connection

  1. In the Clerk Dashboard, navigate to the SSO connections page.
  2. Select Add connection and select For specific domains.
  3. Under EASIE, select Microsoft as the identity provider.
  4. Add the Specific Domain that you want to allow this connection for. This is the domain of the users you want to allow to sign in to your app.
  5. Ensure that Use custom credentials is toggled on.
  6. Save the Redirect URI somewhere secure. Keep this page open.

Create a Microsoft Entra ID app

Tip

If you already have a Microsoft Entra ID app you'd like to connect to Clerk, select your app from the Microsoft Azure portal and skip to the next step in this tutorial.

  1. On the homepage of the Microsoft Azure portal, in the Azure services section, select Microsoft Entra ID.
  2. In the sidebar, open the Manage dropdown and select App registrations.
  3. Select New Registration. You'll be redirected to the Register an application page.
  4. Complete the form as follows:
    1. Under Name, enter your app name.
    2. Under Supported account types, select Accounts in any organizational directory (Any Microsoft Entra ID tenant – Multitenant) and personal Microsoft accounts (e.g. Skype, Xbox).
    3. Under Redirect URI (Optional), select Web.
    4. Select Register to submit the form.

Secure your app against the nOAuth vulnerability

nOAuth is an exploit in Microsoft Entra ID OAuth apps that can lead to account takeovers via email address spoofing. Clerk mitigates this risk by enforcing stricter checks on verified email addresses.

For further security, Microsoft offers an optional xms_edov claim, which provides additional context to determine whether the returned email is verified.

This claim is mandatory for applications backing EASIE connections. To enable it, you must:

  1. In the Microsoft Azure portal, navigate to your app.
  2. In the sidebar, select Token configuration.
  3. Select Add optional claim.
  4. For the Token type, select ID. Then, in the table that opens, enable the email and xms_pdl claims.
  5. At the bottom of the modal, select Add. A new modal will prompt you to turn on the Microsoft Graph email permission. Enable it, then select Add to complete the form.

    Note

    At the time of writing, the xms_edov claim is still in preview and may not be available for all apps. We'll choose another claim and rename it in the manifest later.

  6. Repeat the previous steps for Token type, but select Access instead of ID. The Optional claims list should now show two claims for email and two for xms_pdl: one each for ID and Access.
  7. In the sidebar, go to Manifest.
  8. In the text editor, search for "acceptMappedClaims" and set its value from null to true.
  9. Search for "optionalClaims", where you'll find the idToken and accessToken arrays. Each array has an object with the name xms_pdl. Change the name to xms_edov.
  10. At the top of the page, select Save.
  11. In the sidebar, navigate back to Token configuration and confirm that the Optional claims list includes two claims for email and two for xms_edov: one each for ID and Access.

With these steps complete, Microsoft will send the xms_edov claim in the token, which Clerk will use to determine whether the email is verified, even when used with Microsoft Entra ID.

Get your client ID and client secret

Once your Microsoft Entra ID app is created, or once you select your app from the Microsoft Azure portal, you'll be redirected to its Overview.

  1. From your app's overview, save the Application (client) ID somewhere secure. You'll need it to connect your Microsoft Entra ID app to your Clerk app.
  2. Under Client credentials, select Add a certificate or secret to generate a Client Secret. You'll be redirected to the Certificate & secrets page.
  3. Select New client secret. In the modal that opens, enter a description and set an expiration time for your secret.

    Important

    When your secret expires, your social connection will stop working until you generate a new client secret and add it to your Clerk app.

  4. Save the new client secret's Value somewhere secure. You'll add this and your client ID to your Clerk app later. Keep this page open.

Set the Client ID and Client Secret in the Clerk Dashboard

Go back to the Clerk Dashboard, where the modal should still be open, and paste the Client ID and Client Secret values into the respective fields. Note that if you have any other Microsoft EASIE connections or a Microsoft social connection, this will update the credentials for all of them. Select Add connection.

Enable OpenID

To connect your Clerk app to your Microsoft app, set the Redirect URI in your Microsoft Azure portal.

  1. Navigate back to the Microsoft Azure portal.
  2. In the sidebar, open the Manage dropdown and select Authentication.
  3. Select Add a platform.
  4. Select Web.
  5. In the Redirect URIs field and the Front-channel logout URL field, paste the Redirect URI you copied from the Clerk Dashboard.
  6. Under Implicit grant and hybrid flows, check both Access tokens and ID tokens.
  7. Select Configure to save the changes.

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