Migrate ADAL apps to MSAL with enhanced insights

We’re pleased to announce significant updates to the Sign-ins workbook in the Microsoft Entra admin center, a crucial tool for organizations transitioning from Azure Active Directory Authentication Libraries (ADAL) to Microsoft Authentication Libraries (MSAL). These updates aim to streamline the ADAL migration process by providing comprehensive insights into your ADAL-application-related data.

Why is this Important?

We announced ADAL end of life in June 2020 and stopped supporting any security updates as of June 2023—which means applications using ADAL can’t utilize the latest security features, leaving them vulnerable to future security threats.   We strongly recommend migrating any application using ADAL to MSAL to improve the security posture and resilience of authentication and authorization of your client applications.

MSAL supports the latest security features for Microsoft Entra ID like managed identity, Continuous Access Evaluation (CAE), passkeys, and many more. The updated Sign-ins workbook is an essential tool in this transition, providing the necessary insights and data to make informed decisions to execute migration.

What's new in the Sign-ins workbook?

The Sign-ins workbook is redesigned for admins needing a centralized and more detailed view of applications using ADAL within their tenant. These additional insights can help them identify, investigate, and validate the ADAL applications to successfully migrate to MSAL.   

Here’s what you can expect with the latest enhancements:

1. Comprehensive sign-in log aggregation: The workbook now consolidates logs from various types of sign-in events, including interactive, non-interactive, and service principal sign-ins.
2. Enhanced data visualization: We updated the report with new aggregated metrics to enable an all-up view of sign-ins across ADAL applications. To aid in your specific analytical needs, the workbook supports the application of custom filters and queries. This flexibility enables you to focus on the information that matters most to your ADAL migration efforts.
3. Integration with Microsoft Entra recommendations: You can now directly access this Sign-Ins workbook from the ADAL to MSAL recommendation page to dive deep into the list of ADAL applications listed on the recommendation details page. To use the workbooks for Microsoft Entra ID, you need a Microsoft Entra ID tenant with a P1 license.

Figure 1: ADAL apps sign-in data

Figure 2: Apps sign-in data

Plan to update your application

Get started by accessing the workbook to get a list of all ADAL applications and the details associated with them. Our migration guide walks you through all the steps to transition applications from using ADAL to using MSAL.

Neha Goel 

Senior Product Manager, Microsoft  

LinkedIn 

Read more on this topic 

• Migrate applications to the Microsoft Authentication Library
• Manage workbooks
• How to use Entra Workbooks
• Migrate from ADAL to MSAL Entra Recommendations

Learn more about Microsoft Entra  

Prevent identity attacks, ensure least privilege access, unify access controls, and improve the experience for users with comprehensive identity and network access solutions across on-premises and clouds. 

• ⁠Microsoft Entra News and Insights | Microsoft Security Blog
• ⁠⁠Microsoft Entra blog | Tech Community
• ⁠Microsoft Entra documentation | Microsoft Learn
• Microsoft Entra discussions | Microsoft Community