What are Authentication Flows Supported by Azure AD v1.0 service?

Azure AD v1.0 service supports 3 Authentication Flows:

1. Implicit Flow - The Implicit Flow is simple to implement. But it is less secure. Authentication is done in a single call to Azure AD service, which returns the "id_token" containing user identity.

2. Authorization Code Flow - The Authorization Code Flow is more complex to implement. But it is more secure. Authentication is done in two calls to Azure AD service. The first call returns only an authorization "code". You need to make a second call to exchange "code" for the final "access token".

3. Hybrid Flow, also called OAuth 2.0 Multiple Response Type Encoding Practices - In the Hybrid Flow, you ask for both "id_token" and authorization "code" in the first call. This allows you to mix the Implicit Flow and Authorization Code Flow together.

All above 3 Authentication Flows are summarized in a single diagram shown below:

Detail description of Azure AD v1 authentication flows can be found in article: "Authorize access to web applications using OpenID Connect and Azure Active Directory".

 

⇒ Azure AD v1 OpenID Metadata Document

⇐ Azure AD Integration v1.0

⇑ Azure AD Integration v1.0

⇑⇑ OpenID Tutorials