How to update from deprecated Microsoft.Azure.Services.AppAuthentication to new and shiny Azure.Security.KeyVaults.Secrets?

This post was most recently updated on January 12th, 2022.

So, a while ago I posted about a fairly simple way to write your code for fetching secrets (and other confidential stuff) from Azure Key Vault in such a way, that it would work the same way both in Azure and on your local dev box. I find this pretty important, as it reduces the need for weird workarounds and fallbacks in your code, and at the same time enables you to harness the Azure Key Vault for that sweet spot of “good enough security without breaking your back or the bank”.

That post was apparently a bit of a hit. I am happy to see that so many of you are struggling with the same things as me!

Wait, that didn’t come out correctly, did it? 😅 Anyway, the article is linked below!

https://www.koskila.net/how-to-authenticate-against-azure-key-vault-both-in-azure-and-local-development-environment/

But… There’s a bit of a problem with the solution. You’ll get Visual Studio complaining about deprecated dependencies – and for a fair reason! Microsoft.Azure.Services.AppAuthentication has been deprecated in favor of a more recent library, Azure.Security.KeyVaults.Secrets.

So, time to upgrade, right? 😉

Solution

Well, it turns out, upgrading isn’t that difficult. You get rid of the old stuff, add the new stuff, and change a couple of lines.

You’ll replace the “old” Microsoft.Azure -dependencies – namely, KeyVault and AppAuthentication – with more modern “Azure.Security.KeyVault.Secrets” and “Azure.Identity”.

I’m getting the feeling that naming stuff is hard for Microsoft, too…

With that out of the way, see the steps below:

And with that, you should be good! At least once, some migration/upgrade task was actually quite simple :)

Almost the whole upgrade is shown in this single commit to a single file below:

Did it work for you? Let me know in the comments -section below!

References

• My earlier blog post about the topic: https://www.koskila.net/how-to-authenticate-against-azure-key-vault-both-in-azure-and-local-development-environment/
• Microsoft’s documentation for the migration – I didn’t even realize this exists, as the migration was so easy I didn’t need to see it. But maybe your case is more complicated – here’s the link:
  • https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/overview/azure/app-auth-migration

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Antti K. Koskela

Developer / Speaker / Consultant at Koskila / Precio Fishbone / Norppandalotti Software Co / Alter - Experience Ideas Ltd

Antti Koskela is a proud digital native nomadic millennial full stack developer (is that enough funny buzzwords? That's definitely enough funny buzzwords!), who works as Solutions Architect for Precio Fishbone, building delightful Digital Workplaces.

He's been a developer from 2004 (starting with PHP and Java), and he's been working on .NET projects, Azure, Office 365, SharePoint and a lot of other stuff. He's also Microsoft MVP for Azure.

This is his personal professional (e.g. professional, but definitely personal) blog.

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