az login as service principal fails, JSONDecodeError: Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)

[iTiamo]

Describe the bug

It seems that an empty body is returned when trying to login as a service principal.

Command Name az login --service-principal -u $ARM_CLIENT_ID -p $ARM_CLIENT_SECRET --tenant $ARM_TENANT_ID --output none

Errors:

The command failed with an unexpected error. Here is the traceback:
Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/opt/az/lib/python3.10/site-packages/knack/cli.py", line 233, in invoke
    cmd_result = self.invocation.execute(args)
  File "/opt/az/lib/python3.10/site-packages/azure/cli/core/commands/__init__.py", line 663, in execute
    raise ex
  File "/opt/az/lib/python3.10/site-packages/azure/cli/core/commands/__init__.py", line 726, in _run_jobs_serially
    results.append(self._run_job(expanded_arg, cmd_copy))
  File "/opt/az/lib/python3.10/site-packages/azure/cli/core/commands/__init__.py", line 697, in _run_job
    result = cmd_copy(params)
  File "/opt/az/lib/python3.10/site-packages/azure/cli/core/commands/__init__.py", line 333, in __call__
    return self.handler(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/opt/az/lib/python3.10/site-packages/azure/cli/core/commands/command_operation.py", line 121, in handler
    return op(**command_args)
  File "/opt/az/lib/python3.10/site-packages/azure/cli/command_modules/profile/custom.py", line 139, in login
    subscriptions = profile.login(
  File "/opt/az/lib/python3.10/site-packages/azure/cli/core/_profile.py", line 159, in login
    identity.login_with_service_principal(username, password, scopes=scopes)
  File "/opt/az/lib/python3.10/site-packages/azure/cli/core/auth/identity.py", line 188, in login_with_service_principal
    self._service_principal_store.save_entry(entry)
  File "/opt/az/lib/python3.10/site-packages/azure/cli/core/auth/identity.py", line 321, in save_entry
    self._load_persistence()
  File "/opt/az/lib/python3.10/site-packages/azure/cli/core/auth/identity.py", line 350, in _load_persistence
    self._entries = self._secret_store.load()
  File "/opt/az/lib/python3.10/site-packages/azure/cli/core/decorators.py", line 102, in _wrapped_func
    return func(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/opt/az/lib/python3.10/site-packages/azure/cli/core/auth/persistence.py", line 67, in load
    return json.loads(self._persistence.load())
  File "/opt/az/lib/python3.10/json/__init__.py", line 346, in loads
    return _default_decoder.decode(s)
  File "/opt/az/lib/python3.10/json/decoder.py", line 337, in decode
    obj, end = self.raw_decode(s, idx=_w(s, 0).end())
  File "/opt/az/lib/python3.10/json/decoder.py", line 355, in raw_decode
    raise JSONDecodeError("Expecting value", s, err.value) from None
json.decoder.JSONDecodeError: Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)

To Reproduce:

Steps to reproduce the behavior. Note that argument values have been redacted, as they may contain sensitive information.

• az login --service-principal -u {CLIENT_ID} -p {CLIENT_SECRET} --tenant {TENANT_ID} --output none

Expected Behavior

To be logged in as the service principal

Environment Summary

Linux-5.15.90.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2-x86_64-with-glibc2.31, Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS
Python 3.10.10
Installer: DEB

azure-cli 2.48.1

Extensions:
appservice-kube 0.1.7
automation 0.2.1
azure-devops 0.26.0
bastion 0.2.3
connectedk8s 1.3.2
customlocation 0.1.3
k8s-extension 1.3.3
ssh 1.1.3

Dependencies:
msal 1.20.0
azure-mgmt-resource 22.0.0

Additional Context

[yonzhan]

Thank you for opening this issue, we will look into it.

[iTiamo]

I expected the issue to be related to the release of 2.48.x yesterday. I downgraded to 2.46.0 and ran into the same issue.

[iTiamo]

az account clear fixed the issue