az ad app show with --id doesn't work without Application.Read.All permission

Describe the bug

I have been given access to a specific Azure AD application (I know both the client/application id and the object id), through a custom Entra ID role. I do not have the Application.Read.All role/permission in this AAD tenant.

In the portal, I can indeed see this app registration (I need to directly go to the right URL, using the client id). I can also access this app registration using a custom application that accesses the MS Graph API via the Java SDK.

However, it doesn't work with the CLI:

$ az ad app show --id [CENSORED]
Insufficient privileges to complete the operation.

The problem is that the CLI supports both client id and object id, and needs to determine whether the value passed to --id is an object id or a client id. It does this in the _resolve_application function (https://github.com/Azure/azure-cli/blob/dev/src/azure-cli/azure/cli/command_modules/role/custom.py#L783):

if is_guid(identifier):
    # it is either app id or object id, let us verify
    result = client.application_list(filter="appId eq '{}'".format(identifier))
    # If not found, this looks like an object id
    return result[0][ID] if result else identifier

application_list fails of course with a permission error, since I don't have Application.Read.All.

Also all subcommands of az ad app that use this function (probably all of them) fail for the same reason.

Related command

az ad app show --id

Errors

$ az ad app show --id 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 Insufficient privileges to complete the operation.

Issue script & Debug output

DEBUG: cli.knack.cli: Command arguments: ['ad', 'app', 'show', '--id', '[CENSORED]', '--debug'] DEBUG: cli.knack.cli: init debug log: Cannot enable color. DEBUG: cli.knack.cli: Event: Cli.PreExecute [] DEBUG: cli.knack.cli: Event: CommandParser.OnGlobalArgumentsCreate [<function CLILogging.on_global_arguments at 0x7ffacc0153a0>, <function OutputProducer.on_global_arguments at 0x7ffacbfb5da0>, <function CLIQuery.on_global_arguments at 0x7ffacbfef880>] DEBUG: cli.knack.cli: Event: CommandInvoker.OnPreCommandTableCreate [] DEBUG: cli.azure.cli.core: Modules found from index for 'ad': ['azure.cli.command_modules.role'] DEBUG: cli.azure.cli.core: Loading command modules: DEBUG: cli.azure.cli.core: Name Load Time Groups Commands DEBUG: cli.azure.cli.core: role 0.004 17 61 DEBUG: cli.azure.cli.core: Total (1) 0.004 17 61 DEBUG: cli.azure.cli.core: These extensions are not installed and will be skipped: ['azext_ai_examples', 'azext_next'] DEBUG: cli.azure.cli.core: Loading extensions: DEBUG: cli.azure.cli.core: Name Load Time Groups Commands Directory DEBUG: cli.azure.cli.core: Total (0) 0.000 0 0
DEBUG: cli.azure.cli.core: Loaded 17 groups, 61 commands. DEBUG: cli.azure.cli.core: Found a match in the command table. DEBUG: cli.azure.cli.core: Raw command : ad app show DEBUG: cli.azure.cli.core: Command table: ad app show DEBUG: cli.knack.cli: Event: CommandInvoker.OnPreCommandTableTruncate [<function AzCliLogging.init_command_file_logging at 0x7ffacb170f40>] DEBUG: cli.azure.cli.core.azlogging: metadata file logging enabled - writing logs to '/home/user/.azure/commands/2024-02-02.12-48-34.ad_app_show.30346.log'. INFO: az_command_data_logger: command args: ad app show --id {} --debug DEBUG: cli.knack.cli: Event: CommandInvoker.OnPreArgumentLoad [<function register_global_subscription_argument..add_subscription_parameter at 0x7ffacaf8d120>] DEBUG: cli.knack.cli: Event: CommandInvoker.OnPostArgumentLoad [] DEBUG: cli.knack.cli: Event: CommandInvoker.OnPostCommandTableCreate [<function register_ids_argument..add_ids_arguments at 0x7ffacaf8d1c0>, <function register_cache_arguments..add_cache_arguments at 0x7ffacaf8d300>] DEBUG: cli.knack.cli: Event: CommandInvoker.OnCommandTableLoaded [] DEBUG: cli.knack.cli: Event: CommandInvoker.OnPreParseArgs [] DEBUG: cli.knack.cli: Event: CommandInvoker.OnPostParseArgs [<function OutputProducer.handle_output_argument at 0x7ffacbfb5e40>, <function CLIQuery.handle_query_parameter at 0x7ffacbfef920>, <function register_ids_argument..parse_ids_arguments at 0x7ffacaf8d260>] DEBUG: cli.azure.cli.core.util: Retrieving token for resource https://graph.microsoft.com/ DEBUG: cli.azure.cli.core.auth.persistence: build_persistence: location='/home/user/.azure/msal_token_cache.json', encrypt=False DEBUG: cli.azure.cli.core.auth.binary_cache: load: /home/user/.azure/msal_http_cache.bin DEBUG: urllib3.util.retry: Converted retries value: 1 -> Retry(total=1, connect=None, read=None, redirect=None, status=None) DEBUG: msal.authority: openid_config = {'token_endpoint': 'https://login.microsoftonline.com/[CENSORED]/oauth2/v2.0/token', 'token_endpoint_auth_methods_supported': ['client_secret_post', 'private_key_jwt', 'client_secret_basic'], 'jwks_uri': 'https://login.microsoftonline.com/[CENSORED]/discovery/v2.0/keys', 'response_modes_supported': ['query', 'fragment', 'form_post'], 'subject_types_supported': ['pairwise'], 'id_token_signing_alg_values_supported': ['RS256'], 'response_types_supported': ['code', 'id_token', 'code id_token', 'id_token token'], 'scopes_supported': ['openid', 'profile', 'email', 'offline_access'], 'issuer': 'https://login.microsoftonline.com/[CENSORED]/v2.0', 'request_uri_parameter_supported': False, 'userinfo_endpoint': 'https://graph.microsoft.com/oidc/userinfo', 'authorization_endpoint': 'https://login.microsoftonline.com/[CENSORED]/oauth2/v2.0/authorize', 'device_authorization_endpoint': 'https://login.microsoftonline.com/[CENSORED]/oauth2/v2.0/devicecode', 'http_logout_supported': True, 'frontchannel_logout_supported': True, 'end_session_endpoint': 'https://login.microsoftonline.com/[CENSORED]/oauth2/v2.0/logout', 'claims_supported': ['sub', 'iss', 'cloud_instance_name', 'cloud_instance_host_name', 'cloud_graph_host_name', 'msgraph_host', 'aud', 'exp', 'iat', 'auth_time', 'acr', 'nonce', 'preferred_username', 'name', 'tid', 'ver', 'at_hash', 'c_hash', 'email'], 'kerberos_endpoint': 'https://login.microsoftonline.com/[CENSORED]/kerberos', 'tenant_region_scope': 'EU', 'cloud_instance_name': 'microsoftonline.com', 'cloud_graph_host_name': 'graph.windows.net', 'msgraph_host': 'graph.microsoft.com', 'rbac_url': 'https://pas.windows.net'} DEBUG: msal.application: Broker enabled? False DEBUG: cli.azure.cli.core.auth.msal_authentication: UserCredential.get_token: scopes=('https://graph.microsoft.com//.default',), claims=None, kwargs={} DEBUG: msal.application: Cache hit an AT DEBUG: msal.telemetry: Generate or reuse correlation_id: [CENSORED] INFO: cli.azure.cli.core.util: Request URL: 'https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/applications?$filter=appId%20eq%20%[CENSORED]%27' INFO: cli.azure.cli.core.util: Request method: 'GET' INFO: cli.azure.cli.core.util: Request headers: INFO: cli.azure.cli.core.util: 'User-Agent': 'python/3.11.5 (Linux-6.5.0-15-generic-x86_64-with-glibc2.35) AZURECLI/2.56.0 (DEB)' INFO: cli.azure.cli.core.util: 'Accept-Encoding': 'gzip, deflate' INFO: cli.azure.cli.core.util: 'Accept': '/' INFO: cli.azure.cli.core.util: 'Connection': 'keep-alive' INFO: cli.azure.cli.core.util: 'x-ms-client-request-id': 'ddcd3ba6-95ad-49ce-b2e6-da562601a77e' INFO: cli.azure.cli.core.util: 'CommandName': 'ad app show' INFO: cli.azure.cli.core.util: 'ParameterSetName': '--id --debug' INFO: cli.azure.cli.core.util: 'Authorization': 'Bearer eyJ0eXAiOiJKV...' INFO: cli.azure.cli.core.util: Request body: INFO: cli.azure.cli.core.util: None DEBUG: urllib3.connectionpool: Starting new HTTPS connection (1): graph.microsoft.com:443 DEBUG: urllib3.connectionpool: https://graph.microsoft.com:443 "GET /v1.0/applications?$filter=appId%20eq%20%[CENSORED]%27 HTTP/1.1" 403 None INFO: cli.azure.cli.core.util: Response status: 403 INFO: cli.azure.cli.core.util: Response headers: INFO: cli.azure.cli.core.util: 'Cache-Control': 'no-cache' INFO: cli.azure.cli.core.util: 'Transfer-Encoding': 'chunked' INFO: cli.azure.cli.core.util: 'Content-Type': 'application/json' INFO: cli.azure.cli.core.util: 'Content-Encoding': 'gzip' INFO: cli.azure.cli.core.util: 'Vary': 'Accept-Encoding' INFO: cli.azure.cli.core.util: 'Strict-Transport-Security': 'max-age=31536000' INFO: cli.azure.cli.core.util: 'request-id': '[CENSORED]' INFO: cli.azure.cli.core.util: 'client-request-id': '[CENSORED]' INFO: cli.azure.cli.core.util: 'x-ms-ags-diagnostic': '{"ServerInfo":{"DataCenter":"West Europe","Slice":"E","Ring":"5","ScaleUnit":"006","RoleInstance":"AM1PEPF00027E4B"}}' INFO: cli.azure.cli.core.util: 'x-ms-resource-unit': '2' INFO: cli.azure.cli.core.util: 'Date': 'Fri, 02 Feb 2024 11:48:34 GMT' INFO: cli.azure.cli.core.util: Response content: INFO: cli.azure.cli.core.util: {"error":{"code":"Authorization_RequestDenied","message":"Insufficient privileges to complete the operation.","innerError":{"date":"2024-02-02T11:48:34","request-id":"[CENSORED]","client-request-id":"[CENSORED]"}}} DEBUG: cli.azure.cli.core.azclierror: Traceback (most recent call last): File "/opt/az/lib/python3.11/site-packages/azure/cli/command_modules/role/_msgrpah/_graph_client.py", line 52, in _send r = send_raw_request(self._cli_ctx, method, url, resource=self._resource, uri_parameters=param, ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ File "/opt/az/lib/python3.11/site-packages/azure/cli/core/util.py", line 1004, in send_raw_request raise HTTPError(reason, r) azure.cli.core.azclierror.HTTPError: Forbidden({"error":{"code":"Authorization_RequestDenied","message":"Insufficient privileges to complete the operation.","innerError":{"date":"2024-02-02T11:48:34","request-id":"[CENSORED]","client-request-id":"[CENSORED]"}}})

The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:

Traceback (most recent call last): File "/opt/az/lib/python3.11/site-packages/azure/cli/core/commands/init.py", line 697, in _run_job result = cmd_copy(params) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ File "/opt/az/lib/python3.11/site-packages/azure/cli/core/commands/init.py", line 333, in call return self.handler(*args, kwargs) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ File "/opt/az/lib/python3.11/site-packages/azure/cli/core/commands/command_operation.py", line 363, in handler show_exception_handler(ex) File "/opt/az/lib/python3.11/site-packages/azure/cli/core/commands/arm.py", line 429, in show_exception_handler raise ex File "/opt/az/lib/python3.11/site-packages/azure/cli/core/commands/command_operation.py", line 361, in handler return op(command_args) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ File "/opt/az/lib/python3.11/site-packages/azure/cli/command_modules/role/custom.py", line 747, in show_application object_id = _resolve_application(client, identifier) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ File "/opt/az/lib/python3.11/site-packages/azure/cli/command_modules/role/custom.py", line 791, in _resolve_application result = client.application_list(filter="appId eq '{}'".format(identifier)) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ File "/opt/az/lib/python3.11/site-packages/azure/cli/command_modules/role/_msgrpah/_graph_client.py", line 86, in application_list result = self._send("GET", "/applications" + _filter_to_query(filter)) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ File "/opt/az/lib/python3.11/site-packages/azure/cli/command_modules/role/_msgrpah/_graph_client.py", line 55, in _send raise GraphError(ex.response.json()['error']['message'], ex.response) from ex azure.cli.command_modules.role._msgrpah._graph_client.GraphError: Insufficient privileges to complete the operation.

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last): File "/opt/az/lib/python3.11/site-packages/knack/cli.py", line 233, in invoke cmd_result = self.invocation.execute(args) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ File "/opt/az/lib/python3.11/site-packages/azure/cli/core/commands/init.py", line 663, in execute raise ex File "/opt/az/lib/python3.11/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/python3.11/site-packages/azure/cli/core/commands/init.py", line 718, in _run_job return cmd_copy.exception_handler(ex) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ File "/opt/az/lib/python3.11/site-packages/azure/cli/command_modules/role/commands.py", line 50, in graph_err_handler raise CLIError(ex) knack.util.CLIError: Insufficient privileges to complete the operation.

ERROR: cli.azure.cli.core.azclierror: Insufficient privileges to complete the operation. ERROR: az_command_data_logger: Insufficient privileges to complete the operation. DEBUG: cli.knack.cli: Event: Cli.PostExecute [<function AzCliLogging.deinit_cmd_metadata_logging at 0x7ffacb1711c0>] INFO: az_command_data_logger: exit code: 1 INFO: cli.main: Command ran in 0.610 seconds (init: 0.145, invoke: 0.465) INFO: telemetry.main: Begin splitting cli events and extra events, total events: 1 INFO: telemetry.client: Accumulated 0 events. Flush the clients. INFO: telemetry.main: Finish splitting cli events and extra events, cli events: 1 INFO: telemetry.save: Save telemetry record of length 3529 in cache INFO: telemetry.main: Begin creating telemetry upload process. INFO: telemetry.process: Creating upload process: "/opt/az/bin/python3 /opt/az/lib/python3.11/site-packages/azure/cli/telemetry/init.py /home/user/.azure" INFO: telemetry.process: Return from creating process INFO: telemetry.main: Finish creating telemetry upload process.

Expected behavior

That all az ad app commands work when I pass the object id (not client id), without having to have the Application.Read.All permission.
This is a common situation for us, and I imagine for other organizations too: only a few limited admins have access to all applications, and access is given to applications only on an as-needed base (principle of least privilege).
This also works in the portal.

Suggestion: first check if it's an object id, using something like:

GET /applications/{identifier}

and only if that fails, try with:

GET /applications(appId='{identifier}')

Environment Summary

$ az --version azure-cli 2.56.0

core 2.56.0 telemetry 1.1.0

Extensions: account 0.2.5 front-door 1.0.17

Dependencies: msal 1.24.0b2 azure-mgmt-resource 23.1.0b2

Python location '/opt/az/bin/python3' Extensions directory '/home/dvsp/.azure/cliextensions'

Python (Linux) 3.11.5 (main, Jan 8 2024, 09:08:13) [GCC 11.4.0]

Legal docs and information: aka.ms/AzureCliLegal

Your CLI is up-to-date.

Additional context

No response

Azure / azure-cli