April 28, 2025
Blog
Introduction:
Microsoft Entra Conditional Access just introduced a critical enhancement — Token Protection now supports the Windows App, extending coverage to Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) and Windows 365. This allows organizations to apply stronger identity protections even in virtualized or cloud PC environments.
What Is Token Protection?
Token Protection (also known as token binding) ensures that sign-in tokens are only valid on the device where they were issued. It creates a cryptographic tie between the token and device, making the token unusable if stolen and replayed from another system.
This feature:
Helps prevent lateral movement using stolen tokens
Reinforces device-based access enforcement
Complements MFA and device compliance policies
What’s New in This Update?
Key improvements now available in public preview:
Support for Windows App (version 2.0.379.0+)
Expanded scope to AVD and Windows 365
Enforcement for session tokens on Entra-joined or hybrid-joined Windows 10+ and Server 2019+ devices
Works with desktop apps like Teams, OneDrive, Power BI Desktop, Visual Studio, and more
Deployment Recommendations
To implement Token Protection:
Create a Conditional Access policy in Report-only mode.
Apply the policy only to supported applications: Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, AVD, and Windows 365.
Exclude unsupported platforms (e.g. Surface Hub, bulk-enrolled Cloud PCs).
Review sign-in logs to assess impact before moving to enforcement.
Log Analytics Integration
You can monitor policy impact by querying Sign-in Logs via Log Analytics. This helps identify which apps or users are being blocked due to token protection issues.
Important: Since June 2023, the values for enforcedSessionControls and sessionControlsNotSatisfied changed from "Binding" to "SignInTokenProtection" — queries should reflect this update.
Query by Application:
Query by User:
Identify Unsupported Devices:
What's Not Supported — Key Limitations to Be Aware Of
Before rolling out Token Protection broadly, it’s important to understand where it won’t work (yet):
Office Perpetual clients are not supported.
Apps that don’t support protected token flows will be blocked when accessing Exchange or SharePoint:
PowerShell modules for SharePoint
PowerQuery for Excel
VS Code extensions accessing Exchange or SharePoint
Unsupported device types:
Surface Hub
Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) on Windows
External users: If their device registration doesn’t meet the requirements in their home tenant, access will be blocked — and the error message won’t explain why.
Unsupported Entra device registration methods:
Azure Virtual Desktop session hosts that are Entra joined
Cloud PCs (Windows 365) that are Entra joined
Devices enrolled using bulk enrollment
Power Automate hosted machine groups
Autopilot devices in self-deploying mode
Azure VMs using Entra ID VM extension for auth
📌 If a sign-in fails due to an unsupported scenario, look for signInSessionStatusCode = 1003 in the Sign-in Logs (under TokenProtectionStatusDetails).
How to Avoid Onboarding Issues?
To prevent disruptions during rollout, you can filter out unsupported devices directly in your Conditional Access policy using device filters.
Examples:
Exclude Cloud PCs:
Exclude AVD (Entra joined):
Exclude Power Automate hosted machines:
Exclude Azure VMs:
Final Thoughts
Token Protection is a crucial piece in implementing session-level control across cloud apps and Windows endpoints. Now that support includes the Windows App, this protection finally extends to environments where it’s needed most: VDI and Cloud PCs.
Review your existing Conditional Access policies and begin piloting this feature today.
Learn more:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity/conditional-access/concept-token-protection