Azure AD Authentication error: failed_to_acquire_token_silently

Question

At random intervals, my ASP.NET MVC Core application throws this error while attempting to authenticate users via Azure AD OpenIdConnect:

failed_to_acquire_token_silently

And the workaround has been to truncate ADAL's database table UserTokenCache.

Not sure what I am doing wrong in my OWIN pipeline configuration.

Once user is authenticated, I want to acquire a token for graph api in order to retrieve additional claims from Azure AD.

Exception gets thrown from the catch block

 accessToken = authenticationContext.AcquireToken("https://graph.windows.net", 
            clientCredential).AccessToken;

Here is the complete method:

        /// <summary>
    /// This method has been adapted from generated code from a new ASP.NET MVC 5 project template
    /// when using Organisational Accounts authentication.
    /// This method acquires a Token from Azure AD in order to call its Graph API.
    /// The token is acquired using the currently logged in User's refresh token. 
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="context"></param>
    /// <returns></returns>
    private async Task<string> GetTokenForApplicationAsync()
    {
        ClientCredential clientCredential =
            new ClientCredential(
                Configuration["Authentication:AzureAd:ClientId"],
                Configuration["Authentication:AzureAd:ClientSecret"]);

        AuthenticationContext authenticationContext =
            new AuthenticationContext(
                Configuration["Authentication:AzureAd:AADInstance"] +
                Configuration["Authentication:AzureAd:TenantId"],
                new ADALTokenCacheService(signedInUserID, Configuration));

        string accessToken = null;
        try
        {
            AuthenticationResult authenticationResult = await authenticationContext.AcquireTokenSilentAsync(
                     Configuration["Authentication:AzureAd:GraphResource"],
                    clientCredential,
                    new UserIdentifier(userObjectID, UserIdentifierType.UniqueId));

            accessToken = authenticationResult.AccessToken;
        }
        catch (AdalException e)
        {
            accessToken = authenticationContext.AcquireToken("https://graph.windows.net", 
                clientCredential).AccessToken;

        }

        return accessToken;
    }

I have already looked at this post it is not the same issue I am dealing with.

Is it at random intervals, or is it when the [Refresh token has expired](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/active-directory-configurable-token-lifetimes)? Are there any additional messages with the error? — Shawn Tabrizi, Sep 13 '17 at 22:10
I don't have the stacktrace at hand and from what I recall, the full stacktrace and error messages were not at all helpful. I suppose Fiddler trace would revealed more but I haven't had the ability to recreate the error. — puri, Sep 14 '17 at 07:37
Without looking at the token cache implementation, it is hard to debug. The other possible reason for this error is mismatched user identifiers in the instantiation of cache at different points. — Navya Canumalla, Sep 19 '17 at 23:57

Azure AD Authentication error: failed_to_acquire_token_silently

0 Answers0