Authentication Contexts - Are They Enforced?
The question it answers: Which authentication contexts are not enforced by any enabled Conditional Access policy?
An authentication context is a promise of step-up authentication: PIM, sensitivity labels and protected actions ask for it, and a Conditional Access policy is supposed to enforce it. If no enabled policy targets the context, whatever asks for it gets no step-up at all.
At a glance
Section titled “At a glance”| Where in the app | Entra ID › Identity Configuration › Authentication Contexts |
| Workload | Entra ID |
| Kind | Findings list · dashboard tile |
| Data | Read from Microsoft 365 when someone first opens it, then kept for the report cache lifetime (Settings > Data & cache, 1 hour unless changed). |
| Licence | Microsoft Entra ID P1 (P2 for the PIM references). |
| Report id (API and MCP) | entra.configuration.authentication-contexts |
Columns
Section titled “Columns”| Column | Key | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Severity | Severity | Status |
| State | Category | Text |
| Context | Subject | Link |
| Check | Setting | Text |
| Enforced by | Value | Text |
| Finding | Finding | Text |
| Required by | Detail | Text |
| Date | When | Date |
| Enforcing policies | Number | Number |
A findings list hides columns that no row fills. Severity is Critical, Serious, Warning, OK or Info; rows rated Critical, Serious or Warning need attention (Working with findings).
What it needs
Section titled “What it needs”Licence: Microsoft Entra ID P1 (P2 for the PIM references).
Application permissions on the IntensiveReports app registration (all permissions):
| Permission | API | What it allows | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
Policy.Read.ConditionalAccess | Microsoft Graph | Read your organization’s conditional access policies | |
RoleManagementPolicy.Read.Directory | Microsoft Graph | Read all policies for privileged role assignments of your company’s directory | PIM references |
RoleManagement.Read.Directory | Microsoft Graph | Read all directory RBAC settings | role names |
Data sources it reads
GET /v1.0/identity/conditionalAccess/authenticationContextClassReferencesGET /v1.0/identity/conditionalAccess/policiesGET /v1.0/policies/roleManagementPolicyAssignments?$expand=policy($expand=rules)
Through the API and MCP
Section titled “Through the API and MCP”GET /ir-api/v1/reports/entra.configuration.authentication-contexts?size=100An AI assistant reads it with the MCP tool get_report and the id entra.configuration.authentication-contexts. The client needs the Read grant for Entra ID. See Using the API.