Azure Synapse Analytics security white paper: Authentication

Note

This article forms part of the Azure Synapse Analytics security white paper series of articles. For an overview of the series, see Azure Synapse Analytics security white paper.

Authentication is the process of proving the user is who they claim to be. Authentication activities can be logged with Azure SQL Auditing, and an IT administrator can configure reports and alerts whenever a login from a suspicious location is attempted.

Benefits

Some of the benefits of these robust authentication mechanisms include:

• Strong password policies to deter brute force attacks.
• User password encryption.
• Firewall rules.
• SQL endpoints with Multi-factor authentication.
• Elimination of the need to manage credentials with managed identity.

Azure Synapse, dedicated SQL pool (formerly SQL DW), and serverless SQL pool currently support Microsoft Entra ID (Microsoft Entra ID) authentication and SQL authentication, while Apache Spark pool supports only Microsoft Entra authentication. Multi-factor authentication and managed identity are fully supported for Azure Synapse, dedicated SQL pool (formerly SQL DW), serverless SQL pool, and Apache Spark pool.

Next steps

In the next article in this white paper series, learn about network security.