Question 842 of 928

Design and implement build and release pipelines →mediumMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped

How to Use OIDC for Secretless Azure Authentication in GitHub Actions

This AZ-400 practice question tests your understanding of design and implement build and release pipelines. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.

Your organization uses GitHub Actions for CI/CD. You have a workflow that deploys to Azure App Service. The deployment uses a publish profile secret stored as a GitHub secret. You want to improve security by using OpenID Connect (OIDC) to authenticate to Azure without storing secrets. What should you do?

A
Remove the secret and use Azure AD Managed Identity directly from the GitHub runner.
Why wrong: Managed Identity is not directly available on GitHub runners; it's for Azure resources.
B
Configure the GitHub workflow to use the 'azure/login' action with OIDC, and set up a federated identity credential in Microsoft Entra ID for the GitHub environment.
OIDC eliminates the need for long-lived secrets.
C
Replace the publish profile secret with an Azure service principal secret stored as a GitHub secret.
Why wrong: This still stores a secret.
D
Use the 'Azure App Service Deploy' task with the 'Publish Profile' parameter set to an empty string.
Why wrong: This would fail as authentication is required.

Full breakdown with real-world context →

Answer choices

Why each option matters

Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.

Correct answer & explanation

✓

Configure the GitHub workflow to use the 'azure/login' action with OIDC, and set up a federated identity credential in Microsoft Entra ID for the GitHub environment.

Option B is correct: Configuring OIDC with Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) using a federated identity credential for the GitHub environment allows token-based authentication without storing secrets. Option A is incorrect because Azure Managed Identity cannot be used directly from a GitHub runner; Managed Identity is designed for Azure-hosted resources, not external runners. Option C is incorrect because replacing the publish profile secret with a service principal secret still requires storing a secret, which does not improve security compared to OIDC. Option D is incorrect because setting the 'Publish Profile' parameter to an empty string does not enable OIDC authentication; the deployment would fail due to missing credentials.

Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.

✗
Remove the secret and use Azure AD Managed Identity directly from the GitHub runner.
Why it's wrong here
Managed Identity is not directly available on GitHub runners; it's for Azure resources.
✓
Configure the GitHub workflow to use the 'azure/login' action with OIDC, and set up a federated identity credential in Microsoft Entra ID for the GitHub environment.
Why this is correct
OIDC eliminates the need for long-lived secrets.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Replace the publish profile secret with an Azure service principal secret stored as a GitHub secret.
Why it's wrong here
This still stores a secret.
✗
Use the 'Azure App Service Deploy' task with the 'Publish Profile' parameter set to an empty string.
Why it's wrong here
This would fail as authentication is required.

Common exam traps

Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword

Many certification questions include familiar terms but test a specific constraint. Read the exact wording before choosing an answer that is generally true but wrong for this case.

Detailed technical explanation

How to think about this question

This question should be treated as a scenario, not a definition check. Identify the problem, the constraint and the best action. Then compare each option against those facts.

KKey Concepts to Remember

Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
Use explanations to understand the rule behind the answer.

TExam Day Tips

Underline the problem statement mentally.
Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.

Key takeaway

Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.

Real-world example

How this comes up in practice

A company's IT admin needs to give a contractor read-only access to production logs without sharing account credentials. Using role-based access control (RBAC) and temporary scoped permissions — not a permanent shared password — is the correct pattern. Questions like this test whether you can apply least-privilege access across cloud identity services.

What to study next

Got this wrong? Here's your next step.

Identify which AZ-400 exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.

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FAQ

Questions learners often ask

What does this AZ-400 question test?

Design and implement build and release pipelines — This question tests Design and implement build and release pipelines — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..

What is the correct answer to this question?

The correct answer is: Configure the GitHub workflow to use the 'azure/login' action with OIDC, and set up a federated identity credential in Microsoft Entra ID for the GitHub environment. — Option B is correct: Configuring OIDC with Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) using a federated identity credential for the GitHub environment allows token-based authentication without storing secrets. Option A is incorrect because Azure Managed Identity cannot be used directly from a GitHub runner; Managed Identity is designed for Azure-hosted resources, not external runners. Option C is incorrect because replacing the publish profile secret with a service principal secret still requires storing a secret, which does not improve security compared to OIDC. Option D is incorrect because setting the 'Publish Profile' parameter to an empty string does not enable OIDC authentication; the deployment would fail due to missing credentials.

What should I do if I get this AZ-400 question wrong?

What is the key concept behind this question?

Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.

About these practice questions

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Same concept, more angles

1 more ways this is tested on AZ-400

These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.

Variation 1. Your team uses GitHub Actions for CI/CD. You have a workflow that builds and deploys a Node.js application to Azure App Service. The workflow uses the 'azure/webapps-deploy@v2' action. You notice that the deployment often fails with a 403 error during the 'Deploy to Azure' step. The error message indicates that the publish profile credentials are invalid. You have stored the publish profile as a secret in the repository. The secret name is AZURE_WEBAPP_PUBLISH_PROFILE. The workflow step uses the secret correctly. However, the secret value might have been rotated. You need to ensure that the deployment works reliably. What should you do?

medium

✓ A.Use OpenID Connect with a service principal instead of publish profile.
B.Check the workflow run log for the exact error and update the secret accordingly.
C.Replace the 'azure/webapps-deploy' action with 'Azure/cli' action and run az webapp deployment source config-zip.
D.Recreate the secret in GitHub by deleting and adding it again with the same value.

Why A: Option A is correct because using OpenID Connect (OIDC) with a service principal eliminates dependency on publish profile credentials, which can expire or be rotated. OIDC provides short-lived tokens and is more secure and reliable. Option B is wrong because checking the log only identifies the error but does not resolve the underlying credential issue. Option C is wrong because using the Azure CLI action still requires valid credentials; if the publish profile is invalid, it will still fail. Option D is wrong because recreating the secret with the same value does not fix the problem if the credentials have been rotated on the Azure side.

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