Angel Wong details Microsoft’s retirement plan for Global Personal Access Tokens in Azure DevOps, outlining key security implications and migration steps for practitioners.

Azure DevOps Retires Global Personal Access Tokens: What You Need to Know

Azure DevOps will retire the Global Personal Access Token (PAT) type, impacting developer authentication workflows across Microsoft ecosystems.

Why Retire Global PATs?

Global PATs allowed users to authenticate across all accessible organizations, but their broad scope posed significant security risks. A single credential with wide reach creates a concentrated target, especially as user privileges expand. Microsoft is shifting away from global tokens to limit the impact of credential exposure.

Key risks of global PATs:

  • Single point of failure for multiple organization access
  • High-value target for attackers
  • Difficult to enforce granular credential governance

New Authentication Strategy

Microsoft recommends transitioning to short-lived, Microsoft Entra–backed authentication:

  • Short-lived tokens reduce exposure risk
  • Entra-backed authentication provides strong identity controls and governance
  • Organizational-level token policies limit privileges

These improvements reflect broader security strategies already deployed at Microsoft and among Azure DevOps customers.

Retirement Timeline

  • March 15, 2026: Creation and regeneration of global PATs will be blocked
  • December 1, 2026: All existing global PATs are fully decommissioned and will stop working

What Should You Do?

If you rely on global PATs for DevOps workflows:

  • Split authentication by individual Azure DevOps organization
  • Migrate to Microsoft Entra-based, short-lived authentication
  • Watch for guidance emails for users with active global PATs

References

Action Steps

  1. Audit existing workflows for global PAT dependencies
  2. Plan for authentication migration before the key dates
  3. Upgrade CI/CD scripts and DevOps automation to use recommended authentication

Additional Details

  • Global PAT tokens with broad reach can lead to large-scale credential breaches
  • Moving to Entra-backed authentication improves security posture through modern token management and identity control

Contact: Azure DevOps team for further migration support and best practices

This post appeared first on “Microsoft DevOps Blog”. Read the entire article here