"Failed to obtain access token" and Error "AADSTS50146" with Azure AD (Entra ID) Connection

Knowledge Articles
1

Overview

This article explains why the following error occurs when attempting to authenticate with an Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) connection via Auth0 after configuring an application in Azure AD:

  • “error”: { “message”: “failed to obtain access token”, “oauthError”: “invalid_request”, “payload”: “{"error":"invalid_request","error_description":"AADSTS50146: This application is required to be configured with an application-specific signing key. It is either not configured with one, or the key has expired or is not yet valid.”, “type”: “request-error” }

The following steps reproduce the issue:

  1. Configure an application in Azure AD with the necessary permissions.
  2. Obtain a Client Secret from Azure AD and ensure it is active and correctly configured.
  3. Configure the Auth0 application with the Client ID and Client Secret from Azure AD (Entra ID).
  4. Attempt to authenticate the application through Auth0.

Applies To

  • Error “AADSTS50146”
  • Azure AD (Entra ID) Connection

Cause

A misconfiguration of the application on the Azure AD (Entra ID) side causes this error. The error might also occur due to a misconfigured Client Secret.

Solution

To address the issue:

  • Refer to the Auth0 Troubleshooting documentation for Azure AD (Entra ID) for additional details regarding a misconfigured Client Secret.
  • For issues related to Azure AD (Entra ID) configuration, contact Microsoft support.