Microsoft Entra ID Update Version January 2026

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Update Summary

January 2026 Microsoft Entra updates add new identity, governance, audit, and access control capabilities, including object-level SOA switching, guest billing enforcement, and External ID enhancements. They also strengthen Conditional Access enforcement for certain authentication flows.

Update Details

Security

  • Improved Conditional Access enforcement for All resources policies with resource exclusions, including flows that request only OIDC or specific directory scopes.
  • Entra Private Access for Domain Controllers helps safeguard domain controllers against identity threats and supports MFA for local-to-local access to on-premises applications.

New Features

  • General availability of object-level Source of Authority (SOA) switching for synced on-premises AD users to cloud-managed Microsoft Entra ID users.
  • General availability of Microsoft Entra ID Governance guest billing meter enforcement for Entitlement Management and Lifecycle Workflows.
  • General availability of client credentials support in Microsoft Entra External ID for machine-to-machine authentication.
  • General availability of app-based branding themes and Live Preview in Entra External ID.
  • General availability of enhanced service principal creation audit log properties for alerting and monitoring.
  • General availability of session control Conditional Access policies in Entra External ID.
  • General availability of Entra Private Access for Domain Controllers.

Hints

  • To keep using Entra ID Governance premium features for guest users in workforce tenants, link a valid Azure subscription to activate the Microsoft Entra ID Governance for guests add-on.
  • If no subscription is linked, creation or updates of new guest-scoped governance configurations may be restricted and guest-specific governance actions may fail until billing is configured.
  • Machine-to-machine authentication in Microsoft Entra External ID requires the M2M Premium add-on.
  • Both Microsoft Entra Connect Sync and Cloud Sync support SOA switching.
  • Conditional Access enforcement changes apply to sign-ins where a client application requests only OIDC or specific directory scopes.
Product Information

Vendor: Microsoft

Product: Entra ID

Version: January 2026

Release date: Jan 1, 2026

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