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Introduction:
Continuous Access Evaluation (CAE) is the security mechanism that terminates your session in near real-time when your account is disabled, your password changes, or a risk spike is detected—without waiting for the token to expire. Microsoft is now building on this engine to introduce the Access Fabric, a framework where identity, network, device, and risk signals are evaluated continuously, not just at login but across the entire session. This article breaks down the three major advancements—Universal CAE, identity + network enforcement, and strict session termination—and provides step-by-step guidance for implementing these controls in your Entra ID environment.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand the evolution from traditional CAE (limited to Exchange, Teams, SharePoint) to Universal CAE covering any app via Global Secure Access.
- Configure conditional access policies that enforce location-based and risk-based session revocation.
- Implement strict enforcement mode to terminate sessions immediately upon critical events like account disablement or IP mismatch.
You Should Know:
1. From App-Level to Any App (Universal CAE)
The original CAE worked only on a handful of Microsoft workloads—Exchange, Teams, and SharePoint. Apps that had never heard of CAE remained vulnerable to token replay and session hijacking. Universal CAE changes this by protecting access tokens from theft and replay across any application, revoking and revalidating network access in near real-time whenever Entra ID detects identity changes. Even though the access token is still valid, Global Secure Access sends a special claims challenge back to the end user, requiring reauthentication.
Universal CAE is a platform feature of Global Secure Access that works together with Microsoft Entra ID to ensure access to the Global Secure Access edge is validated every time a connection to a new application resource is established. Traditional Entra ID CAE required each workload to adopt special libraries; Universal CAE centralizes access evaluation at the Secure Service Edge level, eliminating that dependency.
Step‑by‑step guide: Enabling Universal CAE for non‑Microsoft apps
- Verify licensing prerequisites: You need Microsoft Entra ID Premium P1 or P2 licenses, plus Global Secure Access licenses.
- Enable Global Secure Access in your tenant: Navigate to the Microsoft Entra admin center (`https://entra.microsoft.com`), go to Global Secure Access > Overview, and enable the feature.
- Configure Universal CAE settings: Under Global Secure Access > Universal CAE, toggle the feature to On. This ensures that all traffic routed through the Global Secure Access edge is subject to continuous evaluation.
- Add non-Microsoft applications as enterprise apps: Go to Enterprise Applications > New application > Non-gallery application, and add the app you want to protect. Assign users and groups.
- Verify enforcement: Trigger a critical event (e.g., revoke user sessions via the Entra admin center). The user should be forced to reauthenticate when accessing the app, even if their token hasn’t expired.
2. From Identity-Only to Identity + Network Enforcement
CAE originally reacted only to identity events—password resets, account disablements, and risk spikes. Now it also watches network context: location changes, IP mismatches, and access from unexpected networks. The classic detection scenario is logging in from the office but browsing from a Budapest IP—an anomaly that immediately triggers session termination.
Conditional Access policies can now target specific network locations as a signal, and when selecting “Determine location by IP address,” Microsoft Entra ID resolves the user’s IPv4 or IPv6 address to a country or region based on a periodically updated mapping table. With strict enforcement mode, access is immediately stopped if the IP address detected by the resource provider isn’t allowed by Conditional Access policy.
Step‑by‑step guide: Configuring network‑based Conditional Access with CAE enforcement
- Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as a Conditional Access Administrator.
- Navigate to Conditional Access: Go to Protection > Conditional Access.
- Create a new policy: Click Create new policy and give it a name, e.g., “CAE – Network Location Enforcement.”
4. Configure assignments:
- Users: Select all users or specific groups.
- Target resources: Select Cloud apps and include the apps you want to protect.
- Conditions > Locations: Configure Include for any location, then Exclude for trusted named locations (your corporate IP ranges).
- Configure grant controls: Under Access controls > Grant, select Block access.
- Enable the policy: Set Enable policy to On and click Create.
- Test the policy: Attempt to access a protected app from an untrusted IP address. The session should be blocked immediately.
- Verify in sign-in logs: Go to Entra ID > Sign-in logs and filter for the user. You should see a “Failure” entry with the reason “Conditional Access policy blocked access due to location mismatch.”
3. Stronger Session Control (Strict Enforcement)
The most dramatic change is the shift from “please reauthenticate” to “session terminated, no questions asked.” Previously, when a suspicious signal was detected, CAE would prompt the user to reauthenticate. Now, with strict enforcement, the session is immediately terminated without any opportunity for the user to respond. If an IT admin disables your account at 11:03, at 11:03 you’re out—not at 11:58 when your token would have expired.
This behavior is configurable via the Strict Enforcement mode in Conditional Access. When a client’s access to a resource is blocked because CAE is triggered, the client’s session is revoked, and the client needs to reauthenticate. The CAE feature proactively terminates active user or admin sessions, prompts reauthentication, and enforces policy changes without relying on token expiration.
Step‑by‑step guide: Enabling strict enforcement for CAE
- Navigate to Conditional Access policies in the Entra admin center.
- Select an existing policy or create a new one that targets the resources requiring strict enforcement.
- Under Session controls, locate the Continuous Access Evaluation (CAE) setting.
- Set enforcement mode to “Strict” (the exact label may be “Strict enforcement” or “Enforce immediately” depending on your tenant version).
- Save the policy and ensure it is enabled.
6. Test strict enforcement:
- Have a test user sign in to a protected app.
- From the Entra admin center, go to the user’s profile and click Revoke sessions.
- The user’s session should be terminated immediately, and any subsequent request to the app should require fresh authentication.
- Monitor in sign-in logs: Filter for the user and look for entries with “Session terminated by CAE strict enforcement.”
What Undercode Say:
- Real-time revocation closes the token window: Traditional tokens could be valid for up to 28 hours. CAE reduces that window to near zero, preventing lateral movement and token replay attacks.
- Network signals add a critical layer: Identity alone isn’t enough. Combining identity with network context (IP, location, device) provides a true zero-trust posture where every session is continuously validated.
Prediction:
The Access Fabric represents a fundamental shift from static, perimeter-based security to dynamic, continuous verification. As Microsoft expands Universal CAE to third-party apps via Global Secure Access, expect other SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) vendors to follow suit with similar continuous evaluation capabilities. Organizations that fail to adopt CAE will remain vulnerable to token theft, session hijacking, and privilege escalation attacks that rely on the gap between critical events and token expiration. The future of identity security is not just who you are, but where you are, what you’re doing, and whether you should still be trusted—every second of your session.
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