Can't get client-credentials access token to authorize Power BI

Question

I'm trying to use the Power BI REST API, using an access token acquired with the "client credentials" method, but I keep getting 403 Forbidden on my requests. My code follows the pattern demonstrated in this AzureAD sample. In fact, to isolate this problem, I'm running that sample code (with my own values in the parameters.json, of course): { expiresIn: 3599, tokenType: 'Bearer', expiresOn: Tue Sep 01 2015 16:56:07 GMT-0500 (CDT), resource: '00000002-0000-0000-c000-000000000000', accessToken: 'eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsIng1dCI6Ik1uQ19WWmNBVGZNNXBPWWlKSE1iYTlnb0VLWSIsImtpZCI6Ik1uQ19WWmNBVGZNNXBPWWlKSE1iYTlnb0VLWSJ9.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.YTGJfdW1wP09bDHwwsv3FPAmEpmQdc_kifvgY-1KjhkZWANfYtd050wfeZdNgMUeSPZyFdWnoBjnJ4xrlDtnsADwV1Grr6TXYcymPLofbY-xy0cjyvzxTmM11DJ9XN8A4tkgvK0jtR-YyIjPw5EKJSKyeEbD9U3mWsE_gu7IzKzXl8e-dfVAqRYS6WHZy6_0FaNmppPDls5s_QIPOHofFSiWVISw41Mz0fQnP2QEGyceOCvKYJtrUOCDwfVuwFS-gSLmYvEGOJfmIjftP3srda0JPirVzBeU0IFJJ1KW81kE5cfKw1KkBB04VVetRUs_7HqloYaKKiTybauhXAodRQ', isMRRT: true, _clientId: '[snip]', _authority: 'https://login.windows.net/[snip]' } When I use that access token in a curl request, as follows, I get 403: curl -vv -X GET https://api.powerbi.com/v1.0/myorg/datasets -H"Authorization: Bearer eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsIng1dCI6Ik1uQ19WWmNBVGZNNXBPWWlKSE1iYTlnb0VLWSIsImtpZCI6Ik1uQ19WWmNBVGZNNXBPWWlKSE1iYTlnb0VLWSJ9.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.YTGJfdW1wP09bDHwwsv3FPAmEpmQdc_kifvgY-1KjhkZWANfYtd050wfeZdNgMUeSPZyFdWnoBjnJ4xrlDtnsADwV1Grr6TXYcymPLofbY-xy0cjyvzxTmM11DJ9XN8A4tkgvK0jtR-YyIjPw5EKJSKyeEbD9U3mWsE_gu7IzKzXl8e-dfVAqRYS6WHZy6_0FaNmppPDls5s_QIPOHofFSiWVISw41Mz0fQnP2QEGyceOCvKYJtrUOCDwfVuwFS-gSLmYvEGOJfmIjftP3srda0JPirVzBeU0IFJJ1KW81kE5cfKw1KkBB04VVetRUs_7HqloYaKKiTybauhXAodRQ" Wondering if that curl request was flawed somehow, I snooped out an access token “the wrong way” via browser webtools, and the above works fine, returning 200 and a JSON response listing my datasets. I did also notice that the return code is 403 (forbidden), not 401 (unauthorized), so I wondered if the authorization was okay but the permissions on the Power BI side were wrong. But I also get 403 when I use any garbage text for the access token (e.g., Authorization: Bearer foo), so I discarded that theory. So. I think I have a valid test, and I’m getting what I think is a valid access token (from that client-credentials-sample.js code), but it’s still not working. What am I missing? Select the correct answer from above options

Answer 1

Authentication needs to be based on a particular user to use Power BI. I tried using: a resource value of https://analysis.windows.net/powerbi/api adding username and password to the parameters.json This was closer, but I was still getting a 400 response: "error_description":"AADSTS90014: The request body must contain the following parameter: 'client_secret or client_assertion'. …". A hack to the adal-node library oauthParameters[OAuth2Parameters.CLIENT_SECRET] = "my-client-secret"; after line 217 of token-request.js) was enough to get back an access token which works in the Authorization header for my original curl call. Fixing that value is not the final solution as we did not plan to use the adal-node library, anyway. But according to proof-of-concept for this authentication case goes. Want to learn more about Power BI, Come & join Power BI tutorial. Also, enroll in Power BI online training to become proficient in this BI tool.