Why secrete description in Microsoft Entra ID is not editable? It forces us to rotate secrete if we want to correct descirption

A client secret’s description cannot be edited after creation; Microsoft Entra treats the description as part of the immutable password credential, so correcting it requires adding a replacement secret and then removing the old one.

Microsoft Graph likewise does not support using PATCH to modify passwordCredentials; only the addPassword and removePassword operations are supported.^1^

Safely replace the secret

1. Open Microsoft Entra admin center.
2. Go to Identity → Applications → App registrations.
3. Select the application.
4. Open Certificates & secrets → Client secrets.
5. Select New client secret.
6. Enter the corrected description, select an expiration, and select Add.
7. Copy the new secret Value immediately. It is displayed only once.^2^
8. Update the application or secure credential store with the new value.
9. Test authentication with the new secret.
10. Only after successful testing, delete the old secret.

Adding the replacement does not invalidate or shorten the existing secret; each remains independently valid until it expires or is removed.^3^

Deleting the old secret before updating the application can cause an outage.

Production recommendation

For production workloads, Microsoft recommends using a certificate or federated identity credential instead of a client secret because these methods are more secure and avoid storing a reusable secret.^2^

If the screenshot refers to a federated credential rather than the Client secrets tab, the client-secret replacement procedure does not apply; that is a different credential type.

References

1. Update application
2. Add and manage application credentials in Microsoft Entra ID
3. Reduce expiry dates for existing Client Secrets for App Registrations & Service Principals? - Microsoft Q&A