Restrict Jira (Atlassian Cloud) Access to a Specific IP Address Using Conditional Access

Overview

This article walks through restricting Jira access to one or more approved IP addresses 
using Conditional Access in Microsoft Entra ID. This is commonly used to ensure that Jira — 
and other Atlassian Cloud products in your organization — can only be accessed from a 
corporate network, reducing the risk of unauthorized access to project data, tickets, and 
internal workflows from untrusted networks.

The approach uses two components working together: 

• Named Locations:  A saved list of trusted IP addresses or CIDR ranges defined in 
  Entra ID. 
• Conditional Access policy:  A policy that blocks Atlassian Cloud sign-ins originating from any IP not on the trusted list. 

Please Note:  In Entra ID, the enterprise application for Jira is named Atlassian Cloud — not Jira. This single app covers all Atlassian Cloud products connected to your organization, including Jira Software, Jira Service Management, Confluence, and Trello. A Conditional Access policy targeting the Atlassian Cloud app will apply to all of these products simultaneously. 

Important: Atlassian Cloud SAML SSO requires an active Atlassian Guard 
subscription (formerly Atlassian Access). SSO cannot be enforced 
without it. Additionally, SSO enforcement in Atlassian Cloud is 
controlled through Authentication Policies at admin.atlassian.com — 
not through Jira settings. If SSO is not enforced via an Authentication 
Policy, users can still sign in directly with their Atlassian account 
credentials, bypassing Entra ID and this policy entirely. 

Prerequisites

Before proceeding, confirm the following are in place:

• Microsoft Entra ID P1 or P2 license - required for Conditional Access.
• Conditional Access Administrator role or higher in Microsoft Entra ID.
• Atlassian Guard Standard or Premium subscription — required to configure and 
  enforce SAML SSO for Atlassian Cloud. Included free with Atlassian Cloud Enterprise 
  plans.
• Atlassian Cloud enterprise app (SAML SSO) — registered in your Entra ID tenant 
  with SSO configured and verified in the Atlassian admin portal.
• SSO enforced via Authentication Policy — in the Atlassian admin portal at 
  admin.atlassian.com, an Authentication Policy must be configured with Enforce 
  single sign-on enabled and assigned to the relevant managed accounts.
• Security Defaults Disabled in Entra ID - Security Defaults and Conditional Access cannot run simultaneously.
• Known static IP address -  the public IP address or CIDR range of each approved location.
• Break-glass admin account -  must be excluded from this policy to prevent administrative lockout.

Important:  If your approved IP address is dynamic, this approach will not work 
reliably. You must use a static IP before implementing IP-based 
Conditional Access. 

Step 1: Create a Named Location for Your Trusted IP(s)

A Named Location defines the trusted IP addresses that Entra ID will reference as a condition in the policy.

1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center at entra.microsoft.com
2. Navigate to Protection > Conditional Access > Named locations.
3. Select + IP ranges locations.
4. Name the location. For example: Trusted - Corporate Office
5. Check the Mark as trusted location checkbox.
6. Click + and enter your approved IP address or CIDR range. 

7.  Click Create.

Step 2: Create the Conditional Access Policy

Create a policy that blocks Atlassian Cloud access from any location not on your trusted list.

1. In the Entra admin center, navigate to Protection > Conditional Access > Policies.
2. Select + New policy.
3. Name the policy. For example, Block Atlassian Cloud - Outside Trusted IPs

Assignments: Users

1. Under Assignments > Users, select All users.
2. Under Exclude, add your break-glass admin account and any automation or service accounts that authenticate from dynamic IPs.

Assignments: Target Resources

1. Under Target Resources, select Cloud apps > Select apps.
2. Search for and select DocuSign.

Please Note: Selecting Atlassian Cloud applies the policy to all Atlassian products in your organization — Jira Software, Jira Service Management, Confluence, and 
Trello. If you need to restrict only specific Atlassian products, scope your 
user assignments by group rather than by application, as Atlassian Cloud 
does not expose individual product apps in the Entra ID gallery. 

Conditions: Locations

1. Under Conditions > Locations, set Configure to Yes.
2. Under Include, select Any location.
3. Under Exclude, select Selected locations, then choose the Named Location you created in Step 1.

Tip: This configuration reads: apply this policy to sign-ins from any location, 
except the trusted named location. Any Atlassian Cloud sign-in originating 
outside the trusted IP will be blocked before Entra ID issues a SAML 
assertion to Atlassian.

Access Controls: Grant

1. Under Access Controls > Grant, select Block access.
2. Click Select to confirm.

Enable Policy

1. Set Enable policy to Report-only.
2. Click Create.

Important: Do not set this policy to On immediately. A block policy applied to All users that is misconfigured will lock all users out of Atlassian Cloud products instantly. Always validate in Report-only mode first.

Step 3: Validate the Policy

Before enabling enforcement, confirm the policy is evaluating sign-ins correctly.

1. In the Entra admin center, navigate to Identity > Monitoring & health > Sign-in logs. 
2. Filter by the Atlassian Cloud application. 
3. Open a sign-in from a user on your trusted IP and confirm the Conditional Access 
tab shows Would succeed. 
4. If available, review a sign-in from an untrusted IP and confirm it shows Would fail 
with the location condition listed as the reason. 
5. Investigate any unexpected Would fail entries for users on trusted IPs — this 
typically indicates the office or VPN is presenting a different egress IP than what is 
entered in the Named Location.

Tip:  Use the What If tool under Protection > Conditional Access to simulate how a specific user signing in from a specific IP would be evaluated without waiting for a real sign-in event.

Step 4: Enable the Policy

1. In the Entra admin center, navigate to Protection > Conditional Access > Policies.
2. Select the policy created in Step 2.
3. Change Enable policy from Report-only to On.
4. Click Save.

From this point forward, any Atlassian Cloud sign-in attempt from an IP address not 
included in your Named Location will be blocked. Entra ID will not issue an SAML assertion 
to Atlassian, and the user will be denied access to Jira and all other Atlassian Cloud 
products covered by the policy.

Please Note: Users who are already signed in when the policy is enabled will not be immediately signed out. The block takes effect on the next sign-in or token 
refresh, typically within 1 hour. Confirm that Enforce single sign-on is active in your Atlassian Authentication Policy at admin.atlassian.com to prevent users from bypassing Entra ID using direct Atlassian account credentials. 

Summary

The following table summarizes the full configuration process.