Extend privileged access management to non-human identities

Privileged access management has traditionally focused largely on a familiar problem: administrators with powerful accounts. That problem has not gone away. But today people are only part of the privileged-access picture.

Applications connect to databases. Windows services run under elevated accounts. Scripts perform administrative tasks. Automated processes exchange credentials with other systems. Cloud services and infrastructure depend on keys and secrets that may provide extensive access without a human ever typing a password.

Each of those non-human identities, and the credentials they rely on, can create a privileged access path. Non-human identity security extends beyond PAM, but privileged machine access is an important part of the problem. A modern PAM strategy therefore needs to address not only administrators, but also the service accounts, applications, and automated processes that rely on privileged credentials. OpenText™ NetIQ™ Privileged Access Manager (NetIQ PAM) helps bring those access paths under centralized control.

Protecting privileged access for administrators

For administrators, the goal is to reduce the amount of powerful access that exists outside centralized control. NetIQ PAM can store privileged credentials in its Credential Vault, provide controlled credential checkout, and broker access to protected systems without necessarily exposing the underlying password to the administrator. Policy-driven access controls can determine who receives access, to which resources, and under what conditions. Just-in-time access can further reduce standing privilege by providing elevated access only when it is required.

Once access begins, NetIQ PAM can monitor and record privileged sessions, providing visibility into what administrators actually did with the access they received. Together, those controls protect credentials, limit access, monitor privileged activity, and preserve accountability. But privileged credentials do not belong only to administrators.

Service accounts create a different security challenge

Service accounts are often highly privileged and operationally sensitive. They may run Windows services, scheduled tasks, IIS application pools, Linux daemons, scheduled jobs, application processes, or other workloads that must continue running without interruption. That makes password rotation more complicated than it sounds.

The password should be changed regularly, but changing it manually can mean finding every service or process that depends on the credential, updating it correctly, and making sure the workload continues to run. As a result, organizations may leave service-account passwords unchanged far longer than intended.

NetIQ PAM addresses this through password management and automated rotation across supported platforms. For Windows, NetIQ PAM provides out-of-the-box support for rotating service-account passwords used by Windows Services, COM+, Task Scheduler, and IIS application pools. For Linux systems accessed over SSH, PAM can rotate privileged passwords or SSH keys, and custom service tasks can be used when associated Linux services or applications also need to be updated after a credential change. This helps organizations reduce the useful lifetime of privileged credentials without turning rotation into a purely manual operations process.

Get credentials out of applications and scripts

Applications and scripts introduce another challenge: how do they obtain the credentials they need without storing them locally? A common answer has historically been a configuration file or script. It is convenient, but it creates a credential that can be copied, exposed, forgotten, or left unchanged indefinitely.

NetIQ PAM’s Application-to-Application Password Management (AAPM) capability provides another model. Instead of embedding the credential directly in the application, the application can retrieve it from PAM when needed, using NetIQ PAM’s application-to-application capabilities. NetIQ PAM becomes the controlled source for the credential, while password rotation can occur without requiring someone to manually replace hardcoded secrets throughout the environment.

AAPM can support credentials used with resources such as databases, applications, cloud services, LDAP environments, and shared keys. The principle is simple: The application may need privileged access, but that does not mean the credential needs to be embedded in it.

Manage privileged keys and other shared secrets

Passwords are not the only privileged secrets that require control. NetIQ PAM also provides shared-key management, allowing organizations to place keys under centralized control and govern how they are checked out and used. That becomes more important as infrastructure and operations become increasingly automated. The privileged-access surface increasingly includes passwords, service credentials, application secrets, keys, scripts, and automated connections, not simply administrator accounts.

“Privileged access used to be discussed mainly in terms of administrators and root accounts. Today, applications, services, automation, and other non-human identities can hold equally powerful access. PAM has to account for both.” — Akhil Laddha, OpenText

Managing those credentials through a common PAM platform gives security and operations teams a more consistent way to control access rather than allowing privileged secrets to accumulate in disconnected applications and configuration files.

Privileged access extends beyond people

Human and non-human identities create the same fundamental PAM challenge: both can hold powerful access to critical systems. Administrator passwords, service-account credentials, application secrets, and machine keys can all become attack paths if they are unmanaged or overexposed.

NetIQ PAM brings these access paths under a common privileged-access model—protecting credentials, rotating them where appropriate, controlling their use, and increasing accountability. As automation expands, extending PAM beyond human administrators becomes an increasingly important part of protecting privileged access.