Securing the Unseen: Non-Human Identity Provisioning and Deprovisioning Strategies

Understanding the Non-Human Identity Landscape

Did you know that non-human identities (NHIs) already outnumber human identities in most organizations? These digital entities are the unsung heroes of modern IT, yet they often operate in the shadows, creating significant security blind spots.

The rise of cloud applications, ai, and automation has made NHIs indispensable. They come in various forms, each with unique characteristics:

• Service Accounts: Traditional accounts used by applications to interact with the operating system. They are still relevant but often overlooked.
• Service Principals: Identities used by applications and services to access Azure resources. For example, a service principal might allow an application to read data from an Azure SQL database without human intervention.
• Workload Identities: These identities are specifically designed for workloads running in Kubernetes or other containerized environments. They enable applications to securely access cloud resources, like AWS S3 buckets, without embedding credentials directly in the code.
• API Keys: These are often used for programmatic access to services and APIs, acting as a form of NHI that grants specific permissions.

NHIs are vital for automating workflows, integrating applications, managing cloud services, and even powering ai agents. For example, Microsoft Copilot Studio is already used by more than 230,000 organizations — including 90% of the Fortune 500 to build ai agents and automations.

NHIs are often highly privileged, eliminating the need for the attacker to elevate this status themselves. Source: Microsoft Tech Community.

Despite their importance, NHIs often lack dedicated security oversight. This can lead to:

• Lack of Visibility: Organizations are often unaware of all the NHIs in their environment, their permissions, and their usage patterns.
• Governance Gaps: Limited policies and regulations on how these accounts should be set up, used, and managed can create situations where accounts are overprivileged or shared across multiple applications. These gaps also mean credentials might be stored in plain text, or passwords become stale and susceptible to exploitation. Common reasons for these gaps include a lack of clear ownership, reliance on manual processes, and the presence of legacy systems that weren't designed with modern identity management in mind. Stale credentials can be exploited through brute-force attacks or credential stuffing if they're compromised elsewhere.
• Increased Risk: Without proper security controls, NHIs are vulnerable to credential theft, misuse, and unauthorized access.

Understanding this complex landscape is the first step towards securing it. Next, we'll delve into the critical importance of provisioning these identities.

The Importance of NHI Provisioning

Think of NHI provisioning as setting the foundation for a secure and efficient digital ecosystem. It's the process of creating and configuring non-human identities (NHIs) with the appropriate access rights, ensuring they can perform their designated tasks without becoming security liabilities.

Effective NHI provisioning is more than just creating accounts; it's about establishing a secure and manageable environment. Here's why it's so important:

• Least Privilege Access: Provisioning allows you to grant NHIs only the minimum necessary permissions to perform their functions. For example, a workload identity accessing an AWS S3 bucket should only have read or write permissions for the specific bucket it needs, not broad access across the entire AWS environment.
• Enhanced Security Posture: By controlling how NHIs are created and configured, you reduce the risk of unauthorized access and potential breaches. Implementing policies around password complexity, rotation, and multi-factor authentication (MFA) for service accounts helps protect against credential theft.
• Improved Auditability and Compliance: Proper provisioning creates a clear record of NHI creation, permissions, and usage, making it easier to track activity and demonstrate compliance with regulatory requirements.
• Operational Efficiency: Automating the provisioning process ensures consistency and reduces the manual effort required to manage NHIs. This can be achieved by tools which automatically create service principals with pre-defined roles when a new application is deployed.
• Reduced Attack Surface: By carefully managing the creation and configuration of NHIs, you minimize potential entry points for attackers. Implementing proper provisioning helps avoid situations where default or overly permissive accounts are left unmonitored.

Let's consider a scenario where a new microservice needs access to a database. Instead of manually creating a service account with broad permissions, a well-defined provisioning process would:

1. Automate Identity Generation: A system, perhaps triggered by a CI/CD pipeline, automatically generates a unique workload identity (e.g., a service account in Kubernetes or a managed identity in Azure). This process would involve creating the identity object and assigning it a strong, randomly generated password or a certificate.
2. Grant Granular Permissions: Based on the microservice's requirements defined in its configuration, the provisioning process automatically assigns the least privilege access. This could involve creating specific database roles, granting read-only access to certain tables, or defining permissions within a cloud IAM system.
3. Enforce Security Policies: The process automatically enforces regular password rotation (e.g., every 90 days) and sets up monitoring for the identity's activity. This might involve integrating with a secrets management tool that handles rotation or configuring alerts in a security information and event management (SIEM) system.

This automated approach ensures that the microservice has the necessary access while minimizing the risk of privilege escalation or unauthorized data access. Microsoft Copilot Studio is already used by more than 230,000 organizations — including 90% of the Fortune 500 to build ai agents and automations.

Securing NHIs doesn't stop at provisioning. Just as important is the process of deprovisioning, which we'll explore in the next section.

The Imperative of NHI Deprovisioning

Ever wondered what happens to non-human identities (NHIs) when they're no longer needed? Just as provisioning is crucial for security, so is deprovisioning – the often-overlooked process of disabling or removing NHIs when they're no longer required.

NHI deprovisioning is critical for maintaining a strong security posture and preventing potential risks. Here's why it should be a priority:

• Reduced Attack Surface: Unused NHIs are prime targets for attackers. Disabling or removing these identities eliminates potential entry points and minimizes the risk of unauthorized access.
• Compliance and Auditability: Many regulations require organizations to maintain accurate records of access rights. Deprovisioning ensures that only active and authorized NHIs have access to resources, simplifying audits and demonstrating compliance.
• Cost Optimization: Unused NHIs can consume resources and incur unnecessary costs, especially in cloud environments. Deprovisioning helps reclaim these resources and optimize spending.
• Prevention of Privilege Creep: Over time, NHIs can accumulate excessive permissions, a phenomenon known as privilege creep. Deprovisioning and periodic reviews prevent NHIs from retaining unnecessary access rights.

To implement effective NHI deprovisioning, consider the following steps:

1. Identify Obsolete NHIs: Regularly scan your environment to identify NHIs that are no longer in use or associated with active applications or services. This scanning can be done through various methods:
   • Inactivity Thresholds: Monitoring login or access logs for NHIs that haven't been active for a defined period (e.g., 90 or 180 days).
   • Application Decommissioning Flags: Integrating with application lifecycle management systems to automatically flag NHIs associated with retired applications.
   • HR/Asset Management Integration: Linking NHIs to employee onboarding/offboarding processes or asset management systems to automatically trigger deprovisioning when an associated resource or human role is terminated.
   • Usage Analytics: Analyzing usage patterns to identify NHIs that are underutilized or exhibiting no activity.
2. Automate the Process: Implement automated workflows to disable or remove NHIs based on pre-defined criteria, such as inactivity periods or application decommissioning.
3. Revoke Access: Ensure that all access rights and permissions associated with the NHI are revoked, preventing any residual access to sensitive resources.
4. Monitor and Audit: Continuously monitor the deprovisioning process to ensure that it is executed correctly and that no unauthorized access occurs.

For example, consider a scenario where a service principal was created for a temporary project in Azure. Once the project is complete, the service principal should be deprovisioned. An automated script could:

# To obtain the ObjectID, you would typically use Azure AD cmdlets like:
# Get-AzureADServicePrincipal -Filter "DisplayName eq 'YourServicePrincipalName'" | Select-Object ObjectId
# Or find it in the Azure portal under Azure Active Directory -> Enterprise applications.

Disable-AzureADServicePrincipal -ObjectId <ObjectID>
Remove-AzureADServicePrincipal -ObjectId <ObjectID>

Deprovisioning isn't a one-time task, it's an ongoing process that needs to be integrated into your overall NHI lifecycle management strategy. Next, we'll explore how to implement a robust lifecycle management program for NHIs.

Implementing a Robust NHI Lifecycle Management

Is your organization leaving NHI security to chance? Implementing a robust Non-Human Identity (NHI) lifecycle management program is essential for mitigating risks and ensuring these identities are secure from creation to retirement.

A comprehensive NHI lifecycle management strategy provides a structured approach to govern and oversee NHIs, addressing the challenges of visibility, governance, and protection. By establishing clear policies and procedures, organizations can effectively manage the risks associated with NHIs and maintain a strong security posture.

• Discovery and Inventory: The first step is to identify all NHIs within the environment. This includes not only service accounts and service principals but also workload identities and api keys. Automated tools can help discover and catalog these identities, providing a centralized view of all NHIs.
• Risk Assessment and Prioritization: Evaluate the risk associated with each NHI based on its privileges, usage patterns, and the sensitivity of the resources it accesses. Criteria for assessment might include:
  • Privilege Level: How many permissions does the NHI have? Does it have administrative rights?
  • Data Sensitivity: What kind of data does the NHI access? Is it PII, financial data, or intellectual property?
  • Usage Frequency: How often is the NHI used? Is it actively managed or forgotten?
  • Network Exposure: Is the NHI accessible from the public internet or only internal networks?
    Prioritization can be achieved through a risk scoring system, where higher scores indicate a greater need for immediate attention.
• Policy Enforcement: Define and enforce policies for NHI creation, usage, and retirement. Policies should include guidelines for password complexity, rotation, multi-factor authentication (MFA), and least privilege access.
• Continuous Monitoring and Auditing: Implement continuous monitoring to detect anomalous behavior and unauthorized access attempts. Regular audits should be conducted to ensure compliance with policies and identify potential security gaps.
• Automated Remediation: Automate the remediation of security issues, such as password resets, access revocation, and NHI deprovisioning. Automation reduces manual effort and ensures timely responses to security incidents. Examples of triggers and workflows for automated remediation include:
  • Trigger: A security alert from a SIEM system indicating an NHI has attempted to access unauthorized resources.
  • Workflow: The SIEM system automatically calls an API to revoke the NHI's access permissions and triggers a notification to the security team.
  • Trigger: An NHI's password has expired according to the rotation policy.
  • Workflow: A secrets management tool automatically generates a new password, updates the application's configuration, and logs the change.
  • Trigger: An NHI is flagged as inactive for 180 days.
  • Workflow: An automated script disables the NHI in the identity provider and removes its access from relevant systems.

Consider a scenario where a cloud-based application uses multiple workload identities to access various services. A robust NHI lifecycle management program would:

1. Automatically discover and inventory all workload identities.
2. Assess the risk associated with each identity based on its permissions.
3. Enforce policies for password rotation and MFA.
4. Continuously monitor for suspicious activity.
5. Automatically deprovision identities when they are no longer needed.

By implementing a robust NHI lifecycle management program, organizations can significantly reduce the risk of unauthorized access, data breaches, and compliance violations. Next, we'll delve into the tools and technologies that can support NHI management.

Tools and Technologies for NHI Management

Are you ready to equip your organization with the right tools for NHI management? The market offers a variety of solutions designed to streamline and secure the lifecycle of non-human identities (NHIs). Let's explore some of the key technologies available.

• Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) Solutions: IGA platforms extend their capabilities to manage NHIs, providing features like discovery, access certification, and automated provisioning/deprovisioning. These solutions offer a centralized view of all identities, both human and non-human, making it easier to enforce consistent policies. For NHI management, IGA tools can automate the request and approval workflows for new NHIs, conduct periodic access reviews for existing NHIs, and ensure that access is revoked when no longer needed, often by integrating with various target systems.
• Secrets Management Tools: These tools focus on securing and managing sensitive credentials, such as api keys and passwords, used by NHIs. They offer features like centralized storage, access control, rotation, and auditing to prevent credential theft and misuse. For example, HashiCorp Vault or CyberArk can be used to secure these secrets. These tools enable applications to retrieve secrets dynamically at runtime, rather than having them hardcoded or stored insecurely.
• Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM): Cloud providers offer IAM services that allow you to manage access to cloud resources for NHIs. These services provide features like role-based access control (RBAC), multi-factor authentication (MFA), and activity monitoring. AWS IAM and Azure Active Directory are prime examples. These services are fundamental for controlling what NHIs can do within the cloud environment.
• Workload Identity Platforms: Designed specifically for managing identities in containerized environments like Kubernetes, these platforms enable applications to securely access cloud resources without embedding credentials in the code. SPIRE and Kyma are popular options.
  • SPIFFE/SPIRE: SPIFFE (Secure Production Identity Framework for Everyone) and its implementation SPIRE provide a standard for workload identity. SPIRE acts as a certificate authority, issuing short-lived, verifiable identities (SVIDs) to workloads. These SVIDs can then be used to authenticate to other services, often through a process of token exchange or mTLS, without needing to manage long-lived secrets.
  • Kyma: Kyma, an open-source project, also offers capabilities for workload identity management, often integrating with cloud provider IAM services. It can help in issuing and managing credentials for applications running within its environment, facilitating secure access to external resources.

Imagine you're deploying a new microservice in Kubernetes that needs to access an AWS S3 bucket. Using a workload identity platform like SPIRE, you can:

1. Automatically create a unique identity for the microservice via its Kubernetes service account.
2. SPIRE issues a short-lived SVID (e.g., a JWT) to the microservice.
3. The microservice uses this SVID to authenticate with an AWS IAM service that trusts SPIFFE identities, obtaining temporary AWS credentials to access the S3 bucket.
4. Credentials are automatically rotated as the SVIDs expire.

This approach enhances security and simplifies management.

According to Microsoft, Copilot Studio is already used by more than 230,000 organizations — including 90% of the Fortune 500 to build ai agents and automations. As ai becomes more prevalent, the need for robust NHI management tools will only increase.

With the right tools in place, you can effectively manage NHIs, reduce your attack surface, and improve your overall security posture. Now, let's consider how NHI security plays out in the age of ai.

NHI Security in the Age of AI

Are ai agents keeping you up at night? As ai permeates every aspect of modern business, the security of Non-Human Identities (NHIs) becomes even more critical, since these identities are critical to the functionality of ai.

• Increased NHI Proliferation: ai-driven automation results in a surge of NHIs, each requiring careful management. For example, ai-powered chatbots and virtual assistants rely on NHIs to access data and perform tasks, increasing the attack surface.
• Elevated Privileges: ai agents often require elevated privileges to access and process sensitive data. This is because they might need to:
  • Access large datasets for training or analysis.
  • Perform complex data transformations or aggregations across multiple systems.
  • Interact with critical system components or APIs that manage infrastructure or sensitive business logic.
    Securing these highly privileged NHIs is paramount to prevent misuse and unauthorized access.
• Complex Interdependencies: ai systems involve intricate interactions between various NHIs, creating complex dependencies that are difficult to manage and monitor. Robust lifecycle management is crucial to maintain control. For instance, an ai model might rely on several microservices, each with its own NHI, to gather and process data from different sources (e.g., a CRM, a financial database, and a real-time analytics platform) to generate a single, comprehensive report. Managing the lifecycle and security of each of these NHIs, and understanding how their interactions create potential vulnerabilities, is a significant challenge.

Consider an ai-driven financial analysis tool that uses workload identities to access market data, customer information, and transaction records. Proper NHI management ensures that the ai agent has only the necessary permissions to perform its analysis, minimizing the risk of data breaches and compliance violations.

To secure NHIs in the age of ai, organizations must adopt a proactive approach that includes:

• Implementing robust discovery and inventory processes to identify all NHIs.
• Enforcing least privilege access for ai agents and automated systems.
• Continuously monitoring and auditing NHI activity for suspicious behavior.

As ai continues to evolve, staying ahead of these security challenges is essential.