Topic starter
30/09/2026 7:10 pm
TL;DR: AI agents are moving into production with access across identities, tools, and sensitive systems that traditional PAM was not built to govern, according to P0 Security, which argues for runtime control, full action-chain visibility, and just-in-time access. The governance shift is away from standing privilege and toward runtime decisions that preserve auditability across human, machine, and agentic access.
NHIMG editorial: based on content published by P0 Security: IDAC podcast on flipping from traditional PAM to JIT access
Questions worth separating out
Q: What breaks when organisations keep standing privilege for AI agents and NHIs?
A: Standing privilege turns into unmanaged exposure when access outlives the task that justified it.
Q: What do teams get wrong about just-in-time access in PAM?
A: Teams often assume JIT is a replacement for governance rather than a way to enforce it.
Q: How do you know if runtime access controls are working?
A: Look for shorter privilege windows, fewer standing admin accounts, and a smaller set of sessions that require recording at all.
Practitioner guidance
- Map standing privilege paths by runtime use case Inventory where users, machines, and AI agents still rely on persistent elevation, then classify which paths can be converted to task-scoped issuance.
- Bind access decisions to action-chain logging Ensure the policy layer records the access grant, the runtime context, and the downstream action in one coherent audit record.
- Separate developer convenience from privileged scope Keep developer workflow speed, break-glass access, and administrative privilege as distinct governance decisions so convenience does not become permanent elevation.
What's in the full article
P0 Security's full resource covers the operational detail this post intentionally leaves for the source:
- How the runtime access platform discovers privilege across users, machines, and AI agents
- The way P0 describes preserving context across access decisions and downstream actions
- Podcast discussion points on flipping from traditional PAM to just-in-time access
- The vendor's view of developer-first access workflows and hybrid PAM
👉 Read P0 Security's podcast on flipping from traditional PAM to just-in-time access →
AI agents and NHIs: is runtime access the control shift teams need?
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30/09/2026 7:11 pm
Runtime access control is becoming the practical replacement for standing privilege in mixed human, machine, and agentic environments. Traditional PAM was built around identities that hold access for a period of time and then return it. That model breaks down when the actor can request and consume privilege repeatedly during active execution. Practitioners should treat runtime issuance as the new control point, because the governance problem is now access at the moment of action, not access at the moment of provisioning.
A few things that frame the scale:
- Organisations that describe themselves as confident in their AI deployment actually experience a 72% security incident rate, compared to 33% for those who remain cautious, according to the 2026 Infrastructure Identity Survey.
- Only 13% of organisations feel extremely prepared for the reality of agentic AI despite the majority racing toward autonomous adoption, according to the 2026 Infrastructure Identity Survey.
A question worth separating out:
Q: What is the difference between break-glass access and just-in-time access?
A: Break-glass access is emergency elevation for exceptional situations, while just-in-time access is routine, task-scoped issuance for normal work. The first exists for urgent exceptions; the second is how organisations prevent standing privilege from becoming the default. Both need strict logging, but they solve different governance problems.
👉 Read our full editorial: Runtime access for AI agents and NHIs needs just-in-time control