ASPM, CNAPP and NHIs: where identity governance still breaks

TL;DR: ASPM and CNAPP improve cloud posture but neither is designed to secure non-human identities, which Entro Security says remain a leading exposure point in cloud applications. That gap matters because NHI privileges are often over-permissive, reused, and rarely retired, making lifecycle governance the decisive control.

NHIMG editorial — based on content published by Entro Security: ASPM vs CNAPP – Which Solution To Choose

Questions worth separating out

Q: How should security teams govern non-human identities alongside ASPM and CNAPP?

A: Treat ASPM and CNAPP as visibility and posture layers, then govern NHIs as a separate lifecycle domain.

Q: Why do cloud-native environments create more non-human identity risk?

A: Cloud-native systems create many short-lived services, integrations, and pipelines that all need machine access.

Q: What breaks when machine identities are not retired properly?

A: The organisation loses control over who or what can still act on behalf of the system.

Practitioner guidance

• Create a unified NHI inventory across app and cloud teams Link each service account, token, API key, and certificate to the application, pipeline, or workload that depends on it.
• Separate posture findings from identity decisions Use ASPM for application risk and CNAPP for cloud posture, but require a separate review step for the NHIs those systems depend on.
• Enforce expiry and retirement triggers for machine identities Tie every non-human identity to a workload, integration, or pipeline end state.

What's in the full article

Entro Security's full blog covers the operational detail this post intentionally leaves for the source:

• The article's side-by-side ASPM and CNAPP feature comparison for teams choosing a cloud security stack
• Specific examples of how NHIs show up in cloud-native architectures, including service accounts, tokens, and certificates
• The vendor's recommended sequencing for creation, utilisation, and termination controls across the NHI lifecycle
• A practical argument for when a dedicated NHI platform becomes necessary alongside ASPM and CNAPP

👉 Read Entro Security's analysis of ASPM, CNAPP, and NHI governance →

ASPM, CNAPP and NHIs: where identity governance still breaks?

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