How to Secure Non-Human Identities: Best Practices Guide

Read full article from Okta here: https://www.okta.com/identity-101/what-are-non-human-identities/?utm_source=nhimg

Non-human identities (NHIs) are digital credentials assigned to machines, applications, and automated processes. They authenticate and interact with systems, services, and data using credentials such as API keys, tokens, and certificates.

In today’s cloud-native, automation-driven enterprises, NHIs outnumber human identities by staggering ratios, sometimes 50:1. They are the invisible engines of modern infrastructure, powering CI/CD pipelines, SaaS integrations, cloud orchestration, and AI workflows. But without proper oversight, they also represent one of the fastest-growing security risks.

Why NHIs Matter

Every machine-to-machine (MTM) interaction requires a digital identity. NHIs fill this role at scale, enabling:

• Cloud provisioning (VMs, containers, serverless functions)
• Data synchronization between SaaS platforms
• Automation in DevOps pipelines and RPA systems
• Secure communication across microservices

The problem: unlike humans, NHIs rarely follow structured identity lifecycles. They’re often created automatically, never retired, and operate with long-term, high-privilege credentials, a perfect target for attackers.

Common Types of Non-Human Identities

• Service accounts – Application-to-application or service-to-database access
• API keys & tokens – Programmatic access between systems
• Machine identities – Certificates and keys for devices, VMs, and containers
• Cloud workload identities – Ephemeral credentials for serverless and containerized workloads
• Automation scripts & bots – CI/CD jobs, RPA bots, and infrastructure-as-code pipelines

Example in action:

• A CI/CD pipeline (GitLab) deploys containers → uses service accounts
• A Kubernetes pod pulls secrets from a vault → uses workload identities
• An RPA bot updates customer records → uses automation credentials

Human vs. Non-Human Identities

Why NHIs Are Harder to Secure

• Lifecycle gaps – Orphaned, never-decommissioned credentials linger after projects end.
• Exponential scale – Thousands of NHIs across clouds, SaaS, and scripts.
• Overprivileged access – Defaults often grant admin-level rights.
• Insecure secrets – Hardcoded API keys, long-lived tokens, static credentials.
• Lack of visibility – Few orgs maintain a full NHI inventory.

Fact: GitGuardian found 23.8 million exposed secrets in GitHub repos in 2024—a 25% increase over the prior year. Many were NHI credentials.

Best Practices for Securing NHIs

1. Apply Zero Trust – Treat all identities (human + machine) as untrusted until verified.
2. Enforce least privilege – Scope permissions tightly, review regularly.
3. Rotate secrets automatically – Use secrets managers, eliminate hardcoded credentials.
4. Monitor behavior – Detect anomalies (e.g., unusual locations, excessive data reads).
5. Assign ownership – Tie every NHI to a responsible human owner.
6. Align with OWASP NHI Top 10 (2025) – Focus on risks like improper offboarding, insecure authentication, overprivileged credentials, and lack of discovery.
7. Implement Identity Security Posture Management (ISPM) – Continuous discovery, risk scoring, and automated remediation.

What is Non-Human Identity Management (NHIM)?

NHIM encompasses the policies, tools, and processes to govern NHIs from discovery → governance → decommissioning.

Core capabilities:

• Discovery & inventory – Find all NHIs across clouds, SaaS, and infra.
• Lifecycle management – Automated creation, modification, and offboarding.
• Access governance – Least privilege enforcement, periodic reviews.
• Monitoring & analytics – Real-time anomaly detection.
• Credential management – Automated rotation and vaulting.
• Unified oversight – Single control plane for humans + NHIs.

The Rise of NHIs in AI and Automation

AI-driven systems and agentic AI agents generate NHIs at scale, often ephemeral, autonomous, and privileged. Each pipeline, model deployment, or agent requires unique credentials, making lifecycle management critical.

• Ephemeral – Created and discarded in seconds
• Autonomous – Acting without human oversight
• Privileged – Accessing sensitive data and infrastructure

Without governance, they become the largest unmanaged attack surface in the enterprise.

Real-World Examples

• AWS IAM roles for EC2 → S3 access
• OAuth tokens between Kubernetes microservices
• GitLab service accounts for CI/CD deployments
• API keys syncing CRM + marketing tools
• ML pipelines pulling training data with service accounts

Why NHIs Need First-Class Security

• 46% of orgs faced NHI-related compromises last year
• 80% of orgs plan to increase NHI security spend
• NHIs are no longer secondary, they’re primary attack vectors

A unified identity fabric that secures both human and non-human identities is now essential for Zero Trust. This ensures consistent governance, complete visibility, and stronger resilience against credential-based attacks.

Bottom line

NHIs are the backbone of automation, but also a rapidly expanding attack surface. Organizations must elevate NHI security to the same level as human identity security, identity-first, automated, and Zero Trust by design.