The Complete Guide to Securing Service Accounts

Read full article here: https://www.oasis.security/blog/what-are-service-accounts-and-how-should-you-secure-them/?utm_source=nhimg

Service accounts are non-human identities (NHIs) created to allow software, systems, or automated processes to perform specific functions without direct human involvement. These accounts often run background tasks such as application services, file transfers, automated backups, or database operations.

In most enterprises, especially those using Microsoft Active Directory (AD), service accounts are essential for maintaining system functionality. They can execute scheduled operations, communicate between systems, and access files or APIs — all autonomously.

Just as human users need access credentials, so do microservices, workloads, and applications. Service accounts act as the digital identity for these processes, enabling secure access to systems and resources. However, their privileged nature and distributed management make them a growing target for attackers.

How Service Accounts Differ from User Accounts

The primary difference between a service account and a user account lies in how they are created and managed:

• User accounts are centrally provisioned, monitored, and governed through IGA (Identity Governance and Administration) or PAM (Privileged Access Management) solutions.
• Service accounts, in contrast, are often created ad hoc by developers or system owners directly within environments — leading to inconsistent tracking and oversight.

This decentralized creation model results in a visibility gap. Many organizations don’t know how many service accounts exist, what they access, or whether they’re still in use.

Unlike human identities (e.g., “Jake.Paul”), service accounts often use descriptive or system-generated names like “NetworkService” or “SQLBackupAgent.” They rely on shared credentials that must be known to multiple systems or scripts — increasing the risk of exposure if not properly secured.

Key Challenges in Service Account Management

1. Secret Rotation in Legacy Environments

While password rotation is a best practice for human users, it’s frequently neglected for service accounts due to operational risk. Rotating a service account password can disrupt critical workflows or cause application outages if dependencies are not fully understood.

Legacy systems, especially those tied to Active Directory, often lack automation capabilities for mass rotation. A notable example is the Cloudflare breach, where an attempt to rotate thousands of service accounts still left four unrotated — underscoring the difficulty of managing large-scale credential changes.

Modern environments require automated rotation tools that can handle dependencies, ensure service continuity, and reduce the risk of long-lived credentials being exploited.

2. Maintaining a Complete, Up-to-Date Inventory Across Clouds

Service accounts operate across layers of infrastructure — from on-prem systems to cloud workloads and SaaS applications. However, few organizations maintain a centralized inventory.

Without visibility, security teams can’t determine which accounts are active, which are orphaned, or what data each can access. The result is a blind spot in enterprise identity security, where compromised or forgotten accounts can persist undetected for years.

Organizations should aim to create continuous discovery mechanisms that automatically detect, catalog, and classify service accounts across all environments.

3. Understanding Usage, Dependencies, and Entitlements

Visibility alone is not enough — context is key. Security teams must understand:

• What systems depend on each service account
• Which credentials are shared or stale
• Whether access rights align with the account’s actual purpose

Many organizations uncover dormant or over-privileged accounts, secrets with decades-long expiration, or inactive vaults still granting access. This lack of context leads to both neglected and excessively empowered NHIs, dramatically expanding the attack surface.

Best Practices for Securing Service Accounts

1. Comprehensive Identity Governance

Establish identity lifecycle management processes for all NHIs, ensuring each has defined ownership, purpose, and expiration.

• Automate provisioning and deprovisioning.
• Define clear policies for rotation frequency, credential sharing, and privilege boundaries.
• Use governance platforms or PAM tools to enforce these controls consistently.

2. Secure Credential Management

Centralize credential storage using vaults or key management systems (KMS) to eliminate the risk of plaintext secrets in code or configuration files.

• Enforce automated password rotation policies.
• Apply encryption and access controls to ensure credentials are only used by authorized applications or users.

3. Continuous Monitoring and Auditing

Implement real-time monitoring for suspicious or unauthorized access attempts.

• Use telemetry and logging to detect abnormal activity.
• Conduct periodic audits to validate compliance with internal policies and external regulations.
• Integrate monitoring tools with SIEM or SOAR platforms for automated response.

Securing Service Accounts with Oasis Security

Oasis NHI Security Cloud delivers an integrated approach to service account lifecycle management, combining visibility, governance, automation, and compliance in a single platform.

Key capabilities include:

• Holistic Visibility: Automatically discover all service accounts across hybrid environments, including AD, cloud, and containerized workloads.
• Contextual Mapping: Understand how each account is used, what systems it connects to, and which permissions it holds.
• Automated Posture Assessment: Continuously assess service account security posture — from secret age to compliance gaps — and prioritize remediation.
• Lifecycle Automation: Automate provisioning, rotation, RBAC enforcement, and decommissioning through policy-based workflows.
• Security and Compliance Enforcement: Enforce consistent credential, access, and policy controls aligned with frameworks such as GDPR, NIST, and ISO 27001.

By adopting Oasis, organizations can eliminate unmanaged service accounts, automate their governance, and maintain compliance without disrupting business operations.

Final Takeaway

Service accounts are the backbone of automated systems, yet they often operate in the shadows — unmanaged, untracked, and over-privileged. As organizations expand across hybrid and multi-cloud environments, securing these NHIs is no longer optional.

Through strong governance, automated rotation, continuous discovery, and purpose-built platforms like Oasis, enterprises can regain control, reduce risk, and ensure their machine and service identities are no longer the weakest link in their security chain.