Non-Human Identity Remediation in Cloud Environments

Read full article here:  https://entro.security/blog/prioritization-of-nhi-remediation-in-cloud-environments-2/?source=nhimg

Modern cloud enterprises rely heavily on non-human identities (NHIs) such as service accounts, API keys, and machine credentials, to enable automation, integrations, and scalability. While essential, their silent and rapid proliferation across multi-cloud environments, vendor APIs, and third-party services creates serious security challenges.

Without strict governance, NHIs often accumulate excessive privileges, suffer from hardcoded secrets, and sprawl beyond visibility. This “privilege creep” expands the attack surface, making it easier for threat actors to exploit overlooked accounts and credentials.

Core Challenges in NHI Management 

1. Excess Permissions – NHIs frequently gain broad or unrestricted access over time, violating least privilege principles.

2. Hardcoded Secrets – Developers embedding credentials in code for speed and convenience.

3. Cloud Complexity – Multi-cloud and third-party integrations make it difficult to inventory, classify, and monitor identities.

4. Poor Visibility – Limited insight into ownership, permissions, and activity patterns prevents effective remediation.

Remediation Framework

1. Discovery & Attack Surface Scanning

• Comprehensive inventory across AWS, Azure, GCP, and vendor systems using native APIs and third-party scanners.

• Extend detection to code repositories for hardcoded secrets.

• Implement continuous monitoring to capture new, modified, or deleted identities in real time.

2. Classification & Context

• Enrich identities with metadata—type, owner, permissions, scope, usage frequency, associated services, and data sensitivity.

• Link every NHI to a human owner for accountability.

• Use context-aware risk assessment to prioritize remediation and reduce alert fatigue.

3. Posture Management

• Apply Zero Trust principles:

  • Just-In-Time (JIT) access

  • Ephemeral credentials

  • Dynamic, context-aware access controls

• Integrate secrets management solutions with auto-rotation and anomaly-based triggers.

• Automate remediation workflows for common misconfigurations.

4. Real-Time Detection & Response (NHIDR)

• Use machine learning to baseline normal identity behavior and detect anomalies.

• Automate responses such as revoking risky access or triggering forensic investigations.

• Feed monitoring data into SOC tools for continuous oversight.

5. Deprovisioning & Lifecycle Management

• Automate the retirement of unused NHIs after project completion or system decommissioning.

• Periodically review access rights to enforce least privilege.

• Implement centralized vaults, HSMs for high-value secrets, and CI/CD-integrated rotation policies.

Final Thoughts 

CISOs cannot afford to leave NHIs unmanaged. Automated, context-driven governance, covering discovery, classification, posture management, and lifecycle controls are essential to reduce risk, maintain compliance, and prevent credential abuse in modern cloud environments. As cloud ecosystems expand, the organizations that invest in robust NHI remediation strategies will be the ones that keep their security posture strong without slowing innovation.