Spooky Privilege Pathways: The Invisible Routes Attackers Use and How to Block Them

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With spooky season upon us, ghosts, zombies, and werewolves are out in full force. But some of the scariest monsters aren’t found in haunted houses—they’re hiding deep within your IT environment.

While many organizations already understand the importance of protecting privileged accounts, attackers have evolved. They’re no longer just hunting for privileged accounts—they’re exploiting pathways to privilege: the hidden routes, weak configurations, and indirect connections that allow them to move laterally, escalate access, and haunt your entire organization undetected.

So grab your flashlight, it’s time to explore the gory details and uncover the privilege horrors that may be lurking within your infrastructure.

Spooky Privilege Pathway #1: ‘Monster’ Identities Lurking in the Shadows

Your IT environment might be haunted by more monsters than you realize. These “creatures” take many forms—each one a potential backdoor for attackers.

Zombies

Some identities may appear long dead—like user accounts belonging to former employees, or old service accounts created for projects long forgotten. Yet, as long as these orphaned identities still exist, they can be resurrected by attackers at any time.

Our Identity Security Risk Assessment has uncovered dormant privileged accounts in over 70% of organizations—identities thought to be inactive, but still fully capable of being reanimated for malicious use.

Ghosts

Ghost identities are those that float through your systems unseen—created for a temporary purpose, then forgotten. These shadow identities often retain access to production environments, but because no one is watching them, they become perfect vessels for stealthy lateral movement and privilege escalation.

Demons

Then there are the demons: shared accounts. When multiple users share one identity, visibility and accountability vanish. If an attacker takes over a shared account, distinguishing legitimate actions from malicious ones becomes almost impossible.

The Solution: Unmask Every Identity’s True Privilege™

The first step in defeating these monsters is discovery. Organizations must identify every identity human, machine, and AI, and understand what it can truly do if its privilege pathways are exploited.

Think of it like pulling off the villain’s mask in Scooby-Doo: you may think you know the identity’s role, but what’s revealed underneath can be shocking.

BeyondTrust Identity Security Insights helps uncover these hidden truths by mapping privilege relationships and revealing where excess risk lives—so no “monster” can hide in your infrastructure.

Spooky Privilege Pathway #2: Skeletons in the Credential Closet

Every IT environment hides a few dark secrets—and credentials are often the most dangerous skeletons in the closet.

Reused passwords, exposed API keys, or poorly managed service account credentials are like leaving your front door wide open to attackers.

Some of the most frightening realities include:

• Reused credentials across multiple accounts, allowing one compromise to unlock many systems.
• Overly shared secrets accessible by unknown users or processes.
• Static credentials used by bots, scripts, or AI agents that never expire or rotate.

IBM X-Force reported a 71% year-over-year increase in attacks using valid credentials, proof that attackers don’t always need to break in; sometimes, they just log in.

The Solution: Don’t Blink—Watch Every Credential

Unlike the Weeping Angels from Doctor Who, looking away from your credentials won’t send you back in time—but it could still lead to disaster.

Protecting credentials requires continuous visibility and control. Here are key actions to take:

• Discover and vault all credentials, keys, and secrets.
• Control and audit access for human and non-human users alike.
• Automate password and key rotation to prevent reuse.
• Eliminate hardcoded secrets in scripts, workflows, and code.
• Monitor and log privileged sessions to detect anomalies early.

BeyondTrust Password Safe automates these processes with secure vaulting, lifecycle management, and just-in-time credentialing—ensuring your secrets never become a skeleton key for attackers.

Spooky Privilege Pathway #3: Hidden Passages to Privilege

Even with your monsters unmasked and your credentials secured, hidden corridors may still run beneath your environment—quietly connecting domains, systems, and apps.

Some of these unseen passageways include:

• Misconfigurations or excessive privileges in SaaS apps like Active Directory, Entra, AWS, Okta, and GitHub, allowing low-level users to escalate access.
• Cross-platform bridges between on-prem AD and cloud roles that inadvertently expose admin privileges.
• Trust relationships between development and production environments, allowing compromised test accounts to access corporate systems.

These gaps are often invisible until an attacker uses them to slip through your defenses.

The Solution: Let Zero Trust Light the Way

Zero trust isn’t just a buzzword—it’s your lantern in the dark. By following the principle of “never trust, always verify,” you ensure that even if an attacker infiltrates your network, they can’t freely roam.

Here’s how to operationalize zero trust for privilege defense:

• Just-in-Time (JIT) Access: Grant access only when needed and automatically revoke it afterward.
• Granular Access Controls: Define access based on specific workflows and job functions—no blanket admin rights.
• Least Privilege Enforcement: Continuously remove unnecessary privileges, including local admin or root rights on endpoints.
• Continuous Verification: Monitor identity behavior to detect when “normal” turns suspicious.

BeyondTrust solutions deliver these zero trust principles in action—closing privilege pathways before attackers can exploit them.

Final Thoughts: Don’t Let Hidden Privileges Haunt You

Your environment may not be haunted by ghosts or zombies, but hidden privilege pathways can be just as dangerous.

By uncovering every identity, securing every credential, and sealing every privilege corridor, you can ensure your organization won’t become the next victim of a privilege-driven breach.

This spooky season, shine a light on your IT skeletons—and let BeyondTrust help you banish the monsters for good.