Topic starter
16/01/2026 2:18 pm
TL;DR: Access tokens can bypass MFA, persist beyond their intended lifecycle, and enable lateral movement across connected SaaS and AI systems, according to Wing Security. The governance problem is not token issuance alone but the absence of visibility, review, and revocation across app-to-app trust chains.
Editorial analysis by NHI Mgmt Group, based on content published by Wing Security: “Token Theft: The Hidden Risk Fueling Modern Supply Chain Breaches”.
Key questions
Q: What breaks when stolen SaaS tokens are not continuously inventoried?
A: Teams lose track of which non-human credentials still exist, where they are used, and what they can reach.
A: They are high risk because they can inherit trusted access without redoing the original login flow, which can let an attacker bypass multi-factor authentication and move directly into production systems.
Q: What are the signs that token governance is failing in a cloud environment?
A: Look for reusable roles, unclear ownership, long-lived credentials, and tokens that never appear in access reviews.
Practitioner guidance
- Discover every active token path Build an inventory of SaaS, API, and AI integrations so you can see where delegated credentials exist, who owns them, and which systems they can reach.
- Review scope and expiry on dormant tokens Identify tokens that have not been used recently, were issued with broad scopes, or were created for projects that no longer exist, then recertify or retire them.
- Treat third-party integrations as privileged access Apply ownership, approval, and offboarding controls to vendor-connected apps in the same way you would for other privileged NHI access paths.
Bottom line: Token theft turns SaaS integrations into silent access paths because the stolen credential often outlives the workflow that created it.
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08/10/2026 4:44 pm
Token trust debt is now a supply-chain governance problem: When organisations let access tokens persist beyond the workflow that created them, they accumulate delegated trust that no one continuously owns. That trust outlives the user session, the project, and sometimes the vendor relationship. The practical implication is that token governance has to be treated as lifecycle governance, not a one-time integration setting.
A few things that frame the scale:
- 92% of organisations expose NHIs to third parties, raising concerns about supply chain security, according to the Ultimate Guide to NHIs.
A question worth separating out:
Q: How should security teams govern third-party integration tokens as privileged access?
A: Treat integration tokens as privileged non-human identities, with named ownership, scope review, expiry, and revocation authority. The practical test is whether the organisation can explain why each token exists, what it can access, and how it will be retired. If it cannot, the token is effectively standing privilege.
👉 Read our full editorial: Token theft is widening the attack path in SaaS supply chains