OCI identity inventory is the record of identities and credentials used to access Oracle Cloud Infrastructure resources. It typically includes human users, groups, dynamic groups, service principals, API keys, auth tokens, certificates, and policies, helping security teams govern access, reduce standing privilege, and identify unmanaged non-human identities.
What OCI Identity Inventory Actually Covers
OCI identity inventory is not just a list of usernames. It is the operational record of who and what can reach Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, including people, groups, dynamic groups, service principals, API keys, auth tokens, certificates, and the policies that bind those identities to access.
That scope matters because the inventory is the bridge between cloud administration and access governance. When the inventory is current, teams can see which identities exist, which ones still need access, and which entries may no longer have a clear owner or purpose.
Why Identity Inventory Matters for Access Governance
In OCI, inventory is the starting point for governing standing access. It helps security teams decide whether an identity is legitimate, still needed, appropriately scoped, and tied to an accountable owner or workload.
The practical value is visibility. Without inventory, organisations tend to manage access reactively, after a review, an audit finding, or an incident reveals that a user, token, or service principal has outlived its intended use.
Common Elements That Belong in the Inventory
A useful OCI identity inventory should capture both human and non-human access paths. That includes IAM users and groups, but also dynamic groups, service principals, API keys, auth tokens, certificates, and the policy relationships that define what each identity can do.
For cloud environments, the identity record is only complete when it reflects how the identity is used in practice. A service principal with broad permissions, a long-lived API key, or a certificate that is still trusted by workloads all belong in the same governance picture as a human administrator.
How Teams Use the Inventory Operationally
Teams use OCI identity inventory to support access review, privilege reduction, and lifecycle decisions. It gives them a basis for identifying stale entries, orphaned credentials, unmanaged non-human identities, and policies that no longer match business need.
It also supports change management. When identities are provisioned, rotated, delegated, or removed, the inventory provides the authoritative reference for what should exist, what should be monitored, and what should be retired.
Risk and Threat Considerations
Stale or incomplete identity inventory creates direct exposure in OCI because access can persist after ownership, business need, or technical necessity has changed. That is especially dangerous for non-human identities, where long-lived credentials and overly broad policies can be missed until they are abused or audited.
Failure mechanism: Untracked identities, inactive credentials, and policy sprawl let attackers or careless operators retain access paths that defenders no longer see, which weakens review, rotation, and offboarding.
Impact: The result can be unauthorized access, privilege abuse, credential misuse, and a slower response when an account, token, or certificate must be contained.
Standards & Framework Alignment
This section maps relevant standards and security frameworks to the operational risks and controls described in this guidance.
CIS Controls v8 and NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 set the technical controls, while ISO/IEC 27001:2022 defines the regulatory obligations.
| Framework | Control / Reference | Relevance |
|---|---|---|
| CIS Controls v8 | CIS-5 — Account Management | OCI identity inventory directly supports tracking and reviewing accounts and identities. |
| Recommendation — Inventory accounts and review them regularly to remove stale OCI identities and excess access. | ||
| NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 | AC-2 — Account Management | Identity inventory underpins account creation, review, disablement, and lifecycle control in OCI. |
| IA-5 — Authenticator Management | The term explicitly includes credentials such as API keys, auth tokens, and certificates. | |
| AC-6 — Least Privilege | OCI identity inventory helps identify identities whose permissions exceed operational need. | |
| Recommendation — Maintain an authoritative OCI account inventory and disable or remove accounts that are no longer required. Track and rotate OCI authenticators and revoke any credential material that is unused or exposed. Use the inventory to reduce OCI permissions to the minimum required for each identity. | ||
| ISO/IEC 27001:2022 | A.5.16 — Identity management | Identity inventory is a direct mechanism for maintaining a controlled record of identities and their ownership. |
| Recommendation — Keep OCI identities recorded, owned, and lifecycle-managed under a formal identity management process. | ||
Practitioner Guidance
Why practitioners should care: Treat OCI identity inventory as a control surface, not a spreadsheet. The inventory should be the place where ownership, purpose, access scope, and lifecycle state are made explicit for every identity that can reach cloud resources.
What to watch for: Look closely at dynamic groups, service principals, API keys, and certificates that lack a clearly defined owner, expiry expectation, or access justification. Those are the entries most likely to drift into standing privilege.
Practitioner takeaway: If an OCI identity cannot be explained, owned, and reviewed, it should not be assumed safe simply because it is already present in the cloud account.
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Reviewed and updated by the NHIMG editorial team on October 23, 2026.
NHI Mgmt Group — the #1 independent authority on Non-Human Identity, IAM, and Agentic AI security. nhimg.org