Understanding Akeyless

Understanding Akeyless

Trusted by Fortune 100 companies and industry leaders, Akeyless is redefining identity security for the modern enterprise, delivering the world’s first unified Secrets & Non-Human Identity platform designed to prevent the #1 cause of breaches – compromised machine identities and secrets.

Backed by the world’s leading cybersecurity investors and global financial institutions including JVP, Team8, NGP Capital and Deutsche Bank, Akeyless Security delivers a cloud-native SaaS platform that integrates Vaultless Secrets Management with Certificate Lifecycle Management, Next Gen Privileged Access (Secure Remote Access), and Encryption Key Management to manage the lifecycle of all machine identities and secrets across all environments.

Akeyless Unified Secrets & Non-Human Identity Platform has been adopted by several large enterprises across healthcare, financial, technology, and retail organizations delivering:

The Akeyless platform is designed for complete lifecycle management of the full range of Non-Human Identities, including:

• Secrets Management for NHIs: Centrally manage and secure sensitive credentials, certificates, and API tokens used by non-human identities such as applications, microservices, and automated workflows. Enable dynamic secrets and Just-in-Time access to eliminate risks of standing privileges and enhance security for machine-to-machine communications​​.
• Certificate Lifecycle Automation: Streamline the provisioning, renewal, and revocation of digital certificates critical to authenticating NHIs. Integrate with your PKI systems to ensure continuous, automated trust across hybrid and multicloud environments​​.
• Encryption & Key Management for Machine Workloads: Protect cryptographic keys utilized by non-human entities using Akeyless’s patented Distributed Fragments Cryptography™ (DFC). Ensure Zero-Knowledge encryption for sensitive data and support scalable machine identity management in hybrid environments​​.
• Secure Remote Access for Automated Systems: Facilitate secure, policy-driven access without static credentials or VPN dependencies. Leverage robust authentication mechanisms such as certificates, SAML, and OIDC to manage access seamlessly across machines and services​​.
• High Availability for All Operations: Ensure uninterrupted service and low-latency access for machine identities with 99.99% uptime SLA, multi-region redundancy, and failover mechanisms. Minimize operational disruptions for workflows and infrastructure​​.
• Integration with DevOps Pipelines: Enhance DevOps automation by integrating with CI/CD tools, Kubernetes, and orchestration platforms. Akeyless simplifies the management of non-human identities across complex workflows with extensive SDKs, plugins, and APIs​​.
• Zero-Knowledge Security for Machine Identities: Guarantee end-to-end encryption and ensure that neither Akeyless nor third parties can access sensitive data, thanks to patented DFC™ technology. Protect the lifecycle of NHIs with FIPS 140-2 Level 3 compliant hardware security modules and advanced encryption practices​​.

Reinventing Secrets Management for the Retail Industry

Reinventing Secrets Management for the Retail Industry – Akeyless

Posted by Suresh Sathyamurthy

Real-World Learnings from Akeyless Deployments Across Global Retail Giants

Introduction

Akeyless Secrets Management is trusted by some of the largest retailers in the world, powering secure operations across thousands of stores and complex digital commerce environments. The insights in this blog come directly from real-world, large-scale Akeyless retail deployments distilling what works best to secure secrets, protect Point of Sale (POS) systems, and ensure operational resilience during peak sales periods.

In today’s retail sector, digital operations span from e-commerce platforms to in-store POS systems. As companies evaluate tools like CyberArk Conjur, HashiCorp Vault, or OpenBao, Akeyless stands above the rest offering cloud-native, vaultless secrets management, unlimited scalability, and advanced security features that address modern retail challenges. With both pure SaaS and hybrid-SaaS deployment options, Akeyless adapts to your infrastructure and security needs.

Built for Retail Scale: Effortless Resilience When It Matters Most

One of the largest retailers in the world who had deployed HashiCorp Vault, prior to switching to Akeyless mentioned that traditional vaults often buckle under demand due to cluster complexity and manual maintenance. Their reason for choosing Akeyless was because it delivers multi-region high availability, elastic scalability, and resilient operations that keep retail systems running even during peak loads.

A key Akeyless differentiator is the hybrid architecture with lightweight, stateless gateways that can be deployed inside a customer’s private network. These gateways:

• Akeyless gateways are stateless and don’t store sensitive data locally, making them easy to scale, upgrade, and maintain.
• Communicate with the Akeyless SaaS backend in an outbound-only manner, simplifying network configuration and enhancing security.
• In the event of a temporary loss of backend connectivity, continue to serve secrets from an encrypted, read-only cache, ensuring uninterrupted service for mission-critical systems.

This approach not only eliminates the operational burden of building and managing vault clusters in each location (as with HashiCorp Vault) but also gives retailers the flexibility to deliver high-speed, local secrets access without compromising security or manageability.

Securing POS Edge Systems: Blast-Radius Control Meets Offline Resilience

The same vendor also highlighted another reason for choosing Akeyless. Retail POS systems expose unique risk factors:

• If one POS is compromised, it must not compromise the entire network. Controlling the blast radius is essential.
• Stores must continue functioning even with limited or no internet access.

Akeyless addresses both:

• A lightweight Akeyless Gateway can be deployed in each store unlike HashiCorp Vault, which would require full cluster deployment per store, increasing costs and complexity.
• This gateway includes local caching, enabling stores to operate seamlessly even if network connectivity is degraded. It serves locally cached secrets until connectivity is restored.
• Combined with DFC (Distributed Fragments Cryptography™), each POS holds its own key fragment. Even if one store is breached, the damage is contained; no full key compromise, no lateral access.

This setup delivers robust security and resilient operations edge-to-cloud.

Maximum Security, Zero Sacrifice: 

The patented Distributed Fragments Cryptography DFC™ technology from Akeyless splits encryption keys across regions and never reconstructs them during operations. One fragment remains on-premises ensuring zero-knowledge encryption and total customer control over secrets. Our Vaultless Secrets Management approach is essentially the combination of DFC and our cloud-native SaaS platform. This brings the ease of use, management, scalability and efficiency of SaaS but with complete control of your security ensuring you get maximum security with no compromises. 

Easy Integration & Unified Secrets Management Across Retail Workflows

Akeyless unifies management of credentials, keys, certificates, and more across cloud, legacy, and DevOps pipelines. Seamless integrations (e.g., CI/CD, orchestration platforms, Kubernetes, and other vaults) make migration painless.

A consistent control plane across your entire infrastructure helps streamline access policies and audit logs.

Prime Alternative to Conjur, Vault & Infisical – Without the Ops Burden

Requirement	CyberArk/HashiCorp/OpenBao	Akeyless
SaaS Architecture	Requires cluster deployment & high maintenance	Cloud-native SaaS available in both pure SaaS & hybrid-SaaS models
POS Edge Resilience	Requires full cluster per store	Lightweight gateway with local caching per store
Blast-radius Control	Shared infrastructure increases risk	Per-POS key fragment with DFC™ isolates risk
High Availability During Outages	Connectivity issues cripple POS systems	Offline-capable gateway cache ensures continued operation
Future-Ready for AI Agents	No native handling	SecretlessAI™ for autonomous, secure agent access

Future-Proof with Akeyless SecretlessAI™

Anticipating AI-driven retail storefronts and intelligent agents, SecretlessAI™ delivers just-in-time credentials for non-human identities, no more embedded API keys. Authentication leverages machine identity (e.g., Kubernetes service accounts, cloud IAM).

Support for SPIFFE via SPIRE enables secretless authentication for autonomous workloads. Meanwhile, built-in PKI-as-a-Service, policy-driven access, and auditing keep AI integration secure.

Want to secure your POS edge, limit blast radius, and support AI-powered retail innovations?

• Download the “Retail at Risk” ebook to explore real-world scenarios and best practices.
• Book a personalized demo to see how Akeyless leverages Vaultless Secrets Management, hybrid retail gateways, and SecretlessAI™ to safeguard your operations and scale with ease.

Mastering Machine Identity Management: The Key to Securing Non-Human Identities (NHIs)

Mastering Machine Identity Management: The Key to Securing Non-Human Identities (NHIs) – Akeyless

Posted by Miryam Brand

Introduction: The Silent Threat of Non-Human Identities

Today’s enterprise environments are no longer composed only of human users. Applications, services, containers, and IoT devices, collectively known as non-human identities (NHIs), far outnumber human counterparts. These machine identities require authentication and authorization to interact with systems and data, just like users do. However, while organizations often invest heavily in securing human identities through SSO, MFA, and IAM policies, machine identities are typically underprotected, creating a significant and growing vulnerability.

Failure to manage NHIs effectively exposes organizations to breaches, operational disruptions, and regulatory violations. This gap is where Machine Identity Management (MIM) steps in.

Machine Identity Management Explained

Machine Identity Management (MIM) refers to the processes, tools, and policies used to manage and secure the identities of non-human entities such as applications, services, devices, and containers. These identities are authenticated via secrets—API keys, certificates, credentials—that must be properly issued, rotated, and revoked to minimize risk.

The primary types of NHIs include:

• APIs: Secured through API keys, tokens, and certificates.
• Service Accounts: Non-human users with often excessive privileges.
• Virtual Machines and Containerized Services: Foundational elements of modern cloud-native and DevOps environments.
• Databases: Critical repositories of enterprise data requiring secure authentication methods.
• Physical Devices and IOT: Requiring secure certificate-based communication.

Each NHI typically uses secrets to authenticate, making secrets management a core component of machine identity security.

Why Machine Identity Management Is Critical

Securing non-human identities is no longer optional in today’s digital landscape. As machine identities continue to proliferate at an unprecedented pace, organizations must recognize the essential role Machine Identity Management (MIM) plays in protecting their environments.

1. Expanded Attack Surface

Each unmanaged or outdated NHI credential represents a potential vulnerability attackers can exploit. As enterprises increasingly adopt cloud-native technologies with vast numbers of interconnected workloads, the attack surface multiplies rapidly, making effective management of machine identities paramount.

2. Enabling Zero Trust and Least Privilege

The Zero Trust security paradigm—embodied by the principle “never trust, always verify”—demands rigorous authentication and restricted access for all entities, including NHIs. Enforcing least privilege ensures machine identities only have minimal permissions required to perform their tasks, significantly mitigating risks.

3. Compliance and Auditability

Regulatory frameworks such as GDPR, HIPAA, and DORA mandate auditable, traceable access controls that extend explicitly to NHIs. Robust MIM practices enable organizations to meet these requirements effectively, demonstrating comprehensive oversight of non-human access to sensitive resources.

Learn more about MIM: Akeyless Glossary: Machine Identity Management

How Machine Identity Management Works: Key Practices

Inventory and Discovery: Visibility First

You cannot protect what you don’t know exists. Building a comprehensive inventory of NHIs and their associated secrets is the foundational step in effective machine identity management. Organizations must deploy automated discovery tools to continuously scan infrastructure, pipelines, and applications. These tools help identify hidden machine identities, often automatically generated in dynamic cloud environments, and uncover shadow credentials—such as API keys or tokens embedded directly in source code or configuration files.

A centralized inventory system is essential to maintain visibility. It should document each NHI’s ownership, purpose, location, and credential status, regularly audited to address unmanaged or orphaned identities. This proactive approach prevents hidden vulnerabilities from becoming entry points for attackers.

Lifecycle Management: From Issuance to Revocation

Machine identities, like human identities, must be carefully managed through every phase of their lifecycle.
Neglecting any stage, especially early ones like issuance, can lead to severe security vulnerabilities.

Key lifecycle stages:

1. Issuance: Establishing Trusted Identities

Issuance refers to the secure generation and validation of a machine identity at the moment of creation, often involving a cryptographic binding between a public key and the entity’s metadata (such as its service name or role).

For certificates, this step is critical:

• A Certificate Authority (CA) must validate the NHI’s legitimacy.
• A digital certificate must be securely generated and signed.
• Trust chains must be established to ensure the machine identity can be verified across environments.

Example:A Kubernetes workload issues a certificate signing request (CSR) at deployment time. The CA validates the request, signs the certificate, and delivers it securely back to the workload.

Why Issuance Matters:
If an identity is issued without strong validation, attackers can impersonate legitimate services. Poorly controlled issuance undermines all downstream security efforts.

2. Provisioning: Credential Distribution and Initialization

After issuance, credentials, whether certificates, API keys, tokens, or SSH credentials, must be securely distributed to the intended workload or device.

• Credentials must be injected securely (e.g., via dynamic secret injection).
• Secrets should never be hardcoded into application code or static configuration files.
• Least-privilege policies should be applied immediately.

Example:A newly provisioned database container automatically retrieves an API key from a secure vault during its startup process.

Key Pitfall to Avoid:
Provisioning credentials manually or insecurely often leads to secret exposure, especially through misconfigured pipelines.

3. Rotation: Minimizing Credential Lifetime

Once credentials are in use, they must be rotated regularly to minimize the risk window in case they are compromised.

• Secrets like tokens, API keys, and certificates should have built-in expiration times (time-to-live or TTL).
• Rotation workflows should be automated to avoid human error or missed updates.
• DevOps teams should design pipelines to handle rotated secrets without service interruptions.

Example:A production web server automatically renews its TLS certificate 30 days before expiration without requiring manual intervention.

Key Pitfall to Avoid:
Relying on long-lived credentials increases exposure time if they are leaked.

4. Revocation: Immediate Shutdown of Compromised Identities

When an identity is no longer needed, or if a credential shows signs of compromise, it must be revoked immediately.

• For certificates, revocation lists (CRLs) or Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) services should be updated.
• API keys, tokens, and service accounts must be disabled and decommissioned.
• Monitoring systems should alert when revoked credentials are still used (indicating possible attacks).

Example:A service account detected exhibiting anomalous behavior is immediately disabled and its credentials revoked through an automated security orchestration playbook.

Key Pitfall to Avoid:
Leaving old or unused credentials active creates major opportunities for attackers to hijack abandoned access.

Why Full Lifecycle Management Matters

Each stage—Issuance, Provisioning, Rotation, and Revocation—builds on the previous one.
A weak issuance process cannot be fixed by good rotation practices. Similarly, revoking credentials only matters if you had clear ownership tracking from the moment of provisioning.

Bottom line:
MIM without a disciplined, complete lifecycle model is like locking your front door but leaving the windows wide open.

Secure Access and Least Privilege Enforcement: Reducing Risk

Strong access controls are crucial for minimizing the risks tied to machine identities. To be effective, identity-based access policies must clearly define the specific permissions assigned to each machine identity, ensuring they can only interact with the resources necessary for their role. Precision is key: even minor over-permissioning can create serious vulnerabilities.

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) offers a practical way to organize and streamline permission management. By categorizing machine identities based on their functions, organizations can efficiently assign appropriate access rights, reducing administrative complexity and human error.

Additionally, adopting Zero Standing Privileges (ZSP) strengthens security by removing persistent access rights. Instead of maintaining continuous permissions, machine identities receive temporary, just-in-time access when required, closing off potential avenues for abuse. Regular audits and dynamic adjustments of permissions are essential to ensure that machine identities maintain only the access they truly need, blocking lateral movement and escalation opportunities.

Combining clearly scoped access policies, RBAC grouping, and ZSP practices creates a layered, resilient defense against unauthorized activities, aligning perfectly with Zero Trust principles.

Automation and Monitoring: Scaling Without Losing Control

Managing machine identities at scale demands a strategy built on automation and proactive monitoring. Manual processes simply cannot keep pace with the sheer volume and velocity of identities created in modern cloud-native environments.

Automation ensures that critical steps in the credential lifecycle, from issuance to provisioning, rotation, and revocation, are handled swiftly and consistently. Automating these processes not only reduces human error but also enforces security policies uniformly across highly dynamic systems. In addition, dynamic secret injection at runtime eliminates the risk of credentials being hardcoded into applications or exposed during deployment.

Equally important is continuous monitoring. By leveraging advanced analytics and behavioral baselines, organizations can quickly detect anomalies or suspicious activities linked to machine identities. This real-time visibility enables faster threat detection and response. Automated incident response workflows, triggered by specific monitoring alerts, allow security teams to act immediately, minimizing potential damage and maintaining a resilient security posture.

Integration with Existing Security Infrastructure: No Identity Left Behind

Machine Identity Management (MIM) cannot operate in isolation. For security to be truly effective, MIM must seamlessly integrate into an organization’s broader security ecosystem. This integration ensures that machine identities are managed with the same rigor as human ones and that security gaps do not emerge between systems.

Embedding secret management directly into CI/CD pipelines is critical. Doing so ensures that credentials are securely handled throughout the software development lifecycle without relying on manual processes that introduce risk. Similarly, integrating with Certificate Authorities (CAs) automates the issuance, renewal, and revocation of certificates, maintaining continuous trust across dynamic environments.

Connecting MIM to Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems enhances visibility and enables real-time threat detection. Centralized logging and analysis allow security teams to quickly spot anomalies related to machine identity usage. Additionally, using advanced vulnerability scanners to identify misconfigured or exposed secrets across infrastructure proactively closes potential security gaps before they can be exploited.

By weaving MIM into existing security infrastructure, organizations can create a unified, resilient defense: one where no identity is overlooked, and every machine identity is accounted for and protected.

Looking Ahead: Secretless Authentication and Securing Agentic AI

As enterprise environments evolve, Machine Identity Management (MIM) must stay ahead of new challenges. One major trend is the shift toward secretless authentication—a model that eliminates the reliance on static secrets such as passwords, tokens, or embedded keys. Instead, secretless authentication uses identity-based trust frameworks, dynamic validation, and real-time attestation. By validating identities without transmitting or storing long-lived credentials, organizations dramatically reduce their attack surface. This approach pairs perfectly with ephemeral architectures like microservices, containers, and serverless workloads, where identities must be established and verified in milliseconds. The adoption of secretless methods will enhance scalability, simplify operations, and deliver a much higher standard of security in increasingly complex, distributed environments.

At the same time, the rise of autonomous, agentic AI systems presents new and unique security challenges. These AI-driven entities are capable of making decisions, interacting with other systems, and even spawning new processes without human intervention. Traditional static access policies are insufficient for securing such dynamic behaviors. To protect agentic AI, organizations must implement adaptive security frameworks based on continuous behavior monitoring, dynamic risk scoring, and context-aware access decisions. Strong cryptographic proofs of identity, real-time anomaly detection, and policy engines capable of evaluating AI-generated actions on the fly will be critical. As agentic AI becomes more central to business operations, securing these identities will be essential to maintaining trust, preventing rogue behavior, and safeguarding enterprise environments from an entirely new class of sophisticated threats.

Why Akeyless is the Right Partner for Machine Identity Management

As the complexity of securing machine identities continues to grow, organizations need a trusted partner capable of delivering comprehensive, scalable solutions. Akeyless is uniquely positioned to meet these evolving demands with a platform that addresses every critical aspect of Machine Identity Management (MIM).

Our Unified Secrets and Non-Human Identity Management Platform provides end-to-end coverage, including the issuance, rotation, and revocation of credentials, keys and certificates, across dynamic, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments. With built-in automation and Just-in-Time credential creation and revocation capabilities, Akeyless eliminates manual credential management processes, reducing human error and enabling seamless scaling as your environment grows.

Akeyless also empowers organizations to integrate secretless authentication practices, aligning with future-forward security architectures designed for ephemeral workloads and serverless operations. Our platform supports continuous monitoring and real-time visibility into credential usage, providing proactive detection of anomalies and rapid incident response.

Powered by our proprietary Distributed Fragments Cryptography™ (DFC) technology, Akeyless ensures that even we cannot access your secrets, delivering unparalleled privacy, security, and regulatory compliance. Additionally, by embedding secret management into CI/CD pipelines, automating certificate lifecycle processes, and integrating tightly with SIEM and vulnerability management tools, Akeyless fits naturally into your existing security ecosystem without creating silos.

From securing modern DevOps workflows to protecting emerging agentic AI identities, Akeyless helps enterprises future-proof their security strategies while reducing operational complexity and total cost of ownership. Discover how Akeyless can help you master machine identity management and build a resilient, future-ready digital enterprise.

Want to learn more? Sign up for a free demo today.

Why You Should Only Use Just-in-Time, Ephemeral Credentials

Why You Should Only Use Just-in-Time, Ephemeral Credentials – Akeyless

Introduction to Ephemeral Credentials

As the world has grown increasingly digital, application security is now of paramount importance. As organizations adopt distributed architectures, the challenge of securely managing secrets such as API keys, database credentials, and certificates has intensified. Traditional static credentials, while once sufficient, are now a significant security risk. The need for more dynamic and secure methods of secrets management has led to the adoption of ephemeral credentials.

Ephemeral credentials play a crucial role in modern security frameworks. These temporary, short-lived credentials automatically expire after a certain period, reducing the risk of unauthorized access. Their dynamic nature aligns well with the principles of Zero Trust security models, offering a robust solution for managing secrets in increasingly complex environments.

This guide explores the importance of dynamic secrets management and provides practical examples of how to create and manage ephemeral credentials in Kubernetes and AWS environments.

The Critical Need for Dynamic Secrets Management

In the context of modern, distributed architectures, static credentials introduce significant security vulnerabilities. It’s easy to accidentally expose credentials to unauthorized individuals or have them stolen by malicious actors, leading to potentially severe security breaches. As organizations scale and their environments become more complex, managing static credentials becomes increasingly difficult and error-prone.

Furthermore, compliance with regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS requires stringent control over access to sensitive information. Static credentials often fail to meet these requirements due to their long-lived nature, making it challenging to ensure secure and compliant operations. Frequent rotation and auditing of static credentials can be a cumbersome process, further exacerbating security risks.

The industry’s shift towards Zero Trust security models emphasizes the need for more dynamic access controls. With Zero Trust, one can assume that threats originate both inside and outside the network. This requires that all access to resources be carefully monitored and controlled. Ephemeral credentials, which are temporary and automatically expire, provide a solution to this challenge by offering just-in-time access to resources. This approach reduces the risk of credential misuse and aligns with the security best practices of modern architectures.

Understanding Ephemeral Credentials

Ephemeral credentials are temporary, time-bound access tokens or secrets that you can automatically revoke or expire after a specific period or usage. You can generate them on-demand, providing a secure method for granting access to resources without the need for long-term credentials. The key characteristics of ephemeral credentials include their temporary nature, auto-expiry, and the ability to be scoped to specific resources or permissions.

The primary advantage of ephemeral credentials is the reduced risk of exposure. Since these credentials are short-lived, they minimize the window of opportunity for attackers to exploit them. Additionally, ephemeral credentials enhance an organization’s security posture by ensuring that access to sensitive resources is tightly controlled and monitored.

These credentials are particularly useful in various application architectures, such as microservices, serverless environments, and CI/CD pipelines. In microservices, ephemeral credentials allow each service to authenticate independently, reducing the risk of credential leakage across services. For serverless environments, these credentials enable functions to access resources securely without the need for static keys. In CI/CD pipelines, ephemeral credentials ensure that build and deployment processes access necessary resources dynamically, minimizing the risk of exposure during the development lifecycle.

Examples of Creating and Managing Ephemeral Credentials

There are various methods one can use to create semi-ephemeral credentials with the various tools most organizations already use. Here are examples of how you might get this done using Kubernetes and AWS Lambda.

Kubernetes Example: Using emptyDir Ephemeral Volume in Kubernetes

1. Creating a Deployment with emptyDir Volume:

In this example, we’ll create a deployment where a container writes ephemeral data to an emptyDir volume. This volume is only available during the pod’s lifetime and is automatically deleted when the pod is terminated.

yaml
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: ephemeral-volume-example
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: ephemeral-app
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: ephemeral-app
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: app-container
        image: busybox
        command: ["/bin/sh", "-c", "echo 'This is a temporary secret' > /mnt/ephemeral/secret.txt && sleep 3600"]
        volumeMounts:
        - name: ephemeral-storage
          mountPath: /mnt/ephemeral
      volumes:
      - name: ephemeral-storage
        emptyDir: {}

2. Explanation:

• emptyDir Volume: The emptyDir volume is created when a pod is assigned to a node and exists as long as that pod is running on that node. If the pod is deleted, the data in the emptyDir is also deleted. It can be useful for storing ephemeral data that does not need to be persisted beyond the life of the pod.
• volumeMounts: In this example, the emptyDir volume is mounted at /mnt/ephemeral inside the container. The container writes a temporary secret to this directory.
• Command in the Container: The container runs a command that writes a simple secret (in this case, just a string) to a file inside the mounted emptyDir volume. The sleep 3600 command keeps the container running for an hour to simulate a long-running process.

3. Use Cases for emptyDir:

• Temporary Data Storage: emptyDir is useful for temporary data that does not need to persist across pod restarts, such as caches, temporary files, or transient data that needs to be shared between multiple containers within the same pod.
• Scratch Space: emptyDir can be used as scratch space for containers, where they can store temporary files that are not needed after the pod terminates.
• Security Considerations: While this approach is simple, it does not provide encryption or access control on the data stored in emptyDir. It’s essential to consider whether the data written to such volumes needs to be protected, especially if it contains sensitive information. Another concern is that if your pods are long-living, then you need to ensure that credentials are revoked or erased.

AWS Lambda Example: Managing Temporary Secrets for AWS Lambda Functions

• Step 1: Generate a temporary secret (e.g., an API key) using a script or AWS Secrets Manager.

bash
aws secretsmanager create-secret --name MyTemporarySecret --secret-string "$(openssl rand -base64 32)" --duration-seconds 3600

• Step 2: Configure your Lambda function to retrieve this secret at runtime.

python
import boto3

def lambda_handler(event, context):
    secret_name = "MyTemporarySecret"
    region_name = "us-east-2"

    client = boto3.client('secretsmanager', region_name=region_name)
    get_secret_value_response = client.get_secret_value(SecretId=secret_name)

    secret = get_secret_value_response['SecretString']
    # Use the secret in your function logic
    print(f"Using secret: {secret}")

• Step 3: Deploy the Lambda function, ensuring it has the necessary IAM permissions to retrieve secrets.

Explanation:

The AWS Lambda function is configured to retrieve a temporary secret from AWS Secrets Manager at runtime. This method involves the following steps:

1. Storing Secrets in AWS Secrets Manager:
   • Secrets are stored securely in AWS Secrets Manager. AWS Secrets Manager encrypts these secrets using AWS Key Management Service (KMS) keys, ensuring that the data is protected at rest.
2. Retrieving Secrets at Runtime:
   • The Lambda function uses the AWS SDK (in this case, boto3 for Python) to retrieve the secret when the function is invoked. This means that the secret is not hardcoded in the Lambda function’s code or environment variables, reducing the risk of accidental exposure.
3. Using the Secret:
   • Once retrieved, the secret is used within the Lambda function’s logic, for example, to authenticate API requests or connect to a database.

This method ensures that the secret is only available when needed and is not stored within the Lambda function’s environment, which reduces the attack surface.

Although the secret is retrieved only at runtime, they do not get automatically revoked or erased by default. While the Lambda execution environment is ephemeral, and any in-memory data is discarded after execution, the validity of the retrieved credentials remains unchanged until you manually rotate or revoke them in AWS Secrets Manager.

The Need for an External Secrets Manager

An external secrets manager is generally superior for handling ephemeral, just-in-time secrets management compared to native Kubernetes, AWS, and other systems because it offers centralized, consistent management across diverse environments. External tools are designed to dynamically generate, rotate, and revoke secrets in an automated fashion, ensuring that credentials are always fresh and reducing the risk of exposure. They integrate seamlessly with multiple platforms, providing a unified approach to secrets management that enhances security, compliance, and operational efficiency.

Additionally, external secret managers often come with advanced features like fine-grained access controls, audit logging, and policy-based automation, which are more robust than what native systems offer. This makes them ideal for complex, multi-cloud and hybrid environments where maintaining security consistency and minimizing the risk of stale or over-privileged credentials are critical.

We already use too many tools and applications in our organizations, and they are all scattered between various teams, making it that much more difficult to stop potential leaks. By abstracting secrets management from individual platforms, external solutions provide a more scalable and secure approach to handling ephemeral secrets.

The Akeyless Approach to Ephemeral Credentials

Akeyless is a cloud-native, SaaS-based secrets management platform designed to provide robust and scalable solutions, including ephemeral credentials. As a fully managed service, Akeyless eliminates the need for organizations to maintain complex on-premises infrastructure. It offers, instead, a seamless and secure way to manage secrets across diverse environments. Its cloud-native architecture ensures that secrets are accessible from anywhere. In addition, with high availability and built-in redundancy, it meets the demands of modern, distributed applications.

One of Akeyless’s standout features is its ability to dynamically generate secrets on demand. This includes automated secret creation and revocation, which are critical for maintaining security in dynamic environments. With Akeyless, secrets can be generated just-in-time for specific use cases and automatically revoked after a defined period, significantly reducing the risk of credential exposure. This automated management ensures that secrets remain secure throughout their lifecycle without requiring manual intervention.

Akeyless simplifies the implementation of ephemeral credentials by integrating seamlessly with major DevOps tools and platforms. This includes CI/CD, Code Management, and Configuration Management to Infrastructure Automation, Log Forwarding, and Kubernetes.

For instance, in Kubernetes, Akeyless can dynamically inject secrets into pods at runtime. This ensures that applications always use up-to-date credentials and ensure that credentials are revoked. Similarly, Akeyless integrates with CI/CD pipelines, such as with Github and GitLab. This enables secure secrets management throughout the development and deployment process. In cloud environments, Akeyless can generate temporary IAM credentials or API keys, with automatic management and deletion. This reduces operational overhead and enhances security.

Through these integrations, Akeyless provides a unified and simplified approach to managing ephemeral credentials. This makes it easier for organizations to adopt best practices while maintaining agility and security in their workflows.

Let’s look at how this is actually done.

Dynamic Secret Example

Here is a simple example of how to create a MySQL dynamic secret and fetch temporary credentials with Akeyless using our Python SDK:

Create a MySQL Dynamic Secret and Fetch Temporary Credentials

python
import requests

# Step 1: Authenticate and obtain a token
auth_url = "https://<your-gateway-url>:8081/auth"
auth_payload = {
    "access-type": "access_key",
    "access-id": "<your-access-id>",  # Replace with your Access ID
    "access-key": "<your-access-key>"  # Replace with your Access Key
}
headers = {
    "accept": "application/json",
    "content-type": "application/json"
}

try:
    auth_response = requests.post(auth_url, json=auth_payload, headers=headers)
    auth_response.raise_for_status()  # Raises an error for HTTP codes 4xx/5xx
    token = auth_response.json().get("token")
    print(f"Authentication successful. Token: {token}")
except requests.exceptions.HTTPError as http_err:
    print(f"HTTP error occurred during authentication: {http_err}")
    print(f"Response content: {auth_response.text}")
    exit()
except Exception as err:
    print(f"Other error occurred during authentication: {err}")
    exit()

# Step 2: Use the token to create a MySQL dynamic secret
url = "https://<your-gateway-url>:8081/dynamic-secret-create-mysql"

payload = {
    "name": "mysql-dynamic-secret",  # Name of the dynamic secret
    "mysql-host": "<your-mysql-host>",  # MySQL host
    "mysql-port": "3306",  # MySQL port
    "mysql-username": "<your-mysql-root-user>",  # MySQL username
    "mysql-password": "<root-user-mysql-pass>",  # MySQL password
    "mysql-dbname": "<your-mysql-db-name>",  # MySQL database name
    "user-ttl": "60m",  # Time-to-live for the user
    "token": token  # Use the token obtained from authentication
}

try:
    response = requests.post(url, json=payload, headers=headers)
    response.raise_for_status()  # Raise an error for bad responses
    print("Dynamic secret created successfully!")
    #print(response.json())  # Print response in JSON format
except requests.exceptions.HTTPError as http_err:
    print(f"HTTP error occurred: {http_err}")
    print(f"Response content: {response.text}")
except Exception as err:
    print(f"Other error occurred: {err}")

# Step 3: Fetch temporary user credentials
url = "https://<your-gateway-url>:8081/get-dynamic-secret-value"

payload = {
    "timeout": 15,
    "name": "mysql-dynamic-secret",
    "target": "mysqlTarget",
    "token": token
}
headers = {
    "accept": "application/json",
    "content-type": "application/json"
}

response = requests.post(url, json=payload, headers=headers)

print("Here are your temporary credentials:")
print(response.text)

Note that when creating a Dynamic Secret, we set the time-to-live (user-ttl above) of the user created in MySQL. Hence, when that length of time passes, Akeyless actually goes back into the MySQL instance and deletes that temporary user.

The Akeyless Difference

Akeyless stands out as a superior and more secure secrets management solution due to its implementation of true Zero-Knowledge Encryption through the use of a Gateway that includes a customer fragment. We built this on a mechanism we call DFC^TM, where the platform generates the encryption key in multiple fragments. We then store these fragments securely on different clouds. The last piece, however, we call the customer fragment, because the customer keeps it within their environment inside their Gateway.

This architecture ensures that even Akeyless, as the service provider, has no access to the sensitive data and secrets managed within the platform, providing an unparalleled level of security and privacy for its users.

The Gateway, deployed on-premises or within the customer’s cloud environment, never combines the fragments at any time – neither during encryption or decryption – ensuring that the full key never exists in one place as a whole.

This approach significantly reduces the risk of unauthorized access or data breaches, as even in the unlikely event of a compromise within Akeyless’s infrastructure, the attacker would not be able to decrypt any secrets without the customer fragment. Additionally, the Gateway ensures that all cryptographic operations occur within the customer’s controlled environment, aligning with strict compliance and regulatory requirements.

By leveraging this Zero-Knowledge architecture, Akeyless provides a secure, cloud-native solution that gives customers full control over their data while benefiting from the scalability and convenience of a SaaS platform, which makes Akeyless an ideal choice for organizations that prioritize security, privacy, and compliance, particularly in highly regulated industries.

Conclusion

Ephemeral credentials offer a robust solution for managing secrets in today’s complex, distributed architectures. Their temporary nature significantly reduces the risk of credential exposure. This aligns with the principles of Zero-Trust security models and ensure tighter control over access to sensitive resources. As organizations increasingly adopt microservices, serverless environments, and CI/CD pipelines, the importance of dynamic secrets management becomes even more critical.

Both Kubernetes and AWS provide mechanisms to manage ephemeral credentials, but they come with limitations. Kubernetes’ emptyDir volumes and AWS Lambda’s integration with Secrets Manager are useful. However, they lack built-in features for automatic credential revocation or granular access control. This is where external secrets management solutions, such as Akeyless, shine. Akeyless not only simplifies the management of ephemeral credentials across various platforms. It also enhances security with its Zero-Knowledge Encryption model. This model ensures that even Akeyless cannot access the sensitive data, offering unparalleled security and compliance.

By adopting solutions like Akeyless, organizations can streamline their secrets management processes. They can also ensure that credentials are automatically generated, managed, and revoked without manual intervention. This approach not only reduces operational overhead. It also strengthens the overall security posture, making it a critical component of modern application security strategies.

Ready to see it for yourself? Get a custom demo of Akeyless to address all your Kubernetes secrets management use cases.

The Billion-Dollar Question: Are financial institutions safe from their own secrets 

The Billion-Dollar Question: Are financial institutions safe from their own secrets – Akeyless

Posted by Suresh Sathyamurthy

Why Banking & Finance Institutions Can’t Afford to Ignore Secrets Management

In an era where financial institutions are under constant cyber threats, the question isn’t if a security breach will happen, but when. One leaked API key, a compromised database credential, or an exposed encryption key could mean millions in losses, not to mention reputational damage.

For security professionals in banking and finance, secrets management is no longer an option—it’s a necessity. Without a robust secrets management strategy, banks risk non-compliance fines, regulatory scrutiny, identity hacks and even operational shutdowns.

To the uninitiated, let me first give you a quick overview of what secrets and machine identities (aka Non-Human Identities) are: 

Secrets refer to credentials, API keys, database passwords, encryption keys, certificates, and tokens that grant access to sensitive banking systems and applications. Secrets authenticate machine identities. Machines are applications, scripts, automated processes and workloads. Machines have their own identities also referred to as non-human identities. These secrets and machine identities need to be managed and protected for secure machine to machine communications. 

Without proper management, these secrets and identities become an easy target for cybercriminals.

Some of the world’s largest banks and financial institutions trust Akeyless Security to manage their secrets and machine/non-human identities. In this blog, I have outlined the top 3 reasons why they chose us. I cannot reveal our customer names here but if you are interested in Akeyless we can certainly connect you with users of our product in other banks who have offered to be 1:1 references.  

1. Compliance: Avoid Regulatory Fines and Ensure Risk Governance

Financial institutions operate in one of the most heavily regulated industries. Failing to protect sensitive credentials can lead to massive regulatory fines, sanctions, and loss of customer trust. Key regulations that mandate strong secrets management include:

PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) – Requires encryption and secure storage of cardholder data.

GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) – Mandates encryption and protection of customers’ personal data.

OCC Guidelines – According to the OCC guidelines on cybersecurity, U.S. financial institutions must enforce strict strong authentication and access controls, including secrets protection.

DORA (Digital Operational Resilience Act) – Requires financial institutions in the EU to implement strong IT risk management, including securing access credentials.

How Secrets Management Helps:

Encrypts sensitive data and credentials, ensuring compliance with PCI-DSS and GDPR.
Implements access control and audit logs, supporting OCC and DORA requirements.
Prevents exposure of secrets in DevOps pipelines, reducing security gaps in cloud-native banking platforms.

Real-World Impact: In 2020, a major financial services company was fined millions for failing to protect privileged credentials, which led to a data breach exposing millions of customer records. Secrets management tools like Akeyless could have prevented this.

2. Fraud Prevention: Stop Insider Threats and Credential-Based Attacks

Financial institutions are prime targets for cybercriminals due to the high-value data they store.
Cyberattacks leveraging leaked credentials, API keys, and encryption keys are rising at an alarming rate.

Common Attack Vectors in Banking:

Credential stuffing – Attackers use stolen credentials to access banking systems.
Insider threats – Employees or contractors misuse privileged access to siphon funds or data.
API key leaks – Exposed payment gateway credentials lead to unauthorized transactions.
Supply chain attacks – Third-party integrations with weak security expose banking infrastructure.

How Secrets Management Helps:

Eliminates hardcoded secrets in source code, configuration files, and CI/CD pipelines.
Rotates and revokes credentials automatically, preventing unauthorized access.
Secures API tokens and encryption keys, blocking fraudsters from exploiting digital banking apps.

Example: In 2023, an unsecured banking API key was publicly exposed on GitHub, allowing attackers to perform unauthorized financial transactions. A secrets management tool would have prevented this by dynamically managing API keys.

3. Multi-Cloud Security: Protecting Digital Banking at Scale

Banks are rapidly adopting cloud banking and fintech integrations to stay competitive. But moving to multi-cloud environments introduces new security challenges, particularly when managing credentials across AWS, Azure, GCP, and on-premise systems.

Challenges in Multi-Cloud Banking Security:

Secrets sprawl – Credentials are scattered across multiple cloud services, increasing risk.
Lack of centralized visibility – Without a single source of truth and visibility into who has access to secrets, security teams struggle to track and secure them..
Third-party fintech risk – API tokens and encryption keys used in partnerships with fintech providers must be managed securely.

How Secrets Management Helps:

Centralizes secrets storage across on-prem and multi-cloud environments.
Implements fine-grained access control to limit who can access which secrets.
Seamlessly integrates with banking DevOps workflows, ensuring secure deployments.

Example: A leading European bank faced credential leaks across multiple cloud environments, exposing sensitive customer transactions. A secrets management tool with centralized control and audit logging would have prevented this exposure.

Introducing Akeyless: The World’s First Unified Secrets & Machine Identity Platform

As financial institutions face increasing cybersecurity risks, they need a comprehensive, unified approach to secrets management.

Akeyless is the first-ever Unified Secrets and Machine Identity Management Platform that covers the entire lifecycle of secrets and non-human identities, offering:

Zero-Knowledge Encryption – Ensuring only you have access to your secrets.
Just-in-Time Access & Secret Rotation – Eliminating persistent credentials.
Multi-Cloud & Hybrid Support – Securely managing secrets across any environment.
Compliance-Ready Security – Meeting PCI-DSS, DORA, GDPR, and other banking regulations.
Seamless DevOps & API Integration – Automating security for financial applications.

By consolidating secrets management into a unified, scalable platform, Akeyless provides the banking and finance industry with the most advanced protection against credential-based threats.

Final Thoughts: Future-Proofing Your Bank’s Security Strategy

For security professionals in banking and finance, secrets and non-human identity (NHI) management is more than just an IT security concern—it’s a business imperative. A failure to secure credentials and encryption keys can lead to compliance violations, financial fraud, and reputational damage.

With increasing regulatory scrutiny under DORA, PCI-DSS, and GDPR, banks that adopt a strong secrets management framework not only reduce risk but also gain a competitive edge in the financial services industry.

Your next steps? Protect your bank’s most sensitive assets before it’s too late.

Get a Customized Demo of Akeyless Today!

Visit Akeyless to Learn More & Schedule a Demo

Stop Using Kubernetes Secrets: A Guide to Better Security Alternatives

Stop Using Kubernetes Secrets: A Guide to Better Security Alternatives – Akeyless

Posted by Joyce Ling

Kubernetes’ robust architecture and features have enabled widespread adoption, making it essential for modern cloud infrastructure across various industries. Despite its advancements, one aspect of Kubernetes has remained relatively unchanged and increasingly problematic: the handling of secrets. Kubernetes Secrets, introduced to store sensitive information like passwords, OAuth tokens, and SSH keys, is widely used by many organizations. However, as the security landscape evolves and threats become more sophisticated, companies need to re-evaluate their use and consider more secure alternatives. This blog post explains why relying on Kubernetes Secrets can be a liability and explores better alternatives that both enhance security and streamline secrets management.

The Problem with Kubernetes Secrets

Kubernetes Secrets brings various security concerns, management complexities, and compliance challenges. These make them a suboptimal solution when handling sensitive data.

Security Concerns

K8s Secrets have several inherent vulnerabilities that can leave organizations open to compromise. Let’s examine these issues in detail.

Lack of Encryption at Rest

An extremely significant security concern with Kubernetes Secrets is the lack of encryption at rest by default. While Kubernetes does offer the option to enable encryption for secrets stored in the etcd database, this feature requires manual activation and proper configuration. Without encryption at rest, secrets are stored in base64, which anyone can decode—posing a substantial security risk.

In the default state, any entity with access to the etcd database—whether due to a misconfiguration, a breach, or unauthorized access—can easily retrieve these unencrypted secrets. This vulnerability is particularly concerning because the etcd database is central to Kubernetes, which contains a wide range of sensitive information beyond secrets, including configurations and cluster state details.

Moreover, enabling encryption at rest is not a matter of having to simply flip a switch. It requires a careful setup, including managing encryption keys, which introduces additional layers of complexity. The issue is that misconfigurations can occur during this process, and when they do, secrets may be exposed even if you believe you have taken the proper steps to protect them. 

Even when encryption is properly enabled, it only protects secrets at rest within the etcd database. Once the secrets are retrieved for use by applications within the cluster, they are exposed in memory or to other components, leaving them vulnerable if other security measures are not in place.

In summary, the lack of encryption at rest by default makes Kubernetes Secrets inherently insecure unless additional steps are taken. This weakness is a critical reason why organizations should reconsider relying solely on Kubernetes Secrets and explore more secure, centralized solutions for managing sensitive information.

Access Control Issues

Misconfigurations in RBAC policies can lead to unintended access, allowing unauthorized users or applications to retrieve sensitive data. The granularity of K8s’ access control is often insufficient for enforcing strict security policies.

Insufficient Auditing

Kubernetes’ native auditing capabilities are limited in terms of tracking access to secrets. Without comprehensive auditing, monitoring and tracking who accessed a secret and when is challenging—rendering it difficult to detect and respond to security incidents fast.

Complexity in Management

Beyond security, managing Kubernetes Secrets can be fraught with operational complexities that hinder scalability and efficiency, meaning higher overhead and greater risk of human error.

Scalability

As organizations grow and deploy more clusters, managing secrets across these clusters becomes increasingly tricky. The lack of centralized secrets management means that each cluster needs to handle its own secrets independently, leading to duplication of efforts and increased risk of inconsistencies.

Rotating Secrets

Automating the rotation of secrets is critical to maintaining security, but it isn’t easy to achieve. K8s Secrets does not include automatic rotation. Coordinating the update of K8s Secrets across all relevant applications and services without causing downtime or disruptions requires a robust automation strategy, which can be challenging to implement.

Integration Challenges

Integrating Kubernetes Secrets with other secret management tools and CI/CD pipelines is often challenging. Many solutions offer advanced features and integrations that K8s lacks, making it difficult to achieve seamless integration and consistent management across different systems.

Compliance Issues

Having to adhere to security regulations and standards is the reality for many companies today. Kubernetes Secrets often fails to meet compliance standards, which can result in both legal and financial consequences.

Regulatory Requirements

Many security regulations, such as GDPR and HIPAA, impose stringent requirements for storing, managing, and accessing sensitive data. With their inherent vulnerabilities and lack of robust security features, Kubernetes Secrets may not meet these regulatory requirements, putting organizations at risk of non-compliance.

Audit Trails

While Kubernetes can generate audit logs, comprehensive audit trails for Kubernetes Secrets are not enabled by default. Once audit logging is properly configured, organizations can obtain the detailed logs necessary to demonstrate adherence to security policies and detect unauthorized access or modifications. 

The challenge lies in ensuring that audit trails are enabled and appropriately configured to capture the necessary information to monitor sensitive data.

The Need for a Truly Secure Solution

Given the significant security, management, and compliance challenges associated with Kubernetes Secrets, it’s clear that organizations require a more secure and efficient solution. As security threats continue to evolve, it’s not just about finding an alternative—it’s about adopting a solution that fully integrates with your Kubernetes environment while providing robust security features.

This is where Akeyless comes in. 

Akeyless: A Secure Solution to Kubernetes Secrets

In light of the significant challenges Kubernetes Secrets poses, Akeyless provides a comprehensive solution that directly addresses these issues. It enhances security, simplifying management, and ensuring compliance.

Security Solutions

Encryption at Rest and in Transit

Akeyless ensures your secrets are encrypted at rest and in transit, leveraging its innovative Distributed Fragments Cryptography™ (DFC) technology. This advanced encryption method fragments encryption keys, eliminating single points of failure and protecting secrets even if one fragment is compromised.

Robust Access Control

Akeyless offers a granular role-based access control (RBAC) system so that you can define fine-grained access policies. This guarantees that only authorized parties can access specific secrets, significantly lowering the chance of unwanted access due to misconfigurations.

Simplified Management

Scalability

As a SaaS-based solution, Akeyless provides instant scalability, allowing you to manage secrets across multiple environments from a centralized platform. This eliminates the duplication of efforts and reduces inconsistencies inherent in managing secrets separately in each cluster.

Automated Secrets Rotation

Akeyless supports the automatic rotation of secrets, meaning credentials will be regularly updated without any manual intervention. This bolsters security and minimizes operational overhead associated with manual secret rotation in Kubernetes.

Seamless Integration

Akeyless offers native plugins and Kubernetes integrations, enabling automatic secret injection into pods and containers. Through tools like the Akeyless K8s Secrets Injector, the External Secrets Operator, and the Secrets Store CSI Driver, Akeyless seamlessly integrates with your Kubernetes environment. This integration simplifies deployment processes, reduces operational overhead, and eliminates the need for hard-coded secrets.

Compliance Assurance

Regulatory Compliance

Akeyless complies with industry regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS. This ensures you meet stringent regulatory requirements that Kubernetes Secrets alone may not satisfy.

Detailed Audit Trails

With comprehensive audit trails enabled by default, Akeyless captures detailed logs of all secret access and modifications. These audit trails facilitate compliance reporting and help you demonstrate adherence to security policies.

By directly addressing security concerns, simplifying management complexities, and ensuring compliance, Akeyless offers a future-proof solution that enhances your Kubernetes environment while streamlining secrets management.

The Need to Re-Evaluate Kubernetes Secrets

The inherent vulnerabilities and complexities associated with Kubernetes Secrets necessitate a re-evaluation of their use. As organizations continue to scale and face increasingly sophisticated security threats, relying solely on Kubernetes Secrets to manage sensitive information introduces significant risks. Issues such as a lack of encryption at rest, cluster-wide exposure, and manual management hurdles contribute to an inadequate security posture. While Kubernetes offers basic functionality for secrets management, it often fails to meet the rigorous demands of modern security standards and compliance requirements. 

Adopting a more robust solution, such as Akeyless, not only mitigates these risks but also provides enhanced security features, streamlined management, and improved scalability. With its advanced encryption technology, native Kubernetes integration, and seamless scalability, Akeyless offers a future-proof secret management approach that aligns with security best practices and operational efficiency.

Explore Akeyless today to achieve secure, streamlined, and compliant secrets management.

How the MITRE ATT&CK Framework Can Improve Your Cybersecurity Posture

Posted by Suresh Sathyamurthy

In other blogs, I have discussed how and why Secrets & Non-Human Identity Management have become the #1 cause of breaches.

This situation is only going to be exacerbated with democratization of Large Language Models (LLMs) and the rise in adoption of Agentic AI. The rise of the machines (Applications, Services, Automated Processes, AI agents) will lead to rise in secrets (credentials, certificates and keys) used in secure machine to machine communication and will also lead to rise in identities (specifically non-human identities).

As it stands today, for every human identity, there are 45 machine identities.

This will more than double in the next 18 months.

From Rising Machines to Expanding Cybersecurity Risks

This expansion of surface area for hackers will weaken enterprise cybersecurity posture unless more concerted efforts are taken. How can you stay a step ahead of the hackers and protect your enterprise? 

Enter the MITRE ATT&CK framework—a powerful tool that helps organizations understand, detect, and defend against adversarial tactics. By providing a shared vocabulary and structured approach to cybersecurity, this framework has become a cornerstone of proactive defense strategies.

In this blog I will provide a high-level introduction to the MITRE ATT&CK framework and the critical role of secrets management in it that helps you improve your cybersecurity posture. Of course, to implement and see it in action, we are also publishing a new white paper Breaking the Chain: Secrets Management in the MITRE ATT&CK Framework and also encourage you to request a customized demo to see the product in action. 

What Is the MITRE ATT&CK Framework?

The MITRE ATT&CK framework is a comprehensive guide that categorizes the various tactics and techniques attackers use throughout the lifecycle of a cyberattack. It enables security teams to:

• Understand how attackers operate.
• Identify vulnerabilities in their defenses.
• Map out and strengthen their security strategies.

At its core, the framework breaks down the attack lifecycle into specific stages—like Initial Access, Privilege Escalation, and Exfiltration—giving teams a clear picture of where they’re most at risk and how to address those threats.

For organizations, the framework also fosters collaboration by creating a common language for CISOs, engineers, and cross-functional teams to align their goals and defenses.

Why Organizations Need MITRE ATT&CK

The MITRE ATT&CK framework offers distinct advantages for organizations looking to improve their cybersecurity posture:

1. Better Collaboration

Security isn’t just an IT issue—it’s an organizational one. The framework provides a shared understanding that helps CISOs, security engineers, and operational teams work together seamlessly.

2. Proactive Defense

By mapping potential adversarial tactics, organizations can identify vulnerabilities before attackers exploit them. For instance, during the “Initial Access” phase, teams can focus on reducing secrets sprawl and automating secrets rotation to secure entry points.

3. Comprehensive Coverage

No phase of an attack is overlooked. Whether it’s defending against credential theft during the “Credential Access” stage or blocking lateral movement across systems, the framework ensures all potential vulnerabilities are addressed.

Enhancing Cybersecurity with Secrets & Non-Human Identity Management

Secrets management is a cornerstone of effective cybersecurity, especially in defending against credential-based attacks. Mismanaged secrets—like passwords, keys, API tokens, and certificates—are often exploited during key phases of the attack lifecycle.

Modern platforms like Akeyless play a critical role in enhancing security at every stage. Features such as Dynamic Secrets, Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), and Just-in-Time (JIT) Access help prevent attackers from gaining entry, escalating privileges, or moving laterally within a network.

For example:

• Dynamic Secrets provide temporary credentials that expire after use, neutralizing stolen secrets and ensuring Zero Standing Privileges.
• Granular RBAC ensures that only verified users or systems can access sensitive secrets, mitigating the risk of privilege escalation.
• Secrets Rotation automatically updates static credentials, reducing the attack surface for Initial Access and Persistence phases.
• Secretless: Eliminate the need to management and protect secrets using frameworks like Secure Production Identity Framework for Everyone (SPIFEE) 

Take Your Cybersecurity Strategy to the Next Level

The MITRE ATT&CK framework empowers organizations to map, mitigate, and counter cyberattacks with precision. By integrating proactive secrets management strategies, organizations can close critical security gaps and reduce the risk of breaches caused by credential-based attacks.

Want to dive deeper into how secrets management aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK framework? 

Download our free white paper and get 16 pages of practical insights, actionable strategies, and expert guidance to help you protect your organization at every stage of the attack lifecycle.

OR

Request a customized demo of the Akeyless platform in action and how it improves your cybersecurity posture and prevents the leading cause of breaches. 

Securing Non-Human Identities: How Akeyless Protects Against the OWASP Top 10 NHI Risks in 2025

Posted by Suresh Sathyamurthy

As organizations continue to automate workflows and integrate cloud services, the management of non-human identities (NHIs) becomes a critical security challenge. The OWASP Top 10 Non-Human Identities Risks for 2025 highlights the biggest threats facing machine identities, service accounts, and automation credentials. Akeyless, with its advanced Secrets and Machine Identity Management platform, provides robust solutions to mitigate each of these risks. 

Before diving into how the Akeyless Secrets & Machine Identity Platform addresses nearly every element of the Top 10 NHI Risks for 2025, I want to share a little context. I live and work in Silicon Valley—and yes, I’m also a fan of the hit HBO show Silicon Valley. With that in mind, let’s consider a hypothetical company, Hooli, a cloud-based software development powerhouse (naturally, it’s based in the Valley—next time, I’ll sprinkle in some AI for good measure).

1. Improper Offboarding

Challenge: Hooli frequently deploys temporary services for client projects. However, they sometimes overlook deactivating service accounts and access keys after project completion, leaving unused NHIs active. As a result, these orphaned NHIs can be exploited by malicious actors to gain unauthorized access to sensitive systems and data, as they remain valid entry points into the company’s infrastructure.

How Akeyless Helps: To counter this, Akeyless automates the lifecycle management of secrets and non-human identities. By setting expiration policies and automating the revocation of unused secrets, Akeyless ensures that obsolete NHIs at Hooli are promptly deactivated, reducing potential vulnerabilities.

2. Secret Leakage

Challenge: During a code review, Hooli discovers that developers have hardcoded API keys into source code repositories. If unauthorized individuals access these repositories, the exposed API keys can be used to infiltrate Hooli’s systems, leading to data breaches and potential financial losses.

How Akeyless Helps: To prevent such leaks, Akeyless centralizes secrets management with zero-knowledge encryption, ensuring that Hooli’s sensitive information is never exposed in code. It also integrates seamlessly with CI/CD pipelines, injecting secrets securely at runtime and preventing unauthorized access.

3. Vulnerable Third-Party NHIs

Challenge: Hooli integrates various third-party plugins into their development environment. If one of these plugins is compromised, it could potentially access sensitive credentials, allowing attackers to manipulate or steal data, disrupt services, or move laterally within Hooli’s network.

How Akeyless Helps: Akeyless mitigates this risk by enforcing least-privilege access controls, granting third-party integrations only the permissions they require. Additionally, continuous monitoring and automatic rotation of secrets further protect Hooli against unauthorized access from compromised third-party tools.

4. Insecure Authentication

Challenge: Hooli’s legacy systems use outdated authentication methods without multi-factor authentication (MFA). Attackers can easily exploit these weak authentication mechanisms to gain unauthorized access, leading to potential data breaches and system compromises.

How Akeyless Helps: Akeyless supports modern authentication protocols, including MFA and certificate-based methods. By migrating to these secure authentication mechanisms, Hooli can protect its systems from potential breaches.

5. Overprivileged NHIs

Challenge: To expedite development, Hooli team assigns broad privileges to service accounts. However, if an overprivileged NHI is compromised, attackers can perform unauthorized actions, potentially leading to data theft, service disruptions, or complete system takeovers.

How Akeyless Helps: Through role-based and attribute-based access controls, Akeyless ensures NHIs are granted only the permissions necessary for their functions without slowing development. This principle of least privilege minimizes the impact of potential security incidents at Hooli.

6. Insecure Cloud Deployment Configurations

Challenge: Hooli’s CI/CD pipelines use static credentials stored in configuration files. If these files are accessed maliciously, attackers can use the static credentials to infiltrate production environments, leading to data breaches and unauthorized system modifications.

How Akeyless Helps: Akeyless eliminates this risk by replacing static credentials with ephemeral, short-lived secrets that are generated on demand. This approach reduces the window of opportunity for attackers and enhances the security of Hooli’s deployment processes.

7. Long-Lived Secrets

Challenge: Some of Hooli’s API keys and tokens have no expiration dates. If these long-lived secrets are compromised, attackers can maintain prolonged unauthorized access to sensitive services without detection.

How Akeyless Helps: To mitigate this, Akeyless automates the rotation of all Hooli’s secrets, ensuring they are regularly updated and have appropriate expiration periods. This practice limits the potential damage from exposed credentials.

8. Environment Isolation

Challenge: Hooli uses the same credentials across development, testing, and production environments. Consequently, a security issue in the less secure development environment could propagate to production, compromising live data and services.

How Akeyless Helps: Akeyless enforces strict environment isolation by assigning unique secrets and access policies to each environment. This segregation prevents issues in one environment from affecting others.

9. NHI Reuse

Challenge: To simplify management, Hooli reuses the same service accounts across multiple applications. However, if one application is compromised, the shared NHI can be a gateway for attackers to access other applications, leading to widespread breaches.

How Akeyless Helps: Akeyless provides unique, ephemeral identities for each application instance at Hooli, eliminating the risks associated with credential reuse. This ensures that a breach in one application doesn’t compromise others.

10. Human Use of NHIs

Challenge: Administrators at Hooli sometimes use service account credentials for manual tasks. Unfortunately, this practice reduces accountability and can lead to security gaps, as actions performed using NHIs are harder to trace back to individual users, complicating incident response efforts.

How Akeyless Helps: Akeyless helps by distinguishing between human and machine identities, enforcing appropriate use policies for each. Human users authenticate through enterprise identity providers, while NHIs utilize secure API-based authentication, maintaining clear separation and accountability.

Conclusion

The OWASP Top 10 Non-Human Identity Risks highlight the growing security challenges organizations face in managing automated access. Akeyless provides a comprehensive Secrets and Machine Identity Management platform that not only mitigates these risks but also enhances security posture through automation, zero-trust principles, and robust access controls.

By adopting Akeyless, organizations like Hooli can ensure their NHIs remain secure, compliant, and resilient against evolving cyber threats.

Want to learn more? Sign up for a demo to see how the Akeyless platform can protect your organization.

Securing LLM Applications with Akeyless: A Clear and Practical Guide

Posted by Suresh Sathyamurthy

Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) are revolutionizing business operations, streamlining interactions, and driving smarter decision-making. However, this powerful innovation also opens the door to new security challenges. The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) created the “OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications 2025” to clearly outline security risks specifically related to LLM applications, helping organizations understand and effectively tackle these emerging threats.

In my last blog on OWASP Top 10 NHI risks, I used the fictional company Hooli from the HBO show “Silicon Valley”. Given this one is about securing LLMs, I’ll draw from the world of Artificial Intelligence and machines. In this blog, we’ll explore several key concerns highlighted by OWASP, using Cyberdyne Systems (from the Terminator) to illustrate how Akeyless effectively mitigates these critical security risks. While OWASP details ten vulnerabilities, this post addresses five areas specifically aligned with Akeyless’ strengths.

How Akeyless Addresses Selected OWASP LLM Risks

Preventing Prompt Injection (LLM01)

Prompt injection occurs when attackers manipulate AI prompts to trick an LLM into revealing confidential information or performing unauthorized actions.

• Role-Based and Attribute-Based Access Control (RBAC & ABAC): Akeyless implements fine-grained RBAC and ABAC policies to manage API tokens and permissions, ensuring only authorized personnel can modify AI prompts. This restricts unauthorized users from injecting malicious prompts.
  
• Comprehensive Audit & Monitoring: With detailed audit trails, Akeyless rapidly identifies unauthorized attempts or suspicious activities related to prompt alterations, allowing businesses to detect and block unauthorized modifications.

Cyberdyne Example: Attackers attempted to insert malicious commands into Cyberdyne’s customer support chatbot to extract client financial details. Akeyless’ strict privilege controls and audit capabilities quickly identified and blocked these unauthorized attempts, protecting sensitive customer data.

Avoiding Sensitive Information Disclosure (LLM02)

Sensitive data—Systems including personal customer information and proprietary business intelligence—can unintentionally appear in AI-generated content, leading to serious compliance issues or reputational harm.

• Secure Secrets Management with End-to-End Encryption: Akeyless securely stores encryption keys and critical credentials, ensuring that no sensitive data is exposed within AI prompts or responses.
  
• Zero-Knowledge Security Model: Akeyless’ Zero-Knowledge architecture with DFC™ encryption prevents unauthorized data access—even from privileged insiders—by distributing cryptographic fragments across multiple cloud providers.
  
• Dynamic & Just-in-Time Secrets (JIT): Akeyless issues ephemeral, short-lived credentials, ensuring AI models only access sensitive data when strictly necessary.
  
• Robust Access Controls: By enforcing precise access permissions, Akeyless ensures only authorized users can access sensitive information, substantially reducing the risk of accidental leaks through AI outputs.

Cyberdyne Example: Cyberdyne’s AI system was at risk of inadvertently sharing sensitive customer financial details due to insecure credential handling. By employing Akeyless’ secure secret management, credentials and data remained encrypted and isolated, preventing any accidental disclosures.

Securing the Supply Chain (LLM03)

Supply chain vulnerabilities arise when compromised third-party AI models or datasets create entry points for attackers.

• Secure Credential Management: Akeyless securely manages all credentials needed for third-party integrations, preventing compromised third-party services from gaining unauthorized access to sensitive internal resources.
  
• Automated Secrets Rotation & Zero Standing Privileges: Akeyless eliminates hardcoded secrets by dynamically rotating API keys and authentication credentials, preventing third-party services from retaining persistent access.
  
• SPIFFE & SPIRE Integrations: Akeyless seamlessly integrates with SPIFFE and SPIRE to issue secure workload identities, ensuring AI services authenticate safely without traditional secrets.
  
• Zero-Knowledge API Authentication: AI workloads authenticate via cloud-based identities without exposing API keys.
  
• Continuous Monitoring and Auditing: Akeyless’ real-time monitoring capabilities promptly detect and alert organizations about suspicious activities or unauthorized access.

Cyberdyne Example: Following a third-party AI provider breach, compromised credentials posed a threat to Cyberdyne. However, Akeyless’ Just-in-Time access model ensured all API keys were temporary and auto-rotated, rendering any compromised credentials useless.

Preventing Data and Model Poisoning (LLM04)

Data and model poisoning occur when attackers insert harmful or biased data to compromise the accuracy and reliability of AI outputs.

• Immutable Secrets & Version Control: Akeyless enforces strict access policies for data sources, ensuring only authorized AI pipelines can modify training datasets.
  
• Secure AI Model Key Management: AI model encryption keys are managed via FIPS 140-2 validated encryption, ensuring only authorized applications can access AI models.
  
• Tamper-Proof Audit Logs: All model modifications are recorded in immutable logs, preventing stealthy alterations to AI training data.

Cyberdyne Scenario: Competitors attempted to inject corrupted data into Cyberdyne’s market analytics AI tool. Thanks to Akeyless’ strict key management and access controls, unauthorized data changes were blocked, preserving the accuracy and trustworthiness of Cyberdyne’s AI insights.

Wrapping Up

Using practical scenarios from Cyberdyne Systems, we’ve illustrated how Akeyless effectively mitigates selected OWASP LLM risks, Systems including prompt injection, sensitive information disclosure, supply-chain vulnerabilities, data poisoning, and resource overuse. By employing Akeyless, businesses can confidently and securely embrace powerful LLM technologies while effectively managing associated risks.

Why Akeyless?

Akeyless is the leading SaaS-based, Zero-Knowledge security platform, providing:

• Patented Zero-Knowledge Encryption: Ensures that even Akeyless cannot access your AI secrets or keys.
• Multi-Cloud & On-Prem Compatibility: Works seamlessly with AWS, Azure, GCP, and Kubernetes.
• Integration with DevSecOps & AI Pipelines: Connects with Jenkins, Terraform, Kubernetes, and all the tools that DevOps use on a regular basis.
• FIPS 140-2, SOC 2, ISO 27001 Compliance: Fully adheres to industry security standards.
• End-to-End API Security: Protects AI prompts, data, and workloads without storing persistent secrets.

By adopting Akeyless, Cyberdyne Systems and other AI-driven companies can securely scale their LLM applications while mitigating the OWASP Top 10 AI security risks. Judgment Day would have never happened had Cyberdyne used Akeyless to secure their LLMs while building Skynet.

Ready to secure your AI applications? Explore the Akeyless platform today. 

The 2024 State of Secrets Management Survey Report

Akeyless – The 2024 State of Secrets Management Survey Report

Introduction and Methodology

• Introduction: With the rise of cloud computing, containerization, automated DevOps, and zero-trust policies, there has been an increase in machine identities requiring continuous authentication and authorization via secrets (credentials, certificates, keys). These secrets are often found in vulnerable locations, making them attractive targets for hackers.
• Methodology: The survey was conducted online by Global Surveyz Research, involving 200 CISOs, Directors, Managers, security engineers, and other senior security professionals from companies with 1,000+ employees across the US, UK, Germany, and France. Responses were collected in June 2023.

Key Findings

1. Secrets Sprawl: 96% of respondents reported that organizational secrets are kept outside of secrets managers in vulnerable locations like code, config files, and CI/CD tools.
2. Concern About Secrets Sprawl: 88% of security professionals are concerned about secrets sprawl, with 49% of those in larger companies being “very concerned.”
3. Top Priority: Secrets management is one of the top five cybersecurity priorities for 33% of respondents.
4. Current Usage: Only 44% of respondents are currently using a secrets management system.
5. Secret Leaks: 70% of respondents have experienced secret leaks in the past two years, with an average of 36 hours required to mitigate a leak.
6. Centralized Solutions: 96% of respondents plan to implement a centralized enterprise solution for secrets management by 2024 or already have one in place.

Survey Report Findings

• Secrets Sprawl in the Organization: Secrets are often stored in multiple locations, including config files (48%), infrastructure tools (48%), CI/CD tools (35%), and code (33%).
• Concern Levels: 88% of respondents are concerned about secrets sprawl, with larger companies showing higher levels of concern.
• Top Cybersecurity Priorities: Secrets management is among the top five priorities for 33% of respondents, alongside cloud security (45%), API security (42%), endpoint security (36%), and threat intelligence (34%).
• Tools for Managing Secrets: Key Management Systems (48%), Certificate Management Systems (45%), and Privileged Access Management systems (44%) are the most commonly used tools.
• Protection from Credential Breaches: 55% of respondents see Privileged Access Management solutions as the top tool for protecting against breaches due to compromised credentials.
• Dissatisfaction Drivers: The top reasons for dissatisfaction with current secrets management solutions are that not all secrets are secured (54%) and there is no central management (43%).
• Plans for Centralized Solutions: 96% of respondents plan to implement a centralized enterprise solution for secrets management by 2024 or already have one in place.
• Secret Leaks: 70% of respondents have experienced secret leaks in the past two years, with an average of 36 hours required to mitigate a leak.
• Mitigation Measures: Common measures include recreating identities (71%), rotating secrets (38%), and using temporary permissions (30%).

Conclusions

• Increasing Awareness: There is a growing awareness of the risks associated with secrets sprawl and the need for effective secrets management solutions.
• Need for Centralization: A centralized and unified platform for secrets management is crucial for mitigating risks and improving security.
• Adoption Challenges: Despite the recognition of the importance of secrets management, many organizations still face challenges in adopting and fully utilizing these solutions.