NHI1 2025: Improper Offboarding- A Comprehensive Overview

Improper off-boarding refers to the inadequate deactivation or removal of Non-Human Identities (NHIs) after their intended use has ended. This oversight leaves these digital credentials exposed, creating significant security vulnerabilities. NHIs include service accounts, API keys, tokens, and certificates used by machines, applications, or automated processes to authenticate and perform tasks.

Key Aspects and Implications:

• Expanded Attack Surface: Unmonitored and deprecated services associated with improperly offboarded NHIs become easy targets for attackers.
• NHIs Sprawling: The increasing reliance on microservices, third-party solutions, and AI-driven workflows amplifies the risk if NHIs are not diligently managed throughout their lifecycle.
• Decentralized Management: Unlike human identities, NHIs often lack a central, authoritative source, leading to inconsistent security measures across different platforms and stakeholders.
• Operational Disruptions: Incomplete understanding of NHI dependencies can result in unintentional disruptions to production systems when attempting to rotate or revoke credentials.
• Compliance and Governance: Failure to properly decommission NHIs can lead to non-compliance with regulatory requirements and organizational policies.

Contributing Factors:

• Lack of Centralized Identity and Access Management (IAM): NHIs are not managed centrally like human identities but are created and managed across multiple platforms by various stakeholders.
• Absence of Clear Ownership: NHIs are often not tied to specific individuals, making accountability challenging.
• Long-Lived Secrets: Many NHIs are set to live for extended periods, sometimes without expiration dates, increasing the window of opportunity for exploitation if compromised

Mitigation Strategies:

• Implement NHI Lifecycle Management (NHI-LCM): Employ effective lifecycle management to ensure NHIs are active only when needed and with appropriate access permissions. Automate audits, expiration policies, and decommissioning to reduce risks and improve security posture.
• Adopt a Zero Trust Architecture: Extend Zero Trust principles to NHIs by continuously validating every identity interaction.
• Establish Strong Governance Frameworks: Manage the NHI lifecycle, enforce least-privilege access, and ensure timely decommissioning of obsolete identities.
• Utilize Real-Time Threat Detection and Response (NHI-TDR): Continuously monitor NHI activity and flag anomalies to provide real-time alerts for suspicious behavior.
• Assign Clear Ownership: Assign clear ownership to each NHI to ensure accountability and facilitate better management.
• Regularly Rotate Secrets: Implement automated secret rotation policies to minimize the risk of credential compromise.
• Adopt Ephemeral Certificates: Replace static credentials with short-lived, auto-expiring certificates to limit exposure if credentials are leaked.

Cremit NHI Platform Solutions:

• Holistic Visibility and Context: Provides a centralized view of all NHIs across all landscapes, eliminating blind spots and delivering detailed context for comprehensive oversight.
• Streamlined Lifecycle Management: Manages the entire NHI lifecycle from creation to decommissioning, ensuring efficient provisioning and governance.s
• Actionable Risk Identification and Remediation: Identifies and prioritizes NHI risks, enabling security teams to focus on critical issues and offers predefined playbooks for effective remediation.
• Zero Trust Controls: Extends Zero Trust principles to NHIs by ensuring continuous monitoring and validation of every NHI interaction.
• NHI Traceability: Maps each NHI’s origin, associated owners, storage locations, consumers, and resource access, enabling security teams to identify and mitigate risks quickly.

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By understanding the factors contributing to improper offboarding and implementing the strategies mentioned above, organizations can significantly improve their security posture.

Need to identify and act on threats with NHI Offboarding? Get started on Cremit or contact us!