Entrepreneurship, Security Engineer, Innovation
In a rapidly changing digital environment, Non-Human Identities (NHIs) are becoming increasingly critical to application development. NHIs, which include service accounts, API keys, and other non-human digital identities, enable secure device-to-device and human-to-device access. However, the proliferation of NHIs creates new security challenges. To help address these risks, the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) has published a Top 10 list that describes the most critical vulnerabilities related to Non-Human-Identities (NHI). In this article, we'll explore the key concepts in the OWASP NHI Top 10 and explain why understanding these risks is essential for modern application development.
NHIs help developers build applications by providing various types of digital identities, such as service accounts, service principals, IAM users, roles, and applications. These IDs are used to ensure secure access within modern systems. With the increasing adoption of microservices, third-party solution integrations, cloud environments, and CI/CD pipelines, the number of NHIs has grown exponentially—they now outnumber human IDs by as much as 20 to 1. This massive proliferation creates an expansive attack surface, making NHIs a prime target for malicious actors.
The OWASP NHI Top 10 is a list of the most severe security risks and vulnerabilities related to Non-Human Identities. The vulnerabilities are ranked based on factors such as exploitability, prevalence, detectability, and impact. The goal of this project is to help security professionals better understand the NHI attack surface and threat scenarios so that they can protect and manage these identities more effectively.
Below is a summary of the OWASP NHI Top 10 - 2025:
NHI1:2025 - Improper Offboarding: Improper deactivation or removal of a Non-Human Identity, such as service accounts and access keys, when they are no longer needed. If associated NHIs are not properly removed, unmonitored services can be exploited by attackers.
NHI2:2025 - Secrets Leakage: Involves the exposure of critical NHIs, such as API keys and tokens, in unauthorized data repositories such when they are hard-coded in source code. Cremit helps effectively detect and remove exposed secrets from source code, collaboration tools, and cloud storage environments.
NHI3:2025 - Vulnerable Third-Party NHIs: Third-party NHIs are widely integrated into development workflows. If a third-party extension is compromised, attackers can exploit it to steal credentials or abuse granted privileges.
NHI4:2025 - Insecure Authentication: Involves the use of outdated or vulnerable authentication methods that can expose an organization to serious risks.
NHI5:2025 - OverPrivileged NHIs: Occurs when an NHI is granted more privileges than necessary, allowing attackers to abuse these excessive permissions if the NHI is compromised.
NHI6:2025 - Insecure Cloud Deployment Configurations: Includes scenarios where static credentials are exposed in CI/CD applications, potentially granting attackers persistent access to production environments. Cremit provides an integrated tool to detect and eliminate secrets exposed within CI/CD pipelines.
NHI7:2025 - Logn-Lived Secrets: Using secrets that never expire or have very long expiration dates gives attackers a longer window of opportunity.
NHI8:2025 - Environment Isolation: Reusing the same NHI in multiple environments, especially between test and production, creates a serious security vulnerability.
NHI92025 - NHI Reuse: When the same NHI is reused across different applications and services, a compromise in one area can allow attackers to gain unauthorized access to other parts of the system.
NHI10:2025 - Human Use of NHIs: Misusing NHIs for manual tasks that should be performed with human identities introduces risks such as privilege escalation and lack of audit.
The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) NHI Top 10 highlights the threats associated with managing NHIs. Unlike human credentials, NHIs are often created by developers without a centralized management system. Their dynamic nature makes it difficult to manage and protect them using traditional IAM tools. Risks associated with unmanaged NHIs include account compromise, secret exposure, and unauthorized access. Understanding the risks and vulnerabilities identified in the OWASP NHI Top 10 is a crucial step for organizations to effectively manage and protect NHIs, thereby preventing breaches and ensuring the security of their applications.
OWASP encourages community involvement in the development and promotion of the NHI Top 10. You can contribute in various ways:
The OWASP NHI Top 10 is a vital resource for developers and security professionals aiming to understand and mitigate the risks associated with NHIs. By recognizing these risks and implementing recommended security practices, organizations can better protect their applications and data from potential breaches. This list provides valuable insights and actionable steps for any organization looking to strengthen its security posture in the face of increasing NHI usage.
NHI, such as service accounts, API keys, and OAuth tokens, are essential to application development. However, if these NHIs are not managed properly, they can be easy prey for malicious actors. In fact, many websites have secret keys exposed indiscriminately, which is a huge threat. The NHI Top 10, published by the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP), warns of this risk. Improper offboarding, secret leakage, vulnerable third-party NHI, insecure authentication, and other vulnerabilities may be endangering your system.
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