Vaulting, Just-in-Time or Ephemeral?

About this interactive

A privileged account, such as the root account on a Linux server, can do far more than an ordinary one. The Privileged Access Management lesson explains why sharing one around the admin team by password is a problem: anyone can copy it, and when someone leaves, every system's password has to change. A PAM tool sits between the user and the server, and the user goes through it. It works in one of three ways. Password vaulting: the password stays in the tool. The tool enters it into the system for the user, who never sees it, so there is nothing to copy or take away. Just-in-time permissions: the user signs in with their own everyday account, and the tool raises its rights for the task, then lowers them when they log out. Next time, the account is back to normal. Ephemeral credentials: the tool creates an account just for this session, the user works through it, and the tool removes it when the session ends. Whichever method is used, the tool records every action, so what happened can be checked later. A quick test for each card: is the tool hiding a stored password, raising the user's own account, or making a throwaway account?

What you'll learn

Tell a PAM tool's three methods apart: password vaulting, just-in-time permissions and ephemeral credentials
Explain what each method fixes about a shared admin password typed by hand: the password is not exposed, rights are not standing, or the account does not outlast the session

Aligned to

CompTIA Security+

4.6 Given a scenario, implement and maintain identity and access management.

NIST 800-53

AC-6 Least Privilege

AC-2 Account Management

Key terms

Privileged Access Management: Privileged Access Management encompasses the policies, tools, and technologies used to control, monitor, and audit access by privileged accounts such as administrators, reducing insider threat risk through just-in-time access grants and full session recording.
Password Vaulting: A PAM method that stores privileged credentials in a secure vault so users can authenticate to systems without ever seeing the password.
Just-in-Time Permissions: A practice of granting access to resources only for the specific period of time a user or system needs them, then revoking that access immediately after.
Ephemeral Credentials: Temporary account credentials provisioned for a limited time to grant access to specific resources, then removed once the need has ended.
Least Privilege: A security principle that grants users and systems only the minimum access rights needed to perform their functions.

Topics

Identity And Access Management Privileged Access Management Interactive Categorize

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