How Keeper Reduces NHI Risk With Just Enough Privilege Access Controls

When most people think about Identity and Access Management (IAM), they picture employees logging into systems. But in reality, the majority of access requests today come from non-human identities such as service accounts, automation scripts, containers, bots and APIs.

These identities power modern infrastructure. They deploy code, manage resources, sync data and trigger processes. While they are essential, they also contribute to a massive attack surface that continues to grow.

The hidden risk of non-human identities

Non-Human Identities (NHIs) are often created quickly to support automation or integrations, then forgotten. Credentials are hardcoded into scripts or stored in plaintext configuration files. Access rarely gets reviewed. Privileges are broad. Time limits are almost non-existent.

Some common problems:

• Long-lived tokens with full admin access
• Scripts running with root privileges
• Orphaned service accounts that no one owns
• No expiration or rotation of credentials

This makes NHIs prime targets for cybercriminals. Once compromised, they’re difficult to detect and easy to abuse. Because machines don’t behave like humans, these identities often fall outside the scope of traditional monitoring.

A single unmonitored service account can quietly open the door to your entire infrastructure.

Just Enough Privilege (JEP) and Just-in-Time (JIT) to secure NHIs

The fix starts with rethinking how access is granted. Instead of “set it and forget it,” organizations need a model that limits exposure by default.

Two key concepts help:

• Just Enough Privilege (JEP): Give each identity only the minimum permissions required to do its job and no more.
• Just-in-Time (JIT) access: Grant access temporarily, when needed, and revoke it automatically when it’s no longer in use.

Together, JEP and JIT limit what resources an identity can access, how long it can access them and how much damage the identity can do if compromised.

How KeeperPAM® helps enforce just enough privilege for NHIs

Keeper reduces non-human identity risk by enforcing least privilege across every point of access. KeeperPAM provides centralized secrets management, granular policy controls and time-bound access to NHIs, all without disrupting DevOps workflows.

Centralized secrets management

Hard-coded secrets in code and configuration files pose a significant security risk. Keeper Secrets Manager eliminates this risk by storing credentials in an encrypted, cloud-based vault. Applications and scripts can securely retrieve secrets via API.

Centralization also enables visibility. Admins can monitor who’s accessing what, when and how, down to individual service accounts or automation scripts.

Granular policy controls for NHIs

KeeperPAM allows security teams to define access rules tailored to each NHI. You can scope permissions to a single integration, enforce time limits and automate policy enforcement through CI/CD or orchestration tools. Whether it’s a bot, a script or an internal service, each identity operates within tightly defined boundaries.

Role-based access controls and JIT enforcement

With Role-Based Access Controls (RBAC), you can group machine identities by function and enforce specific policies per role. When RBAC is paired with JIT access, standing privileges are eliminated. Access is granted only when needed and is revoked automatically.

Keeper also integrates with approval workflows and ticketing systems, making access governance seamless for security and DevOps teams alike.

Real-time auditing and alerting

Machine-to-machine activity doesn’t have to be invisible. Keeper logs every interaction and supports integrations with Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) and Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) platforms for real-time alerting. You can flag access outside of approved hours, detect misuse and support audit and compliance needs with full traceability.

Legacy PAM vs KeeperPAM for NHI Protection

Privileged Access Management (PAM) has traditionally focused on securing human users, such as IT admins logging into servers or engineers accessing sensitive databases. Those tools were built around session management, credential vaulting and approval workflows designed for people.

But non-human identities don’t operate like people. They don’t log into portals, click through Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) prompts or request access via a help desk. They connect via APIs, execute scripts and deploy within containers – and they often do this hundreds or thousands of times per day.

Modern infrastructure needs a modern approach, one that supports automation natively, scales across cloud workloads and gives security teams real control without bottlenecks. That’s where KeeperPAM comes in.

What makes KeeperPAM different is how it balances control with usability:

• Built for the cloud: It’s built for the cloud, with no complex setup or infrastructure to maintain. It scales easily across cloud, on-prem and hybrid environments.
• API-first architecture: KeeperPAM doesn’t force you to change how you deploy. It integrates with your automation stack, enabling secrets and access policies to be pulled programmatically as part of the build and deploy process.
• Least privilege by design: Every identity, human or machine, operates within a scoped set of permissions, with time-limited access by default. That means no more standing access or forgotten credentials sitting in a repository.
• Auditable and alert-ready: KeeperPAM logs every machine-to-machine interaction. If a bot or script behaves unexpectedly, you’ll know. Additionally, with integrations into your SIEM or SOAR platform, it fits cleanly into your broader security operations.

Feature	KeeperPAM	Legacy PAM
Non-human identity support	Native support for service accounts, scripts and APIs	Primarily human user-focused
Cloud-native	SaaS-delivered with cloud-native architecture	On-prem or hybrid with complex setup
Secrets management	Integrated Keeper Secrets Manager with API-based retrieval	Often requires third-party vaults
Just-in-Time (JIT) access	Automated, time-limited access with built-in policy control	Manual and workflow-heavy
DevOps integration	Commander CLI, SDKs, CI/CD and IAC tool integrations	Minimal; lacks API-first design
Deployment	Lightweight and scalable with optional Gateway components	High infrastructure and maintenance

Take control of NHI risk with KeeperPAM

Non-human identities are multiplying across every organization. The more processes you automate, the more NHIs you create, and the more risk you introduce if you’re not managing them properly.

KeeperPAM gives you the control you need without slowing down your teams. It’s a modern solution to a modern problem. Request a demo to learn how KeeperPAM can help your organization manage NHI risk.