Introducing Keeper’s Discovery Rules Engine

Modern IT environments span on-premises, hybrid and multi-cloud infrastructure, and every new asset added needs to be discovered, evaluated and brought under access control. Discovery tools can surface those resources, but without automation, processing them is slow, inconsistent and prone to error. Critical assets get missed, and security gaps open. Keeper’s Discovery Rules Engine closes that gap by automating how discovered resources are evaluated and handled, so every asset is processed consistently without manual review. This enables security teams to enforce consistent access policies and scale Privileged Access Management (PAM) operations with greater accuracy.

Continue reading to learn more about Keeper’s Discovery Rules Engine, what it helps solve within organizations and its benefits.

What is Keeper’s Discovery Rules Engine?

Keeper’s Discovery Rules Engine is a rules-based automation capability within KeeperPAM^® that governs how discovered resources are processed. Instead of requiring administrators to review discovery results manually, it applies predefined logic so that every asset is handled according to a consistent security policy.

Each rule is tied to a specific PAM configuration and built using filtering criteria (field, operator and value). For example, “hostname contains ‘prod'” or “OS equals Windows Server 2019.” Rules are evaluated in order, and the first matching rule determines how a resource is handled, underscoring the importance of rule ordering. An asset matched by rule 2 will never reach rule 3, so administrators should order rules from most specific to least specific. All rules are managed centrally within the Keeper Vault.

The engine supports a rich set of fields covering hostnames, operating systems, database types, directory types, cloud provider regions, instance IDs and more, with operators ranging from simple equality checks to pattern matching, starts/ends with, contains and full regex search. This makes it possible to build precise rules that target exactly the resources you care about across any infrastructure type.

What does the Discovery Rules Engine do in Keeper?

Keeper’s Discovery Rules Engine automates how discovery results are processed, enabling organizations to handle large amounts of assets quickly, securely and consistently.

Uses rule-based logic to evaluate every discovered asset

Administrators define rules tied to specific PAM configurations using filtering criteria based on infrastructure metadata, such as hostnames, operating systems or resource types. Rules are evaluated sequentially against each discovered resource. The first match wins and determines the action taken.

Applies rules in priority order

By default, rules follow creation order. Administrators can manually reorder them at any time to reflect changing organizational priorities. Rules can also be enabled or disabled individually without deleting them, giving administrators flexibility to adjust rule sets without losing configuration work.

Executes actions automatically

When a rule matches a discovered resource, the Discovery Rules Engine automatically applies one of these three configurable actions:

• Add: Automatically applies rule logic and onboards the resource directly into the vault, bringing it under PAM policies, including access control and session monitoring
• Ignore: Excludes matching resources to reduce unnecessary results and false positives
• Prompt: Flags the resource for administrator review when the rule identifies an asset that requires human judgment before onboarding. For example, resources with ambiguous ownership or resources that span multiple environments

For a deeper dive into how Keeper’s Discovery Rules Engine works, read our documentation.

What challenges Keeper’s Discovery Rules Engine helps solve

Without automation, security teams typically struggle to efficiently act on discovery results that may contain hundreds or thousands of assets. Here are the key security challenges that Keeper’s Discovery Rules Engine addresses:

• Manual processing errors: Reviewing every discovered asset manually is tedious and error-prone. Critical resources may be overlooked or handled improperly simply due to the large volume of data, slowing response times and introducing new security gaps.
• Alert fatigue: Discovery results often include irrelevant or low-priority data. With no way to automatically filter and prioritize these results, security teams can become overwhelmed, making it challenging to identify which assets require immediate attention.
• Inconsistent decision-making: When discovery results are processed manually, different administrators may apply varying criteria when evaluating the same types of resources. Over time, these inconsistencies can create security gaps, uneven policy enforcement and a lack of standardization across environments.
• Delayed security actions: In manual workflows, sensitive assets aren’t always secured immediately following discovery. These delays create exposure windows where unmanaged resources can be exploited before they’re brought under control.

Benefits of using Keeper’s Discovery Rules Engine

The Discovery Rules Engine extends KeeperPAM’s capabilities by enabling centralized, policy-driven control over infrastructure assets. As part of a zero-trust, cloud-native PAM solution, it helps organizations enforce consistent security workflows while reducing operational complexity.

Scales discovery across complex environments

The Discovery Rules Engine automatically processes large volumes of discovery results across on-prem, hybrid and cloud environments. It eliminates manual classification and scales automatically across different types of modern, complex environments.

Reduces manual workload

By removing repetitive review tasks from security teams, the Discovery Rules Engine minimizes human intervention in discovery workflows. This allows teams to focus on higher-priority strategic security initiatives instead of manual processing.

Accelerates time to secure assets

Keeper’s Discovery Rules Engine automatically onboards critical resources into the Keeper Vault using predefined rules. Through automation, it accelerates integration into PAM workflows such as access control and session monitoring, reducing the time between discovery and asset protection.

Improves accuracy and consistency

Standardized rules applied uniformly across all discovered assets eliminate the unpredictability of manual decision-making. Every asset is evaluated against the same predefined security policies, supporting zero-trust principles and improving overall visibility and control.

Automate discovery with Keeper

Discovery without automation doesn’t scale for modern organizations managing complex, multi-cloud environments. As infrastructure grows, security teams need a faster, more reliable way to process and secure newly discovered assets; rule-based automation provides that capability. Keeper’s Discovery Rules Engine integrates automated decision-making directly into discovery workflows, eliminating manual bottlenecks and enabling consistent policies at scale.

Start your free trial of KeeperPAM today to help automate discovery and secure your infrastructure.