What is a Service Account?

• IAM Glossary
• What is a Service Account?

A service account is a Non-Human Identity (NHI) used by applications or systems to perform automated tasks in the background, such as running scripts, accessing databases or communicating with other services. These accounts are crucial to automation across enterprise infrastructures by enabling systems to operate without human intervention. Because they typically require elevated privileges to work properly, service accounts are a valuable target for cybercriminals and require granular access controls and constant monitoring.

Service account vs user account

While service accounts and user accounts both grant secure access to critical systems and resources, they serve different purposes in enterprise environments. Service accounts are created for non-human, automated operations, such as communicating with other machines or scheduling tasks. They are typically preconfigured during software installation or system setup. Their usage is continuous, with credentials often hardcoded into scripts or configuration files.

In contrast, user accounts are created for human beings to access systems and perform interactive tasks, such as logging in to systems or modifying files. User accounts follow standard identity lifecycle processes like onboarding and offboarding, and they are typically protected by Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) methods.

It's important to note that neither type of account is inherently more secure than the other; each presents different security risks that must be properly managed to maintain an organization's overall security posture.

Types of service accounts

There are several different forms of service accounts depending on the environment in which they operate, whether on-premises, domain-based or cloud-based.

Local and standalone service accounts

Local or standalone service accounts are used on a single device or Operating System (OS) to run background services and schedule tasks. These accounts are usually configured manually on each device. Since they aren't centrally managed, they lack the visibility and consistency that large environments require to ensure utmost security and detailed auditing.

Domain-managed service accounts

Domain-managed service accounts are managed through an organization's Active Directory (AD) for use across multiple machines within a network. They help standardize access policies and improve oversight but require strict controls to prevent unauthorized access. A few examples of domain-managed service accounts include:

• Standard domain accounts, which are user accounts repurposed for service use

• Managed Service Accounts (MSAs), which are designed for single-server services with automatic password management

• Group Managed Service Accounts (gMSAs), which support services running across multiple servers with shared credentials

Cloud-native service accounts

Cloud-native service accounts are created and managed within cloud platforms like AWS or Azure. These accounts follow cloud workloads, such as virtual machines or containers, that need access to APIs, databases or other cloud resources. Cloud-native service accounts are generally integrated with the platform's Identity and Access Management (IAM) system to provide policy-based access controls. Although cloud-native service accounts offer better automation and scalability, they must be carefully managed to prevent credential sprawl.

Common use cases of service accounts

Service accounts are at the core of modern IT and cloud environments, enabling automation, scalability and system-to-system communication through NHIs. Here are some of the most popular and important use cases for service accounts.

Automating enterprise infrastructure

Since service accounts are used for automated tasks, organizations need them to run core systems such as websites, APIs and databases. Service accounts can be used for automated backups, batch processing and data transfers to keep enterprise environments running smoothly without human involvement.

Communicating with other services

One of the main roles of a service account is to authenticate one service with another. For example, a web application might use a service account to connect to a database securely. In the cloud, service accounts enable workloads to securely and consistently access APIs and cloud-native resources, allowing them to communicate and retrieve credentials as needed.

Acting on behalf of users

Many service accounts are created to perform tasks on behalf of human users, including sending automated emails or generating reports. Service accounts allow for customization and automation without requiring the human user's credentials to be used in each task.

Supporting AI agents to access data

With the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across all environments, service accounts are increasingly used to grant AI agents access to enterprise systems and datasets. Service accounts allow AI and machine learning models to read from or write to systems and analyze data independently. Although this is efficient and innovative, using service accounts in this way can introduce new security risks to an organization, especially if access isn't tightly monitored.

Risks of service accounts

While service accounts are crucial to enterprise operations, they also introduce significant security risks if they aren't properly secured. Here are some of the most common cyber threats associated with service accounts:

• Standing access: Service accounts are typically made for constant operation, meaning they have standing access to systems and data. Unlike the interactive nature of user accounts, the autonomy of service accounts creates a persistent attack surface that cybercriminals can exploit if credentials aren't time-limited or rotated.

• Lack of visibility: If a service account is compromised, a cybercriminal's behavior can blend in with normal activity since these accounts perform automated processes continuously. Without proper monitoring, suspicious activity can be difficult to detect, allowing cybercriminals to remain undetected for long periods of time.

• Over-privileged accounts: Many service accounts are granted excessive permissions. If one of these accounts is compromised, a cybercriminal can escalate privileges to gain access to critical systems and move laterally across the network.

• Forgotten or orphaned accounts: When services or applications are decommissioned, their service accounts can be left unmanaged. These orphaned accounts may still have active credentials or privileges, creating hidden attack vectors.

• Credential reuse: When passwords, API keys or other secrets are reused across multiple service accounts, a single compromise can expose various systems and significantly increase the impact of a breach.

Benefits of service accounts

When properly managed, service accounts offer many advantages to organizations looking to protect their critical systems more securely and efficiently. Here are the main benefits organizations can gain from using service accounts.

Improved security

Service accounts enable the Principle of Least Privilege (PoLP), meaning each account is granted only the permissions necessary for its specific task. With least-privilege access, the chances of privilege misuse or escalation are significantly reduced. In addition, service accounts function well when paired with secrets management tools, which securely store and manage credentials like passwords, tokens, API keys and certificates. By removing human involvement in routine tasks, service accounts reduce the attack surface and limit the potential for human error.

Streamlined maintenance

Service accounts help automate routine administrative tasks, including data backups, system updates and credential rotation. By automating these processes, IT teams can save time, reduce workloads and ensure tasks are completed consistently.

Enhanced performance

Unlike user accounts, service accounts don't require human monitoring and can operate continuously in the background. This consistency allows systems to run without delays or interruptions, leading to faster operations. Service accounts prove especially valuable in large-scale environments where high performance is critical.

How to secure service accounts

To minimize the security risks associated with service accounts, organizations must follow structured security practices. Here is a step-by-step guide to effectively managing service accounts:

1. Apply least-privilege access: Grant each service account only the permissions necessary to perform specific tasks. Implementing least-privilege access decreases potential damage if the account is compromised, since lateral movement will be limited within systems.

2. Rotate credentials regularly: Use automated password rotation to prevent service accounts from having the same credentials for long periods of time. Regular credential rotation reduces the risk of misuse.

3. Avoid embedding secrets in code: Never store credentials in plaintext within application code or scripts. Instead, use a secrets management tool like Keeper Secrets Manager^® to store secrets securely and encrypt them at all times.

4. Monitor service account usage: Continuously monitor and audit activity by setting up alerts to detect anomalies, such as unexpected login times. Disable unused or inactive accounts to reduce the attack surface in case malicious activity goes undetected.

5. Automate onboarding and offboarding: Use automated provisioning to ensure service accounts are made with proper controls and removed when no longer needed. Automating both onboarding and offboarding prevents forgotten or orphaned accounts from becoming security vulnerabilities.