Certified: The Security+ Prepcast

Some accounts matter more than others. A compromised guest account might lead to a minor incident—but a compromised administrator account can lead to total system takeover. That’s why privileged accounts need special treatment. In this episode, we explore Privileged Access Management—also known as P A M—and focus on three key techniques: just-in-time permissions, password vaulting, and ephemeral credentials. Together, these practices help organizations control, monitor, and secure elevated access to critical systems and sensitive data.
Let’s start with just-in-time permissions. This technique enforces the principle of least privilege by ensuring that users only receive elevated access when they truly need it—and only for a limited time. Instead of assigning permanent administrative rights, users request access when a task requires it. After a review or automated approval process, elevated privileges are granted temporarily and automatically revoked when the task is complete or the time limit expires.
Just-in-time access reduces the risk of privilege abuse and limits the damage that could occur if an account is compromised. Even if an attacker obtains credentials, they won’t have administrative access unless they happen to exploit the account during its short elevated window.
Let’s walk through a real-world example. An IT technician needs to install updates on a production server. Rather than using a full-time administrator account, they log in with their standard account and request just-in-time elevation through a privileged access management platform. The system verifies their identity, logs the request, and grants administrative access for one hour. After the work is complete, privileges are revoked automatically. The session is recorded, and all activity is logged. This limits exposure and supports auditability.
Just-in-time permissions can be implemented using role elevation workflows, temporary group membership, or time-bound access tokens. Many enterprise platforms now include built-in just-in-time access features, especially for cloud environments and virtual machines. These tools are often integrated with identity providers and ticketing systems to ensure that access requests are tied to valid business needs.
Now let’s move to password vaulting. Even when administrative accounts are required, storing and managing their credentials securely is critical. Password vaulting solutions store privileged account credentials in an encrypted repository—called a vault—and provide access through controlled, audited workflows. Users don’t know or manage the passwords directly. Instead, they check out credentials when needed, and the system automatically rotates passwords after use.
Password vaulting addresses a major risk: hardcoded or shared admin passwords that never change and are widely known. These credentials often remain valid long after employees leave or roles change, making them a prime target for attackers.
Let’s consider another scenario. A financial institution uses a password vault to manage domain administrator credentials. System administrators must authenticate to the vault using multifactor authentication. Once verified, they can request temporary access to a specific system. The vault provides a time-limited password that changes after each use. All access is logged, and audit trails are sent to a Security Information and Event Management system for review. If an administrator leaves the company, their vault access is disabled immediately, and all passwords are rotated. This prevents unauthorized access and supports regulatory compliance.
Password vaulting systems often include features like session recording, command filtering, and alerting for unusual access patterns. They may also integrate with DevOps tools to secure secrets and service accounts in automated workflows.
However, vaulting must be properly configured and maintained. If passwords are not rotated frequently, if vault access is too permissive, or if logs are not monitored, the vault can become a single point of failure. That’s why strong governance and regular reviews are essential.
Now let’s turn to ephemeral credentials. Ephemeral credentials are short-lived access tokens or passwords that expire quickly and cannot be reused. They are often generated automatically for each session, task, or application instance. The idea is simple: if a credential only exists for a few minutes or hours, it’s far less likely to be stolen, misused, or exploited.
Ephemeral credentials are especially useful in dynamic environments like cloud services, containers, and serverless applications. These environments scale rapidly and often lack persistent infrastructure. Generating short-lived credentials on the fly ensures that access remains tightly scoped and automatically expires when no longer needed.
Let’s explore a case study. A software development team uses ephemeral access tokens for their continuous integration pipeline. When the build server starts a new job, it requests a token from the identity provider. The token is valid for one hour and only grants access to the specific repository and environment needed for that task. After the job finishes, the token is discarded. Even if someone captures the token, it cannot be reused. This protects sensitive resources while enabling rapid automation.
Ephemeral credentials can also enhance incident response. If a system is compromised, credentials don’t need to be revoked—because they’re already expired. This limits the attacker’s window of opportunity and makes cleanup faster and more reliable.
Cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud support ephemeral credentials through roles, policies, and token exchange mechanisms. These systems often work alongside identity federation, so that users or services never handle long-term secrets directly.
To implement ephemeral credentials effectively, organizations must automate credential issuance, enforce short expiration times, and tie tokens to specific actions or scopes. Monitoring is key—expired tokens should be audited to ensure they were used correctly, and failed token requests may indicate attempted abuse or misconfiguration.
To summarize, Privileged Access Management is about controlling elevated access so that it’s available only when needed, used only as intended, and removed as soon as possible. Just-in-time permissions reduce standing privileges and limit the impact of compromised accounts. Password vaulting protects, rotates, and audits administrative credentials. And ephemeral credentials ensure that even when access is granted, it’s short-lived, scoped, and disposable. Together, these techniques reduce risk, improve accountability, and support zero trust security architectures.
For the Security Plus exam, expect to answer questions about managing privileged accounts, controlling administrative access, and implementing just-in-time workflows. You may be asked to compare password vaulting to ephemeral tokens, or to identify the right approach for securing a sensitive account or system. Review terms like credential rotation, access checkout, vault integration, token lifespan, and session auditing—they’re all essential for understanding modern Privileged Access Management.
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