Non-human identities (NHIs) in cybersecurity refer to the digital identities assigned to machines, applications, and other non-human entities within an IT environment. These identities allow these entities to authenticate themselves and access resources like human users with usernames and passwords.

Here's a breakdown of NHIs:

• What they are: Programmatic credentials used for authentication and authorization in software ecosystems. They enable automated processes, services, and applications to function without direct human intervention.

• Forms they take: NHIs can manifest as API keys, OAuth tokens, service accounts, certificates, and other machine-based authentication methods.

  • Why they matter:

    • Automation: They are crucial for modern IT operations, enabling seamless communication and data exchange between systems.

    • Efficiency: They facilitate complex interactions and workflows in cloud environments, microservices architectures, and interconnected systems.

    • Security risk: NHIs can significantly expand the attack surface if not properly managed. Compromised NHIs can grant attackers access to sensitive data and systems.

Examples of NHIs:

• A service account is used by a cloud application to access a database.

• A mobile app uses an API key to authenticate with a backend server.

• A certificate is used by a device to connect to a network.

Challenges in managing NHIs:

• Visibility: Tracking and managing the number of NHIs in an organization often requires much work.

• Privilege sprawl: NHIs are often granted excessive permissions, leading to potential security risks.

• Lack of human oversight: Unlike human users, NHIs operate in the background, making it harder to detect suspicious activity.

Best practices for securing NHIs:

• Inventory and track all NHIs: Maintain a comprehensive inventory of all NHIs within your environment.

• Implement strong authentication and authorization mechanisms: Use strong passwords, multi-factor authentication, and least privilege principles.

• Regularly review and revoke unnecessary permissions: Periodically audit NHI permissions to ensure they are still required.

• Monitor NHI activity: Track NHI activity for anomalies and suspicious behavior.

• Securely store and manage credentials: Use secrets management solutions to protect NHI credentials.

By understanding and addressing the challenges associated with NHIs, organizations can significantly strengthen their cybersecurity posture and protect their valuable assets.

ThreatNG, with its comprehensive suite of features, can significantly aid in managing and securing Non-Human Identities (NHIs). Here's how:

1. Discovery and Assessment:

• Exposed API Discovery: ThreatNG can identify exposed APIs that might be used by NHIs, allowing security teams to assess their authentication mechanisms and authorization policies. This helps identify APIs that may be vulnerable to unauthorized access by compromised NHIs.

• Certificate Intelligence: By analyzing certificates used for NHI authentication, ThreatNG can identify expired or weak certificates, highlighting potential security risks.

• Exposed Development Environment Discovery: ThreatNG can uncover development environments that might contain hardcoded NHI credentials or insecure configurations, enabling proactive remediation.

• Sensitive Code Exposure: This module can identify exposed code repositories containing NHI credentials like API keys and secrets, allowing for prompt mitigation.

• Cloud and SaaS Exposure: ThreatNG can discover the organization's cloud services and SaaS applications. This visibility helps identify NHIs associated with these services and ensure they are adequately secured.

2. Continuous Monitoring:

• Domain Intelligence: Continuous monitoring of DNS records, subdomains, and IP addresses can help detect suspicious changes that might indicate compromised NHIs or unauthorized access.

• Dark Web Presence: ThreatNG can monitor the dark web for leaked or compromised NHI credentials, providing early warnings of potential threats.

• Sentiment and Financials: Monitoring for organizational events like layoffs or financial distress can help identify periods of increased risk when NHIs might be more vulnerable to insider threats or social engineering attacks.

3. Investigation Modules:

• Search Engine Exploitation: This module can help identify sensitive information exposed through search engines that could be exploited to compromise NHIs, such as API endpoints or configuration files.

• Archived Web Pages: By analyzing archived web pages, ThreatNG can identify past vulnerabilities or exposed credentials that might still be valid and pose a risk to NHIs.

4. Complementary Solutions:

ThreatNG can integrate with other security solutions to enhance NHI security:

• SIEM/SOAR: ThreatNG can feed its findings into SIEM/SOAR platforms to correlate events, automate incident response, and enhance threat intelligence related to NHIs.

• Identity and Access Management (IAM) solutions: Integration with IAM solutions can help enforce strong authentication and authorization policies for NHIs, including multi-factor authentication and least privilege access.

• Secrets Management solutions: ThreatNG can complement secrets management solutions by identifying exposed secrets and providing insights for better secrets hygiene.

Examples:

• Scenario: An organization uses API keys to authenticate machine-to-machine communication within its microservices architecture.

  • ThreatNG's Role: ThreatNG's Exposed API Discovery module can identify all exposed APIs, and the Sensitive Code Exposure module can scan code repositories for leaked API keys. By correlating these findings, ThreatNG can pinpoint vulnerable APIs and compromised credentials, enabling the security team to take corrective action.

• Scenario: An organization uses service accounts for its cloud infrastructure.

  • ThreatNG's Role: ThreatNG's Cloud and SaaS Exposure module can identify all cloud services and associated service accounts. Continuous monitoring of these accounts can detect suspicious activity, such as access from unusual locations or attempts to escalate privileges. Integration with an IAM solution can enhance security by enforcing least privilege access and multi-factor authentication for these service accounts.

By leveraging ThreatNG's comprehensive capabilities, organizations can gain better visibility into their NHIs, proactively identify vulnerabilities, and implement adequate security controls to mitigate risks associated with these critical assets.