Identity · Privileged Access
Service & Workload Identity
Non human identities used by applications, scripts and automation, usually the least governed and most over privileged accounts in an estate.
AdvancedUpdated 2026-09-01
Overview
Service accounts, service principals, managed identities and workload identity federation all let software authenticate. They typically outnumber human accounts and rarely have MFA, owners or rotation schedules.
The modern approach removes long lived secrets: managed identities and federated workload credentials obtain short lived tokens from the platform, so there is no password or key to steal.
Security considerations
- Inventory every non human identity with an owner, purpose and expiry.
- Replace static secrets with managed or federated identities wherever the platform supports it.
- Scope permissions per workload rather than sharing one powerful account across systems.