KSI-IAM-SNU—Securing Non-User Authentication
Formerly KSI-IAM-03
>Control Description
>NIST 800-53 Controls
>Trust Center Components3
Ways to express your implementation of this indicator — approaches vary by organization size, complexity, and data sensitivity.
From the field: Mature implementations express non-human identity governance through automated monitoring — service account usage patterns tracked by identity governance platforms, credential age dashboards flagging rotation overdue, and anomalous behavior detection treating machine identities with the same rigor as human accounts. Non-human identity sprawl becomes a measurable, managed metric.
Non-Human Identity Monitoring
Dashboard expressing non-human identity posture — service account usage patterns, credential age, anomalous behavior, and ownership coverage
Service Account Inventory
Service account governance inventory — ownership, classification, credential rotation schedules, and usage patterns
Service Account Management Policy
Human-readable policy for managing non-human identities — documents governance intent behind automated monitoring
>Programmatic Queries
CLI Commands
aws iam list-access-keys --user-name <username> --query "AccessKeyMetadata[].{Key:AccessKeyId,Status:Status,Created:CreateDate}" --output tableaws iam list-roles --query "Roles[?starts_with(Path,'/aws-service-role/')].{Role:RoleName,Service:Path}" --output table>20x Assessment Focus Areas
Aligned with FedRAMP 20x Phase Two assessment methodology
Completeness & Coverage:
- •Does your non-user account inventory cover all types — service accounts, machine identities, API keys, OAuth clients, managed identities, and inter-service certificates?
- •Are there non-user accounts still using long-lived static credentials (passwords, API keys) rather than short-lived tokens, managed identities, or certificates?
- •How do you ensure non-user authentication requirements extend to third-party integrations and SaaS-to-SaaS connections within your authorization boundary?
- •When a new service or integration is created, what process ensures it uses an approved non-user authentication method before deployment?
Automation & Validation:
- •What automated scanning detects hardcoded credentials in source code, configuration files, container images, and IaC templates?
- •How do you enforce that non-user credentials are rotated on schedule, and what happens if automated rotation fails — is it detected and alerted?
- •What automated checks prevent service accounts from being created with password-based authentication when stronger methods are available?
- •How do you detect non-user accounts that authenticate from unexpected sources or exhibit anomalous behavior?
Inventory & Integration:
- •What secrets management platform (Vault, AWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault) manages non-user credentials, and what percentage of credentials are managed through it?
- •How does your credential management integrate with workload identity systems (IRSA, Workload Identity Federation) to eliminate static credentials where possible?
- •What tools discover non-user accounts that exist outside your managed inventory — rogue API keys, manually created service accounts?
- •How do non-user credential rotation events integrate with your change management and logging systems?
Continuous Evidence & Schedules:
- •What is the credential rotation schedule for each non-user account type, and what evidence shows rotation occurred on time?
- •Is the non-user credential inventory and rotation status available via API or dashboard for ongoing assessment?
- •How do you continuously detect newly created non-user accounts that bypass the approved creation and management process?
- •What evidence shows no hardcoded or improperly stored credentials exist in the current codebase and deployed artifacts?
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