Privileged access management (PAM)

Certain users need more access than others, such as systems-, network- and security administrators, DevOps engineers, and certain members of the finance department and C-suite. 

When you don’t tightly manage elevated permissions, they can open the door to credential abuse, insider threats and accidental data exposure. 

Giving broad access without clear limits increases the risk to your most sensitive systems.

PAM gives you the tools to control access. With PAM, you can enforce policies that limit, monitor and audit high-risk permissions. It helps reduce the size of your exploitable attack surface and prevent malicious insiders and external attackers from gaining the proverbial keys to your kingdom, two primary goals in identity security.

Privileged accounts pose a substantial risk if compromised. 

Whether it's a domain admin, a Kubernetes cluster role or a database superuser, these accounts often have broad, unrestricted access to sensitive systems. If an attacker accesses these credentials, they can exfiltrate data, deploy malware or shut down systems, sometimes without triggering alerts.

That’s why privileged access is one of the most valuable targets for attackers. And why security leaders prioritize PAM as part of a zero-trust strategy.

PAM solutions help you manage and monitor access to:

• Infrastructure: Servers, databases, networking devices
• Applications: Admin consoles, configuration portals
• Cloud environments: IAM roles in AWS, Google Cloud and Azure
• DevOps tools: pipelines, containers, Kubernetes clusters
• Third-party access: vendors, contractors and service accounts

The goal is simple: give elevated access only when a user needs it, for as little time as possible, and with visibility into access patterns and privilege use.

Just-in-time access (JIT)

With JIT access, users only get elevated permissions for a limited time. Once a task is complete, access automatically expires. It reduces the chance of misuse or forgotten entitlements lingering in your environment.

JIT supports the principle of least privilege by ensuring users never keep permanent access to sensitive systems unless they truly need it. 

Privileged session management

PAM tools monitor, record and log all privileged user sessions. If something suspicious happens, like an unusual script execution or unauthorized file access, you’ll know who did it, when and from which IP address and geographical location.

This audit trail is critical for compliance and investigations. It also helps deter insider threats.

Credential vaulting and rotation

PAM tools can store privileged credentials in encrypted vaults and automatically rotate passwords, tokens or secure shell (SSH) keys after each use. It removes the need for users to know or manage shared credentials.

Credential rotation protects against password reuse, phishing and token theft, especially in DevOps environments, where secrets sprawl is a real problem. 

Access approval workflows

When someone needs elevated access, they submit a request through a PAM workflow. The request goes to an approver, who can approve, deny or require additional context. These workflows help document intent and ensure human oversight before granting privileged access.

You can also integrate these workflows with incident response playbooks or change management processes to enforce policy alignment.

PAM helps you enforce zero trust by verifying who is accessing what and when. It ties directly into your least privilege model by limiting over-permissioned accounts and giving users only the access they need, for the time they need.

Without PAM, you risk users accumulating access over time. It’s a problem called privilege creep. As these privileges stack up, they increase the blast radius of an attack if threat actors compromise credentials.

You might use PAM to:

• Give a third-party vendor time-limited access to a database
• Allow a DevOps engineer temporary Kubernetes admin rights for a deployment
• Grant a sysadmin weekend access to perform updates, without permanent credential exposure
• Detect when a user runs privileged commands outside their regular work hours

PAM is especially valuable in cloud and hybrid environments, where identities are complex and access boundaries constantly shift.

Privileged access plays a critical role in many exposure management scenarios. Attackers don’t need to start with a privileged account. They just need a path to one. 

That’s where over-permissioned service accounts, misconfigured roles or inactive admins become liabilities. Once the threat actor discovers them, these accounts can direct attackers to your most sensitive systems.

PAM blocks those attack paths before threat actors can exploit them. By enforcing least privilege, automating just-in-time access and eliminating unused credentials, you can reduce the number of entry points an attacker can exploit.

When integrated into your exposure management program, PAM helps you:

• Visualize and disrupt privilege-based attack paths across cloud, identity and infrastructure
• Identify risky privilege combinations that span users, roles and resources
• Contain lateral movement by tightening access to critical systems and assets
• Shrink the attack surface by continuously cleaning up excess privileges and unused accounts

With the Tenable One Exposure Management Platform, you get unified visibility across user permissions, cloud entitlements and connected infrastructure. That means you can identify dangerous privilege paths, correlate them with other risk factors, like misconfigurations or attack techniques, and take targeted action before attackers do.

PAM limits excessive access. Exposure management limits the opportunity to exploit it. Together, they help you anticipate, prioritize and eliminate risks.

Request a demo of Tenable One to see how unified exposure management and PAM can help you visualize risk, eliminate excess privileges and stop lateral movement.

Controlling access is only part of the equation. If a privileged user can log into a system with known vulnerabilities, you still open a door for attackers.

That’s why privileged access and vulnerability management must work together. 

Privileged accounts often connect to critical assets, like cloud services, databases or legacy infrastructure, that may have unpatched vulnerabilities or misconfigurations. If bad actors compromise those systems, they can exploit elevated permissions to move deeper into your environment.

When you link PAM with vulnerability insights, you can:

• Identify overprivileged users on high-risk systems
• Prioritize which accounts to restrict based on the vulnerabilities they can access
• Detect dormant admin accounts tied to unpatched or exposed resources
• Reduce attack paths that stem from a combination of excessive access and known weaknesses

With Tenable One, you can combine identity, vulnerability and cloud misconfiguration data in one platform. That way, you can see the full risk picture and act on the privileged accounts with the greatest potential for exploitation.

PAM helps you limit access. Vulnerability management helps you limit exposure. Together, they give you a stronger, more proactive defense.

Request a demo of Tenable One to see which privileged accounts have access to your most vulnerable systems, so you can shrink attack paths and stop threats before they spread.

• Consistently enforce MFA before granting privileged access.
• Use just-in-time access to limit privilege duration.
• Regularly review and audit privileged roles and accounts.
• Rotate credentials automatically and remove hardcoded secrets.
• Monitor all privileged sessions with real-time alerts.
• Integrate PAM into your CI/CD and DevOps pipelines.

PAM improves accountability, increases visibility and helps you stay compliant. When attackers can’t escalate privileges, it limits their ability to move laterally, steal data or cause damage.

By pairing PAM with real-time identity visibility and automated risk scoring, you can build a more proactive security posture that stops identity threats before they spread.

What is privileged access?
Privileged access refers to elevated permissions that let users make system-level changes, manage configurations or access sensitive data. These accounts include system admins, root users, and some DevOps or service accounts.

What’s the difference between IAM and PAM?
IAM manages user identities and general access. PAM focuses on a subset of IAM that controls, monitors and limits access for high-risk or elevated accounts.

Why is PAM important for security?
PAM is important for security because privileged accounts are common attack targets. PAM limits how long those accounts have access, logs their activity and enforces least privilege to reduce breach risk.

How does just-in-time (JIT) access work?
JIT access gives users temporary privileged access only when needed. Access automatically expires after completing the task, reducing the chance of misuse or abuse of neglected permissions.

How can PAM support compliance?
PAM helps enforce access controls, maintain audit trails and reduce privilege creep — capabilities many compliance regulations require.

Do I need PAM for cloud environments?
Yes, you need PAM for the cloud. In cloud and hybrid setups, privileges often span multiple services and roles. PAM helps you consistently manage and monitor those roles, especially in complex environments like AWS, Azure and Kubernetes.

Want to reduce privileged access risk across your environment? Request a demo of Tenable Identity Exposure and see how to identify overprivileged accounts and automate least privilege.