Service Account Management prevents unauthorized access to Sensitive Data, application systems, server infrastructure, and other resources.
Do you know?
A Service Account provides an identity for a System Service often pre-installed and pre-configured as part of an Operating system such as Windows or Linux or any other programs, whereas a user account identifies a human being and must be created manually.
Pros and Cons of Service Accounts
Pros
Service Accounts are used in the programs that operate continuously to support business-critical processes and tasks.
The Service Account serves as a proxy, protecting sensitive data and system resources for users without direct access.
Cons
Service Accounts do not have a human user associated with them, which means, no accountability.
Service Accounts often have privileged access to critical systems and data, making them vulnerable and valuable to attackers. If compromised, the bad actors can gain access to valuable and sensitive data.
Managing passwords for a service account may pose challenges as sometimes resetting a password may break an application. This makes it difficult to enforce password-expiring policies on certain accounts when their passwords won't get changed for extended periods of time.
Unlike user accounts associated with humans who are required to enter their credentials and possibly a multifactor authentication, service accounts may lack these layers of security.
They fly under the radar because of their unique characteristics such as privileged access, low visibility, password management complexities, and lack of user verification.
Where to look?
When the associated application is largely decommissioned, and service accounts are nearing the deadline for password rotation then these orphan IDs must be addressed as quickly as possible (Such as deactivating, decommissioning, etc.). The length of time these orphan IDs can be retained depends on the strict policies of the company's security department.
When it comes to deciding where these service accounts are being used, the question arises - How to check?
The first step is to coordinate with your OUD/LDAP/Microsoft AD teams and review the activity on these service accounts.
If there has been no activity on accounts within the past 3 or 6 months, it is considered safe to decommission them (But with proper due diligence).
You should also check the traffic in monitoring systems, such as Dynatrace or any custom tools, to identify any similar activity.
Once you have identified the IDs, it is important to work with the integrated application team members and inform them that you plan to decommission these service accounts. Once they approve, you can proceed with the decommissioning process.
Draft any required change requests or incidents and get them approved by the approval board.
Make sure to validate all the integrated applications once decommissioned.
Conclusion
In summary, System admins, Developers, and DevOps Team members constantly struggle to maintain and manage these Service Accounts. Fortunately, there are several vendors on the street who offer excellent products to monitor the activity on the service accounts, generate reports based on the need, and protect your systems and sensitive data from bad actors. Plus, they provide Privileged Access Management Tools (PAM) and best practices to gain control of the service accounts whether they are orphaned or actively being used.
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