Privileged Access Management (PAM)

Privileged access refers to elevated permissions that go beyond standard user rights — such as root/administrator accounts, domain admin credentials, service accounts with broad permissions, and database superuser accounts. Privileged accounts are the primary target of attackers because compromising one can provide control over entire systems, databases, or network infrastructure. Managing these accounts securely is the goal of Privileged Access Management.

According to Forrester Research, 80% of security breaches involve privileged credentials. Once an attacker gains a privileged account, they can: disable security controls, exfiltrate all data, create backdoor accounts, and deploy ransomware across the entire network. Without PAM controls, organizations often have hundreds of privileged accounts with shared passwords that never change, no audit trail of privileged actions, and no mechanism to revoke access quickly during an incident.

A core PAM function is credential vaulting — storing privileged account passwords in an encrypted, access-controlled vault rather than in spreadsheets, sticky notes, or employees' heads. Administrators check out credentials from the vault when needed; the vault records every checkout. Critically, the vault can automatically rotate passwords after each use, so checked-out credentials become invalid once returned. This eliminates shared, static passwords.

The principle of least privilege states that every user, process, or system should have only the minimum access rights necessary to perform its function. PAM enforces this by assigning granular permissions rather than blanket admin rights. Instead of giving a developer full domain admin access to restart one service, PAM grants just-enough access to restart that specific service on those specific servers. This limits the blast radius if the account is compromised.

Privileged Session Management records and monitors every privileged session in real time. PSM solutions can proxy connections through the PAM platform, recording keystrokes, commands issued, and full-screen video of all privileged activity. This creates a complete audit trail for compliance, forensics, and insider threat detection. Some PAM solutions can also terminate sessions in real time if policy violations are detected.

Service accounts are identities used by applications, scripts, and automated processes rather than by humans. They are a major PAM challenge because: they are often highly privileged, passwords rarely change, they may be embedded in application code or scripts, and their owners are unclear after years of operation. PAM solutions manage service account passwords via APIs and rotate them automatically without requiring code changes.

Just-Enough Administration (JEA) is a PowerShell-based technology that restricts what a user can do even when they have elevated access. Instead of making a system administrator a full local administrator, JEA creates a constrained runspace that only exposes the specific cmdlets and parameters needed for their role. A helpdesk operator might be permitted to reset passwords but nothing else — all without needing Domain Admin rights.

The PAM market is led by enterprise solutions including CyberArk (market leader, on-premises and SaaS), BeyondTrust (strong endpoint privilege management), and Delinea (formerly Thycotic and Centrify). These platforms provide credential vaulting, session recording, real-time monitoring, and integrations with SIEM and ticketing systems. Choosing a PAM solution requires evaluating scale, cloud support, API capabilities, and integration with existing identity infrastructure.

PAM includes managing the full lifecycle of privileged accounts: provisioning (creating accounts with appropriate permissions and justified business reasons), review (periodic access certification to confirm accounts are still needed), and deprovisioning (immediate removal when the need ends or employment terminates). Orphaned privileged accounts — those no longer owned by active employees — are high-risk targets for attackers and are a common compliance finding.

PAM solutions integrate with SIEM platforms to provide real-time alerting on suspicious privileged activity. Examples of behaviors that should trigger alerts: a privileged account logging in outside business hours, a service account being used interactively, mass file access or deletion by an admin account, privilege escalation without a corresponding ticket, and consecutive failed privileged login attempts. Behavioral baselines help distinguish normal admin activity from anomalous behavior.

PAM is a foundational component of Zero Trust architecture. In a zero trust model, privileged access is never assumed or standing — it must be explicitly requested, approved, time-limited, and monitored. This aligns with the zero trust principle of least privilege access combined with assume breach: even authorized privileged users are treated as potential threats and their actions are continuously monitored and logged for anomaly detection.

Test your understanding of CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701) concepts from this lesson.

In this lesson you learned: PAM vaults store and automatically rotate privileged credentials to eliminate static shared passwords, privileged session management records all admin activity for audit and forensic purposes, and least privilege and just-enough administration reduce the blast radius of compromised privileged accounts. Next up we explore identity governance and provisioning.