In today’s dynamic, cloud-first environments, machine identities—or non-human identities—now outnumber human identities by an exponential amount in many organizations. While identity governance has traditionally focused on users, an expanding blind spot is growing in the form of SSH keys and automated credentials quietly enabling access to critical infrastructure.
Recently, our experts had the opportunity to speak with SC Media and unpack the hidden risk of unmanaged SSH keys to share how organizations can regain visibility and control in a fragmented, high-speed world.
While most organizations have robust processes for managing access for users, or human identities - machine, or non-human identities often operate outside standard IAM policies. To put this into better context, every automation tool, container, API client, or vulnerability scanner uses credentials to access resources—typically through SSH keys.
The problem? These keys often never expire, are rarely tracked, and can be easily copied or shared, becoming a serious vulnerability for lateral movement by attackers.
Our experts emphasized that SSH keys were originally built as a convenience for admins. But in modern DevOps environments, for example, they've evolved into automation enablers. This has unfortunately led to widespread SSH key sprawl, with some organizations holding millions of keys—many that remain orphaned, reused, or improperly stored.
SSH key misuse is not hypothetical. Malware currently exists that actively hunts for SSH keys and tokens on developer and admin endpoints. Once compromised, these credentials allow attackers to move undetected across infrastructure, bypassing traditional PAM tools and circumventing MFA.
One case study our experts shared involved a bank experiencing a costly 12-minute outage after mistakenly revoking a key without full visibility into its dependencies—resulting in a $1.2M trading loss.
Audits frequently expose the issue. Many organizations come to SSH only after they fail an internal or external audit due to a lack of key inventory or discover they can only account for a fraction of real access paths.
The risk isn't just operational—it’s also regulatory. PCI DSS, SOX, HIPAA, and cyber insurance mandates increasingly require demonstrable controls over machine access. Companies are wise to proactively address these risks to avoid the costly ramifications of a major disruption or failed audit.
Our experts outlined a pragmatic response to this challenge:
What makes our approach unique is its alignment with Just-In-Time (JIT) and Zero Standing Privileges (ZSP) models. Instead of relying on vaults of long-lived secrets, ephemeral access ensures credentials disappear after use, dramatically reducing the attack surface.
PrivX also introduces capabilities like device-aware certificate issuance, audit-ready telemetry, and AI-driven reporting that help identity and IT teams build a business case for machine identity governance—before audits or breaches force their hand.
Managing SSH keys and machine identities isn’t just a basic hygiene task—it needs to be a strategic imperative. As infrastructures grow more complex and attackers get smarter, ephemeral access and automated visibility are no longer “nice to have”—they're foundational to modern cybersecurity.
For any organization still relying on static SSH keys, now is the time to rethink how access is granted, tracked, and revoked. The shift to passwordless, keyless, and ephemeral access isn’t the future—it’s how we need to secure ourselves in the present.
Hear the full conversation here >>>