Non-Human Identity Abuse
Non-Human Identity (NHI) Abuse refers to the malicious or unauthorized use of credentials—such as API keys, service accounts, certificates, or tokens—assigned to applications, devices, or automated systems rather than to individual people. It is a critical attack vector where a threat actor exploits a stolen, misconfigured, or forgotten machine identity to gain unauthorized access, escalate privileges, and conduct harmful operations.
The Mechanisms of NHI Abuse
NHI abuse succeeds because these identities are designed for continuous, automated access and typically lack the security controls used for human users, like Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA).
1. Compromise (How Attackers Get the NHI)
Abuse begins with an attacker obtaining the NHI's secret credentials, usually through one of the following methods:
Credential Leakage: The secret is exposed due to hardcoded credentials in public code repositories (GitHub) or misconfigured cloud storage. This provides a direct, low-friction entry point.
Credential Theft: Attackers steal credentials (e.g., OAuth tokens or API keys) via malware, exploitation of vulnerable third-party applications, or attacks such as Kerberoasting (targeting service accounts in Active Directory).
Orphaned Identities: Exploiting zombie or abandoned service accounts that remain active and unmonitored after the owner or project has been decommissioned.
2. Exploitation (How Attackers Use the NHI)
Once compromised, the NHI acts as a valid backdoor for the attacker, leading to system compromise:
Initial Access and Persistence: The attacker logs in using the stolen credentials, bypassing perimeter defenses entirely and often remaining undetected because NHI activity is poorly monitored.
Privilege Escalation: Because NHIs are frequently overprivileged (violating the Principle of Least Privilege), the attacker can use the compromised identity to access resources beyond their intended scope, sometimes gaining domain administrator access.
Lateral Movement: The attacker leverages the NHI's extensive programmatic access to move across different interconnected systems, services, and devices within the network, often accessing production environments and cloud databases.
Data Exfiltration and Ransomware: The abused NHI is used to steal sensitive data, deploy malicious code (including ransomware), or disrupt critical operational workflows, causing significant financial and reputational damage.
Real-World Consequences (Examples)
NHI abuse is integral to many modern breaches:
Attackers are exploiting stolen OAuth tokens to impersonate trusted applications and exfiltrate sensitive data from services like Salesforce.
Compromised API keys are allowing unauthorized access to private code and AI models.
Unrotated Zendesk access tokens are leading to the compromise of customer support tickets.
NHI abuse is a complex, high-impact threat that demands proactive discovery and strict governance over all machine identities.
ThreatNG is highly effective at identifying, quantifying, and mitigating the risks associated with Non-Human Identity (NHI) Abuse because it specializes in the external, unauthenticated discovery of the compromised credentials and vulnerable assets that an attacker would use to facilitate that abuse.
ThreatNG's Role in Preventing NHI Abuse
External Discovery and Continuous Monitoring
ThreatNG performs purely external, unauthenticated discovery, which is the only way to find the exposed static NHI credentials (such as API keys and service account tokens) that attackers compromise. This agentless approach is critical because NHI abuse often begins with a credential leak in a public space. Through Continuous Monitoring of the external attack surface, ThreatNG ensures the security team is immediately alerted when a new NHI credential is accidentally exposed, minimizing the window of opportunity for an attacker to begin abusing it.
External Assessment and Examples
ThreatNG provides a direct, quantifiable measure of the risk posed by compromised NHIs, which serves as the organization’s NHI abuse risk score:
Non-Human Identity (NHI) Exposure Security Rating: This critical governance metric (A–F scale) quantifies the organization's vulnerability to threats from high-privilege machine identities, including leaked API keys, service accounts, and system credentials.
The rating's certainty is achieved by continuously assessing 11 specific exposure vectors, including Sensitive Code Exposure and misconfigured Cloud Exposure.
Example: If ThreatNG discovers a publicly exposed Authorization Bearer token or a Square OAuth Secret, this finding immediately degrades the NHI Exposure Security Rating, signaling a critical credential that could be used for abuse of the associated service.
Breach & Ransomware Susceptibility: This rating is affected when NHI abuse exposes infrastructure that facilitates compromise. The rating considers Compromised Credentials and Exposed Ports.
Investigation Modules and Examples
The investigation modules provide the essential granular findings on compromised NHIs and the resulting abuse risks:
Sensitive Code Exposure: This module addresses the root cause of NHI abuse: credential leakage. The Code Repository Exposure submodule finds Access Credentials and Security Credentials in public code repositories.
Example: ThreatNG identifies a public repository containing Cloud Credentials such as an AWS Access Key ID and AWS Secret Access Key. An attacker could use these leaked credentials to commit NHI Abuse and steal data or disrupt cloud services programmatically.
Mobile Application Discovery: This module scans mobile apps for hardcoded NHI credentials.
Example: ThreatNG discovers a hardcoded Facebook Secret Key or Google Cloud Platform OAuth token. An attacker could use these secrets to abuse NHI and access and manipulate backend data or user accounts.
NHI Email Exposure: This feature identifies exposed role-based email addresses (like system, svc, devops, jenkins, and service). Example: An attacker can target a discovered
svc@company.comemail address with credential stuffing to compromise the associated service account, enabling abuse.Dark Web Presence: This module checks for Associated Ransomware Events and Associated Compromised Credentials. NHI abuse is often linked to ransomware.
Intelligence Repositories and Reporting
ThreatNG enhances the NHI abuse risk assessment by providing threat intelligence and high-certainty reporting:
Compromised Credentials (DarCache Rupture): If ThreatNG discovers an exposed NHI credential, this repository immediately checks whether the same credential has been found in dark web dumps. This linkage confirms active compromise risk, which dramatically escalates the severity of the potential NHI abuse.
Ransomware Groups and Activities (DarCache Ransomware): This repository tracks over 70 ransomware gangs. If an exposed asset or credential is found, this information provides context on the likely threat actors who may attempt to use the exposure for abuse.
Context Engine™: The engine delivers Legal-Grade Attribution, converting technical findings (like a publicly exposed service account key) into irrefutable evidence. This certainty is crucial for justifying the immediate, high-priority remediation needed to prevent NHI abuse.
Reporting: The NHI Exposure Security Rating and Prioritized Reports (High, Medium, Low) ensure teams focus first on the most severely exposed NHI credentials, which are prime targets for abuse.
Complementary Solutions
ThreatNG's external NHI findings can be integrated with internal systems to prevent and respond to NHI abuse:
Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM) Systems: The discovery of a critical NHI credential leakage (e.g., AWS Access Key ID) is shared with an IAM system. The IAM system can automatically use this external finding to immediately revoke the exposed key and audit the account's logs for signs of abuse before taking the automated action.
Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) Platforms: A critical alert from ThreatNG regarding a significant NHI Exposure can trigger a SOAR platform. The SOAR platform can automatically use this external finding to open a high-priority incident ticket, notify the security operations center (SOC), and initiate automated steps to quarantine the exposed code or asset, ensuring prompt governance and control.
Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) Tools: ThreatNG’s discovery of exposed Cloud Exposure (open cloud buckets) can be shared with a CSPM tool. The CSPM tool can then use this alert to ensure the resource is secured, preventing the resource from being used by a compromised NHI to stage further abuse or data exfiltration.
