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What is a non-human identity?

A non-human identity (NHI) is a digital identity assigned to a machine, application, service or script. It consists of a unique identifier and an associated credential that allow it to authenticate and interact with other systems automatically. NHIs are essential to agentic AI initiatives, cloud services, DevOps workflows and other modern IT operations. They let AI agents, IoT devices, bots and CI/CD tools function without human intervention.

Why NHIs matter to SecOps

delinea-photo-ai-peopleNHIs are a major concern for today’s security teams. According to a 2026 Cloud Security Alliance Report, NHIs outnumber human identities by an average of 45 to 1 across enterprises and 144 to 1 in cloud-native environments. Those ratios are likely to increase even further as agentic AI adoption proliferates.

NHIs typically authenticate using secrets such as tokens, keys, certificates and passwords, which are often hard-coded directly into applications or configuration files rather than stored in a managed vault. When that code or those files end up in a public repository like GitHub, the exposed credentials become easy prey for threat actors. 

Adversaries routinely use compromised credentials to breach systems, traverse networks, exfiltrate data and carry out attacks. Credential abuse plays a role in 39% of breaches, according to a Verizon 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report. And many of those breaches involve NHIs.

NHIs are often over-permissioned and granted standing privileges, making them a favorite target for attackers. In fact, OWASP calls out excessive privileges as one of the top ten risks associated with non-human identities.

In a 2026 Delinea Identity Security Report, 73% of decision-makers agree that standing access for NHIs increases risk. But 68% say they often accept standing access for NHIs under operational pressure. Today, much of that operational pressure comes from agentic AI.

AI agents expand the attack surface

Agentic AI is transforming the NHI threat landscape. AI agents typically operate outside established identity and access controls. They often inherit excessive access privileges from a user's credentials or from a shared service account. Unlike human identities, AI agents operate at machine speed, making it difficult for security teams to identify and mitigate threats before they spread across the enterprise. In a 2026 IBM Institute for Business Value
survey, 77% of CIOs, CTOs and other technology leaders said that AI adoption is outpacing their organization's governance capabilities.  

  • Standing access creates permanent exposure

    Every identity with persistent, privileged access is a standing target. The credentials don't have to be actively in use for the risk to exist. A dormant service account, a CI/CD pipeline running on long-lived credentials or an AI agent granted broad permissions during deployment can all become entry points for an attacker.

    According to the     2026 Delinea Identity Security Report, organizations are more than twice as likely to grant NHIs and AI agents long-lived credentials as they are to use just-in-time authorization. Only 8% of respondents said they use ephemeral credentials.

  • Zero standing privilege is essential for agentic AI security

    ZSP was originally applied to human administrators, but the most urgent need today is for AI agents. Unlike traditional automation scripts, which execute pre-programmed steps, AI agents can make contextual decisions at runtime. They can determine which systems to interact with, request additional access, invoke new tools and trigger privilege changes on their own. A single agent with standing privileges can move across multiple systems at machine speed, spreading damage far faster than security teams can detect and mitigate.

  • ZSP complements least privilege

    Least privilege defines how much access an identity should have, while zero standing privilege adds a time dimension. An identity can hold a minimal set of permissions and still pose a risk if those permissions are always available. ZSP reduces that risk by requiring that access not persist indefinitely.

  • Zero standing privilege reduces the blast radius of a breach

    No security program can completely eliminate credential theft and abuse. Users can still fall for clever phishing attacks. And disgruntled employees can still share credentials with threat actors. 

    Zero standing privilege limits what an attacker can do with a compromised credential once they have it. It reduces the blast radius, limiting a threat actor's ability to move laterally and expand the scope of an attack. When an account holds no standing privileges, a stolen credential is of limited value.  

The anatomy of an NHI

Every NHI consists of two components: an identifier and a credential. The identifier uniquely represents a machine, application, workload or service. The credential authenticates that identity and may take the form of a password, API key, certificate, token or another authentication mechanism. Together, they enable trusted machine-to-machine communication without human intervention.

 delinea-diagram-nhi-anatomy

NHIs are used to authenticate and authorize access to enterprise resources 

NHIs operate across nearly every layer of modern IT. They are used to run background jobs through service accounts, to exchange data between microservices and databases, to deploy infrastructure through CI/CD pipelines and to enable IoT devices, sensors and robotic process automation tools to execute functions and carry out tasks.  Different types of NHIs are often created and managed by different teams, making consistent governance difficult.

NHI governance systems and practices

Most enterprises have formal workforce identity systems and practices for governing employees, contractors, vendors and other individuals. Identity teams use IAM and IGA tools to manage identities and access rights as people join the company, change roles or leave the organization.

Many enterprises don't have comparable systems in place for managing NHIs. In many organizations, NHIs are created manually by developers when building or deploying an application or an AI agent. They are often shared across applications without common oversight. Without a clear owner, an NHI can outlive its purpose unnoticed.

NHI governance solutions help organizations overcome these challenges by automating lifecycle management, centralizing administration and unifying visibility across the extended enterprise. They strengthen NHI security by bringing proven human identity governance practices to the world of non-human identities.

 Common NHI governance capabilities

Capability

Function

Benefit

Discovery and inventory 

 Uncover NHIs scattered across the entire IT estate  Improve visibility and reduce exposure

Credential vaulting

 Isolate, secure and rotate secrets

Remove secrets from applications and configuration files

Reduce credential theft and abuse risks

Identity lifecycle management 

 Automatically provision and deprovision identities and access rights 

Eliminate stale identities and standing access

Reduce identity sprawl and unnecessary risk

Threat analysis and response

 Continuously monitor NHI posture and flag anomalous behavior  Surface suspicious activity before attackers can do lasting damage 

  • NHI security and governance best practices

    Effective NHI management begins with visibility and extends throughout the identity lifecycle. While every business has different requirements, these best practice recommendations can help any organization improve NHI governance and reduce risk. 
  • Discover every non-human identity

    Governance begins with visibility. Continuously discover and inventory AI agents, service accounts, applications and other machine identities across your entire IT estate, including on-premise, cloud and SaaS platforms. A complete inventory provides the foundation for risk assessment and access control.

  • Centralize governance and ownership

    Clearly define the owner responsible for approving access, reviewing permissions and retiring identities that are no longer needed. Centralized governance helps reduce orphaned identities, inconsistent policies and administrative blind spots. 

  • Protect and rotate credentials

    Replace hard-coded credentials with centrally managed secrets whenever possible. Rotate API keys, certificates, tokens and other credentials regularly and use short-lived credentials where supported to reduce the impact of credential theft. 

  • Enforce least privilege

    Grant every NHI only the minimum permissions required to perform its intended function. Regularly review and remove excessive permissions and replace standing privileged access with time-limited or task-specific access wherever practical.

  • Monitor identity activity

    Continuously monitor authentication events, privileged activity and credential usage to identify anomalous behavior and contain threats before they spread across the enterprise.

Related security concepts 

 Many NHI security, governance and management concepts overlap with or complement other cybersecurity disciplines and solutions. 

Concept/capability

Function

How it relates to NHI security

Privileged Access Management (PAM)

 Vaults and rotates privileged account credentials and audits privileged account activity.  PAM solutions often manage a subset of NHIs, mainly service accounts with elevated access. Traditional PAM platforms can't meet the scalability and performance requirements of AI agents and other contemporary NHIs. 

Identity governance and administration (IGA)  

 Manages identities and access rights across the lifecycle.

Most traditional IGA solutions were originally designed to manage human identities. NHI governance solutions extend established lifecycle management practices to non-human identities. 

 Secrets management 

 Stores, rotates and injects the credentials NHIs use to authenticate.

Secrets management protects the credential component of an NHI. 

Cloud infrastructure entitlement management (CIEM) 

 Analyzes permissions across cloud providers to flag excessive or unused access. Many CIEM solutions can surface over-permissioned NHIs. 

 Zero standing privilege (ZSP)

 Ensures human and non-human identities are never granted permanent privileged access to critical enterprise resources.  ZSP is one of the primary goals of NHI governance.  

Machine identity management (MIM)

 Manages certificates, keys and other credentials tied to machines and workloads, often with a focus on cryptographic assets.  MIM and NHI security cover much of the same ground, though NHI security places more weight on ownership, behavior and lifecycle rather than certificate management. 

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between an NHI and a service account?
A service account is a specific type of NHI. It is a special type of account used by applications or services to interact with other applications, services or an operating system. Unlike user accounts, service accounts are not associated with a specific person but are used to provide a security context for services running on operating systems or cloud platforms.  

What credentials do NHIs use?

NHIs authenticate using a variety of credential types, including API keys, certificates, passwords and tokens. The appropriate credential depends on the type of identity, the systems it accesses and the environment in which it operates. Cloud workloads, for example, often rely on temporary tokens, while legacy applications are more likely to use a static API key or password. Many organizations are replacing long-lived credentials with ephemeral credentials that expire automatically, reducing credential theft and abuse risks.

Why do non-human identities outnumber human identities?

NHIs typically outnumber human identities because every application, workload, service, API, automation tool and AI agent requires its own identity to authenticate and access enterprise resources. Modern cloud architectures, microservices, DevOps pipelines and agentic AI can create thousands of new identities automatically, many of them short lived. As organizations expand their digital infrastructure, the number of non-human identities grows much faster than the workforce, making visibility and governance paramount.  

Who owns NHI management in an organization?

NHI ownership varies by organization, but effective NHI governance depends on assigning clear accountability. NHIs are often created by developers, DevOps teams or automation platforms as applications and services are deployed rather than through formal identity provisioning processes. Without a designated owner responsible for reviewing permissions and retiring identities that are no longer needed, NHIs can accumulate excessive privileges, become orphaned and remain active long after their original purpose has ended. 

AI agents and AI agent identity security

Are AI agents considered non-human identities?

A non-human identity is a digital identity assigned to a machine, application, service or script. It consists of a unique identifier and an associated credential that allow it to authenticate and interact with other systems automatically. An AI agent is assigned an NHI the same way a machine, application, service or script is. The agent itself isn't, strictly, the identity.

Why do AI agents create new identity security risks? 
Unlike traditional automation tools, AI agents operate autonomously, often accessing multiple applications, APIs and data sources without direct human oversight. They typically inherit permissions from a user account or another NHI, acquiring far broader access rights than a specific task requires. Without strong identity governance and least privilege controls, a compromised or misconfigured AI agent can rapidly access sensitive resources and move across systems at machine speed. 

How should you govern AI agent identities?
AI agent identities should be governed using the same lifecycle management principles applied to other NHIs. Every AI agent should have a clearly defined owner, a specific business purpose and only the permissions required to perform its assigned tasks. Apply the same discovery, lifecycle management, least privilege enforcement and continuous monitoring practices used for other NHIs and replace standing privileges with just-in-time access wherever practical.  

Governance

How do you discover NHIs?

You can use a discovery tool to construct a complete inventory of existing NHIs across your IT estate. Modern discovery tools can scan on-premise infrastructure, cloud platforms, SaaS applications and DevOps environments to identify service accounts, workloads, applications, AI agents and other NHIs. Once discovered, you can assign ownership, evaluate permissions and identify orphaned or over-permissioned identities.

How do NHIs become orphaned?
NHIs become orphaned when they remain active after the application, workload or business process they supported has changed or been retired. Because NHIs are often created outside formal identity governance processes, they may have no clearly assigned owner responsible for reviewing permissions or removing them when they are no longer needed. Left unmanaged, these orphaned identities can persist with excessive privileges, increasing the attack surface.  

How do you reduce standing privilege for NHIs?

You can reduce standing privilege by granting NHIs only the access they need, only when they need it. Replace permanent privileged access with just-in-time access wherever practical, granting permissions for a specific task or limited time and automatically revoking them when they are no longer required. Regularly review permissions to remove unnecessary access and ensure each NHI continues to operate according to the principle of least privilege.  

Related technologies

How does NHI security relate to secrets management?

Secrets management is an important component of NHI security, but it addresses only part of the equation. Secrets management solutions securely store, rotate and deliver the passwords, API keys, certificates and tokens that NHIs use to authenticate. NHI security goes further by discovering non-human identities, assigning ownership, governing their lifecycle, enforcing least privilege and continuously monitoring their activity across the enterprise.

How does privileged access management relate to NHI security?
Privileged Access Management (PAM) is a foundational component of NHI security programs. PAM solutions vault and rotate credentials for privileged accounts, such as service accounts, and enforce access controls and audit trails for sensitive systems. NHI security builds on those capabilities by discovering, governing and monitoring all NHIs, including those that aren't privileged. 

How does zero standing privilege relate to NHI security?
Zero standing privilege (ZSP) is one of the primary goals of NHI security. Instead of granting NHIs permanent privileged access, ZSP limits access to the minimum permissions required and only for the time needed to complete a specific task. By eliminating standing privileges, you can reduce the attack surface, limit the impact of compromised credentials and make it more difficult for attackers to move laterally across the environment.  

What is the difference between NHI security and machine identity security?
The terms are often used interchangeably, but there are some subtle distinctions. Machine identity security tends to emphasize the credentials and cryptographic assets tied to devices, workloads and infrastructure, while NHI security is a broader term, covering machine identities along with service accounts, API keys, bots and AI agents. In practice, both disciplines rely on the same core practices: discovery, credential protection, least privilege and continuous monitoring.  

What is just-in-time access for NHIs?

Just-in-time (JIT) access is an identity security capability that grants NHIs privileged access to systems and resources only at the moment it's needed, scoped to that specific task, for a defined period of time. It replaces standing privileges with time-bounded grants, automatically revoking privileges when the time window closes, reducing the attack surface and lowering credential theft and abuse risks.  

Threat and risk management

What are the most common risks associated with NHIs?
The most common NHI risks include excessive privileges, hardcoded credentials, orphaned identities, poor visibility and weak lifecycle management. Attackers frequently target passwords, API keys, certificates and tokens used by NHIs to gain unauthorized access to enterprise systems. Without effective governance, organizations can struggle to discover every NHI, assign ownership, remove unnecessary access and detect compromised identities before attackers can cause further damage.  

Why are hardcoded secrets dangerous?

A hard-coded secret is a credential embedded directly in source code or a configuration file rather than stored in a managed vault. Hard-coded secrets are difficult for security and operations teams to discover, manage and rotate, making them more likely to remain in use long after they should have been replaced. If source code or configuration files are pushed to a public repository like GitHub, attackers can use exposed credentials to gain unauthorized access to enterprise systems. 

Why is credential rotation important for NHIs?

Credential rotation is important because it reduces the length of time a compromised credential can be exploited. By regularly replacing passwords, API keys, certificates and other credentials, you can limit how much damage a stolen credential can cause and reduce the value of any single credential to an attacker. 

How do attackers exploit NHIs?

Attackers exploit NHIs by stealing or abusing the credentials used for authentication. Compromised passwords, API keys, certificates and tokens can allow attackers to impersonate legitimate applications, services or workloads and gain unauthorized access to enterprise resources. Once inside, threat actors often exploit excessive permissions and standing privileges to move laterally, exfiltrate confidential data and disrupt critical applications and services.