From Shadow Accounts to Secure Vaults: How Kron PAM Simplifies Privileged Account Discovery

Enterprises rely on thousands of privileged accounts spread across servers, databases, and network devices. These accounts — whether local administrator accounts, AD/LDAP-integrated identities, or service accounts — are powerful but also risky. If left unmanaged, they can become “shadow accounts” that attackers exploit, or even legitimate but forgotten accounts that weaken an organization’s security posture.

Industry research shows that mismanaged privileged accounts remain a leading cause of breaches. According to Verizon’s 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report, nearly 30% of incidents stem from credential misuse, often involving accounts that should have been secured or retired. Attackers don’t need to break in if they can simply log in with orphaned or unmonitored credentials.

This is why privileged account discovery and lifecycle management are essential. And it’s exactly where Kron PAM makes a difference.

Discovering Privileged Accounts at Scale

Kron PAM includes a built-in account discovery engine designed to scan across your IT environment and detect privileged accounts wherever they exist. The system can interrogate both local accounts on target servers and directory-based accounts (Active Directory, LDAP).

Each discovery scan provides detailed intelligence such as:

· The privilege level of the account

· The last password change time

· The last login activity

· The groups the account belongs to

This visibility is crucial. It not only highlights which accounts have privileged access, but also which ones may be stale, risky, or overprivileged. For example, a root account that hasn’t been used in months but still exists represents an unnecessary attack surface.

Continuous Monitoring for New Accounts

Discovery is not a one-time process. Systems evolve constantly — new users are added, contractors are onboarded, and sometimes accounts appear outside of official provisioning workflows.

Kron PAM addresses this with incremental scanning. Each time a new scan runs, it highlights accounts that have been added since the last check. System administrators can then configure automated responses, such as:

· Logging the discovery of a new account for auditing purposes

· Automatically deleting unauthorized accounts from target systems

· Flagging anomalies for managerial approval

This proactive approach ensures that new accounts never slip through the cracks and that shadow identities are neutralized before they become liabilities.

Vaulting Privileged Accounts for Security and Control

Once accounts are discovered, they don’t just remain on a report — Kron PAM can immediately bring them under governance by adding them into its secure Vault.

Inside the Vault, privileged accounts’ passwords, SSH keys, API keys, and secrets are:

· Stored securely with encryption and access controls

· Periodically rotated even if unused, to prevent credential aging

· Rotated on every checkout or session use, ensuring no credential is ever reused

This eliminates the risks of static, stale, or shared credentials. Instead, every privileged account is managed under a system of controlled access and automatic credential hygiene.

Extending Security to Applications and Tools

Privileged accounts aren’t only accessed by humans. Applications, scripts, and automation pipelines also need credentials. Hardcoding secrets into scripts or storing them in configuration files has led to countless breaches.

Kron PAM resolves this with its Application-to-Application Password Management (AAPM) capability. Authorized applications and tools can securely fetch the passwords, SSH keys, and API tokens they need directly from Kron PAM:

· Via SDKs and APIs for seamless integration

· Through the AAPM Agent, which brokers secure access without exposing secrets in plain text

This ensures that human users, automated processes, and third-party tools all rely on the same secure Vault —eliminating shadow secrets and centralizing credential governance.

Conclusion: Eliminating Shadow Risk with Kron PAM

Unmanaged privileged accounts are ticking time bombs for enterprises. Whether they’re forgotten local admin accounts, newly added users outside of approval workflows, or hardcoded secrets in applications, these accounts present attackers with an easy way in.

Kron PAM addresses the challenge from end to end:

· Discovering accounts across systems and directories

· Monitoring for newly created accounts

· Vaulting all privileged credentials with strong security and automated rotation

· Extending access to applications through AAPM integrations

By turning shadow accounts into governed, monitored, and controlled identities, Kron PAM not only closes one of the biggest gaps in enterprise security but also simplifies compliance and reduces operational risk.

With Kron PAM, privileged accounts are no longer a liability —they’re a managed asset.

*Written by Furkan Kırmacı. He is a Senior Product Owner at Kron.