In the current digital landscape where automation, AI, and machine-to-machine communication play pivotal roles, traditional security measures fall short when it comes to addressing the unique challenges posed by non-human identities (NHIs). These NHIs, such as API keys, service accounts, OAuth apps, SSH keys, IAM roles, secrets, and other machine credentials, have become essential components in modern development and runtime environments. Consequently, there is an increasing incidence of attacks targeting these identities, necessitating a specialized set of guidelines to mitigate associated risks effectively.
The Importance of the NHI Top 10
Traditional OWASP Top 10 lists, which focus heavily on API and web application security, do not adequately address the specific vulnerabilities that NHIs present. The significance of NHIs in automated processes, data exchange, and AI agent interactions highlights their prevalence and necessity. This extensive use underlines the urgent need for a dedicated framework to protect these identities from growing cyber threats. The introduction of the OWASP NHI Top 10 aims to fill this critical gap, offering targeted guidelines to secure NHIs within various environments, thereby enhancing the overall security landscape.
OWASP Top 10 Ranking Criteria
The OWASP NHI Top 10 uses several criteria to rank the risks associated with non-human identities. These criteria include exploitability, which assesses how easily an attacker can exploit a vulnerability, and impact, which measures the potential damage to business operations and systems. Additionally, prevalence examines how common the security issue is across different environments, while detectability evaluates the difficulty of spotting the weakness using standard monitoring tools. By assessing these factors, the OWASP NHI Top 10 provides a comprehensive overview of the most pressing NHI security risks, enabling organizations to prioritize their mitigation efforts effectively.
Detailed Analysis of the OWASP NHI Top 10 Risks
An in-depth look at the OWASP NHI Top 10 reveals several critical areas of concern. NHI10:2025, for instance, highlights the risks associated with the human use of NHIs, where identities are repurposed for manual operations during development and maintenance phases. Meanwhile, NHI9:2025 discusses the dangers of NHI reuse, which often leads to violations of the principle of least privilege when service accounts are utilized across multiple applications. Another critical risk, NHI8:2025, points to insufficient isolation between test and production environments, thereby increasing the likelihood of security breaches.
Moreover, long-lived secrets, classified under NHI7:2025, pose significant security issues due to their extended validity periods. Misconfigurations in cloud deployment, covered by NHI6:2025, can result in unauthorized access if CI/CD pipelines are not securely configured. The problem of overprivileged NHIs, addressed in NHI5:2025, often leads to security incidents caused by excessive privileges granted to non-human identities. Other notable risks include insecure authentication methods (NHI4:2025), vulnerable third-party NHIs (NHI3:2025), and secret leakage (NHI2:2025). NHI1:2025 emphasizes the criticality of proper offboarding to prevent unused NHIs from becoming potential attack vectors.
Trends and Insights
Developers and security professionals are increasingly recognizing the need to prioritize the security of non-human identities, acknowledging that traditional measures are insufficient. There is a growing awareness of the importance of implementing stringent management practices and robust access controls to mitigate the risks associated with NHIs. The OWASP NHI Top 10 delivers a standardized framework that addresses these specific security challenges, thus enabling security and development teams to integrate these considerations into their security protocols effectively.
The introduction of this comprehensive NHI Top 10 list provides much-needed clarity and structure for addressing the distinct issues associated with non-human identities. By focusing on these unique vulnerabilities, the framework enhances overall cybersecurity practices, ensuring non-human identities are adequately protected against emerging threats.
Conclusion
In today’s digital environment, where automation, AI, and machine-to-machine communications are critical, traditional security measures are insufficient for addressing issues linked to non-human identities (NHIs). These NHIs encompass API keys, service accounts, OAuth apps, SSH keys, IAM roles, secrets, and various machine credentials, all of which are now vital in modern development and operational environments. As these NHIs grow in importance, they become more attractive targets for cyberattacks. This has led to an increasing number of threats specifically aimed at exploiting these identities. To combat these risks effectively, organizations must implement specialized guidelines and strategies that go beyond traditional security practices. Such measures are essential to protect the integrity and functionality of systems heavily reliant on non-human identities. Conventional security tools and methods must evolve to address these unique vulnerabilities, ensuring robust security in an era dominated by automated and AI-driven processes.