Credential Rotation Policies

What is Credential Rotation?

Credential rotation is a security practice employed by AuthNull to periodically change user credentials. This practice is essential for:

  • Mitigating Risks: Regularly changing credentials reduces the window of opportunity for malicious actors to misuse them.
  • Compliance: Many industry regulations and standards mandate periodic credential rotation to ensure data security.
  • Reducing Attack Surface: Old, unused, or compromised credentials can be a potential security risk. Regular rotation ensures that only current and valid credentials are in use.

Credential rotation policies automate this process, ensuring that credentials associated with servers are changed at regular intervals. credential policy

Password Rotation:

password rotation

Password rotation involves changing the passwords of user accounts at regular intervals. For instance, a database admin account might have its password rotated every 30 days to ensure that even if the password is compromised, it remains valid for a limited time.

Example: If an admin account’s password is “Admin1234” in January, the AuthNull system might automatically rotate it to a new, strong password like “XyZ$9a2!” in February based on policy selected for the endpoint and the time limit decided while creating the policy.

SSH Key Rotation:

password rotation

SSH (Secure Shell) keys are cryptographic keys used to authenticate and secure connections to servers. Rotating SSH keys means generating a new pair of public and private keys and replacing the old ones. This is crucial, especially if there’s a suspicion that the private key has been compromised.

Example: A developer uses an SSH key pair to access a production server. With AuthNull’s rotation policy, the old SSH key pair used in the week 1 might be replaced with a new key pair in second week, ensuring continuous secure access.

Conclusion

Credential rotation, encompassing both password and SSH key rotations, is a vital aspect of maintaining a secure environment. AuthNull’s intuitive interface and automation capabilities make managing this process simple, efficient, and aligned with best security practices.

For more detailed steps on how to set up and manage credential rotation policies in AuthNull, refer how to view, manage and add credential rotation policies for SSH Keys and Password