PAM (Privileged Access Management) is a class of solutions for managing privileged access: controlling accounts with elevated permissions, securely storing secrets, and recording privileged sessions. Administrative and service accounts are the primary target for attackers, so controlling them directly reduces the risk of infrastructure compromise.
What problems PAM solves
PAM answers the question "who did what with admin rights, and when" and prevents those rights from leaking or being used unnoticed. The key tasks are:
- Secret storage. Passwords and keys for privileged accounts live in a secure vault, not in scripts and spreadsheets.
- Access control. Access is granted by policy, on request, and for a limited time.
- Session recording. Privileged connections are logged and recorded for audit and investigation.
- Password rotation. Credentials are changed automatically, reducing the risk of reuse.
How PAM works
PAM acts as a controlled intermediary between an administrator and the target system. Instead of connecting directly with a known password, the user goes through PAM, which verifies permissions, grants temporary access, and records the session.
A typical flow looks like this:
- The administrator requests access to a system through PAM.
- The system verifies permissions and, if needed, requires approval.
- The connection is established through PAM; the administrator may never see the actual password.
- The session is recorded, and the password is rotated after use.
How PAM differs from IAM and a regular password manager
In short: IAM manages access for all users, PAM focuses specifically on privileged accounts, and a password manager simply stores secrets without controlling sessions.
- IAM — who has access to systems and applications at all.
- PAM — how specifically privileged accounts are controlled: on-request provisioning, session recording, rotation.
- Password manager — a secret store without access management or auditing of privileged actions.
These solutions don't compete — they complement each other: IAM covers the overall access landscape, while PAM strengthens control specifically over the highest-risk accounts, whose compromise causes the most damage.
How to choose a PAM solution
When choosing PAM, the completeness of control, ease of use for administrators, and fit with your infrastructure all matter. Useful criteria:
- Support for the protocols and systems you need (SSH, RDP, databases, web consoles).
- Session recording and search for audit and investigations.
- Policy flexibility for on-request, time-bound access.
- Secret rotation and integration with vaults.
- Resilience and scalability matched to your infrastructure's size.
For companies operating in Russia, additional factors include listing in the domestic software registry and regulatory requirements — check the product documentation for specifics.
Common PAM use cases
PAM is used wherever privileged access needs to be not just granted, but controlled. The most common scenarios:
- Contractor access. External specialists get temporary access with full session recording and no knowledge of real passwords.
- Administration of critical systems. Connections to key servers and databases go through PAM with auditing.
- Service account management. Secrets for applications and scripts are stored in PAM and rotated automatically.
- Incident investigation. Recorded privileged sessions help reconstruct who did what in a system.
What risks PAM mitigates
PAM directly reduces risks associated with the compromise of privileged accounts:
- admin passwords leaking from scripts and config files;
- shared accounts used without individual accountability;
- unnoticed actions performed with admin rights;
- attackers gaining persistence through stolen privileged credentials.
Privileged access is most often the target of choice in targeted attacks, which is why controlling it is one of the highest-impact security investments you can make.
Why roll out PAM in stages
PAM touches administrators' day-to-day work, so it's typically rolled out in stages to avoid breaking processes. Turning on all restrictions at once creates resistance and downtime. A staged approach delivers quick intermediate wins and gives processes time to adapt; a detailed step-by-step plan is covered in a separate article, "How to Roll Out PAM in Stages".
Hands-on practice on BI.ZONE Cybersecurity Labs
PAM is best learned on infrastructure that mirrors real production. In the BI.ZONE PAM course, you configure access policies, review session recordings, and practice privileged access control scenarios on isolated lab environments with a domain setup. Product capabilities are described on the BI.ZONE PAM page, and you can start training on the course page.