Active Directory Secrets & Privileged Access Automation

Introduction

Managing Active Directory credentials manually often creates standing privileges, security gaps, and unnecessary administrative overhead. In this video, we'll look at how Akeyless automates account discovery, credential rotation, and just-in-time access, giving your security team centralized control while streamlining access for your users.

Connecting to Active Directory via Gateway

We start by connecting Akeyless to our domain through the gateway using an LDAP target that holds your Active Directory credentials. That connection centralizes the identity used for discovery and credential management, with permissions aligned to the operations you enable. A separate lookup account can support authentication without requiring those same management privileges. You can see all of the connection details here.

Discovering Accounts, Certificates, and Dependencies

Next, we discover the users and computers within the scope you choose. With the relevant options enabled, we can also inventory local accounts and certificates, bringing those resources into a consistent folder structure in Akeyless.

The value goes beyond finding accounts. We also identify the Windows services and IIS applications that depend on their credentials.

Here, we can see that our IIS application pool uses this service account. That gives us the context needed to manage the password without leaving its consumers behind.

Rotating Credentials and Managing Schedules

Let's rotate that account's password. Akeyless updates the credential, updates the associated dependency, and restarts the relevant service or application pool. Once that completes, we can confirm the application still works.

This replaces a coordinated manual task with a repeatable process. You can define rotation schedules and password requirements for individual accounts, or apply those settings through discovery so newly imported accounts enter management consistently.

Controlling Shared Account Checkouts

For shared accounts that require checkout, we can control access through Akeyless while the credential is in use. Reading the secret locks it against subsequent retrieval, according to the configured policy.

When the user checks it back in, Akeyless can automatically rotate the password. That replaces the credential they received and limits its continued use after the task is complete. Your team gets a familiar checkout workflow with less manual follow-up.

Enabling Just-in-Time (JIT) Access and Temporary Privileges

We can also move beyond managing existing passwords and provide access for a limited time. One option creates a temporary AD user with the required access, then removes that user when the lease expires. Let's see how that works.

Another option temporarily elevates an existing user by adding them to the required AD groups. When the lease ends, that membership is removed. We can also map the authenticated user's identity to their domain account, connecting the access request to the person receiving the privilege.

This helps reduce standing access. Users receive the permissions needed for their task, with an expiration defined up front.

Secure Remote Access and Session Auditing

Finally, we put that access to use through Secure Remote Access. Users can launch an authorized RDP session with a managed credential, or access a supported web portal with credentials injected into the login flow. Where configured, session auditing and recording provide visibility into that activity. And we are logged into the Windows machine.

Conclusion

What we've shown is a connected approach to AD access: discover accounts and their dependencies, keep credentials current, control shared-account use, and grant temporary privilege. Security gains consistent controls and visibility, while administrators and users spend less time handling passwords and coordinating access.