Representative ImplementationIdentity Security · Cross-Industry

Privileged Access Management: From Shared Passwords to Vaulted, Just-in-Time Access

A representative PAM integration — vaulting privileged credentials, replacing standing access with time-boxed grants, and recording every privileged session for audit — aligned to SG2'sPAM & DAM practice.

How to read this page: this is a Representative Implementation, not a named-customer case study — a composite example based on common implementation patterns and engineering experience. It illustrates how SG2 typically structures a PAM deployment. No specific customer or deployment is being described, and no outcome figures are claimed as measured results — the one statistic on this page is a cited industry figure (Verizon DBIR), not a project metric.

Executive Summary

Privileged accounts are the highest-value target in most environments, and the least governed. This architecture replaces shared credentials and permanent admin rights with a vault, a just-in-time access broker, and full session recording — so every privileged action is authorised, time-limited, and reviewable after the fact.

74%

of data breaches involve privileged access abuse

Verizon DBIR — cited industry figure, not a project-specific metric

Challenges This Architecture Addresses

Shared admin credentials passed between team members over chat or email
Privileged passwords never rotated after the engineer who set them leaves
No session recording — an incident review has no record of what a privileged session actually did
Standing access to production systems for accounts that need it a few times a month
PAM adoption stalled because engineers found the vault slower than their existing workflow
Auditors asking for privileged-access evidence the team can’t produce on demand

Reference Architecture

Identity Provider (SSO) PAM Vault Just-In-Time Broker Session Recorder Target Systems SIEM

Access Workflow

1

Access Request

Engineer requests time-boxed access to a specific system through the vault, tied to their SSO identity.

2

Approval Workflow

Request routed for approval based on system sensitivity — auto-approved for low-risk, manager sign-off for production.

3

Credential Check-Out

Vault issues a single-use credential or brokered session — the human never sees or copies the actual password.

4

Session Recording

Every privileged session is recorded (keystrokes and/or screen) and indexed for search.

5

Automatic Revocation

Access expires at the end of the approved window — no standing privileged access left behind.

6

Rotation & Audit Log

Credential rotated after use; a structured audit record is pushed to the SIEM automatically.

Capabilities

Vault & Rotation

  • • Centralised credential vaulting
  • • Automated rotation on check-in
  • • Single-use, brokered credentials

Just-In-Time Access

  • • Time-boxed privilege grants
  • • Approval workflows by system sensitivity
  • • No standing admin access

Session Recording

  • • Full session capture for privileged access
  • • Searchable, indexed recordings
  • • Tied to the original access request

Least Privilege

  • • Right-sized role scoping
  • • Removal of unused/orphaned accounts
  • • Regular entitlement review cycles

Identity Integration

  • • SSO / MFA enforced at check-out
  • • Joiner-mover-leaver automation
  • • Service-account ownership mapped

Compliance Reporting

  • • PCI-DSS, ISO 27001, SOC 2 evidence packs
  • • On-demand access reports for audit
  • • Anomaly alerts tuned to reduce noise

Outcomes This Architecture Typically Targets

Representative, not measured — see the note at the top of this page.

Zero standing privileged access outside approved, time-boxed windows
Every privileged session has a searchable recording tied to a named request
Credential rotation happens automatically, not on an engineer’s calendar reminder
Audit evidence for privileged access is a report, not a two-week scramble
Access reviews catch orphaned and over-scoped accounts before an auditor does

Integrates With

Microsoft Entra ID / OktaCyberArk / BeyondTrustSIEMServiceNow (approvals)Cloud IAM (AWS / Azure / GCP)On-prem Active Directory
See the full PAM & DAM practice

Still handing out shared admin passwords?

Talk to our identity security lead about scoping a PAM rollout against your actual privileged-account inventory.

Request an Assessment