What it means
Service account management governs nonhuman identities used by applications, services, automation, devices, and integrations throughout their lifecycle.
Why it matters
Service identities often hold durable privileges and can outlive the systems or owners that created them.
Practical focus
- Assign an accountable owner and purpose
- Use workload identity or short-lived credentials where possible
- Limit interactive use and privilege
- Review, rotate, monitor, and retire accounts
Common mistakes
- Sharing one service account across applications
- Embedding credentials in code
- Excluding service accounts from access reviews
- Keeping accounts after the workload is retired
Certification relevance
This subject appears in or supports the following certification bodies of knowledge: