Purpose, essential aspects and key features
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What is privileged access management?
Last updated: 15 July 2026
Gartner defines privileged access management (PAM) as a set of tools to control access and secure accounts that provide an elevated level of technical access. PAM tools are available as software, SaaS or hardware appliances, and manage privileged access for both people (i.e., system administrators and others) and machines (i.e., systems, or applications and AI agents).
Why does privileged access management matter?
Privileged access is access beyond the normal level granted to both human and machine accounts, including AI agents. It allows users to override existing access controls, change security configurations or make changes affecting multiple users or systems. As privileged access can create, modify and delete IT infrastructure, along with company data contained in that infrastructure, misuse represents catastrophic risk. Managing privileged access is thus a critical security function for every organization and requires a specific set of procedures and tools. PAM tools focus on technical access to privileged accounts, credentials and privileged commands.
PAM tools help organizations discover and onboard privileged accounts used by humans and machines. The tools secure these accounts by rotating and vaulting their credentials (e.g., passwords, keys) and brokering delegated access to them in a controlled manner. For interactive accounts used by people, PAM tools can require multifactor authentication and remote access through session control mechanisms to enable privileged account use without revealing credentials. For noninteractive accounts used by machines, the tools secure the handling of privileged credentials so that they are not exposed at rest.
PAM tools also provide command control by allowing only specific actions to be executed. As an optional ability, the tools can elevate a user’s privileges temporarily to allow the execution of commands in a privileged context. PAM tools offer visibility and control over the usage of privileged accounts and commands by tracking and recording privileged access for auditing and forensic purposes. The controls provided by PAM tools can implement just-in-time privilege management to enforce the principle of least privilege. Ultimately, this is to say that the right users must have the right level of access to the right resource for the right reason, at the right time.
What must privileged access management tools offer?
The mandatory features for this market include:
Centralized management and enforcement of privileged access by controlling access to privileged accounts and credentials and execution of privileged commands
Managing and brokering privileged access for authorized human users (e.g., system administrators, operators and help desk staff) and authorized machines (e.g., systems, applications, workloads, including AI agents) on a temporary basis
Account discovery and onboarding of privileged accounts across multiple systems, applications and cloud infrastructure providers
Vaulting, rotation and management of privileged credentials
Management, monitoring, recording and auditing for privileged sessions, including remote privileged sessions
Role-based administration, including centralized policy management for controlling access to credentials and privileged actions, when applicable
Just-in-time privilege management, which reduces the time a user is granted privileged access
Just-in-time provisioning, which eliminates “standing” (or persistent) privileges that are continuously available to administrators or systems and replaces them with a mechanism that generates time-bound credentials
What are common features of privileged access management tools?
The common features for this market include:
Agent-based controlled privilege elevation for commands executed on macOS, UNIX/Linux or Windows operating systems
Secrets management for workloads, including applications, services, containers, scripts and VMs
Privileged account life cycle management for humans and machines
Cloud infrastructure entitlement management (CIEM)
Identity administration, including authentication and authorization capabilities to secure remote privileged access for third-party external IT staff, including vendors, service providers and other external users that require technical access
Automating multistep, repetitive and routine tasks related to privileged operations that are orchestrated and/or executed over a range of systems, while providing guardrails by checking against defined policies and settings
Using generative AI techniques to streamline tool administration, such as analyzing session recordings and supporting natural language processing as an alternative to an admin console
Detecting and responding to privileged threats that require the analysis of access behaviors, privilege usage patterns and anomalies
Who should consider purchasing privileged access management tools?
User types include those that require technical access (e.g., systems, applications, database and network administrators, operators and help desk staff) and machines (e.g., systems, applications, API clients or workloads, including AI agents).
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