Secrets & JIT Access

Secrets & JIT Access

Table of Contents

Q1: Can agents use short-lived credentials (JIT) only?

Q1: Can agents use short-lived credentials (JIT) only?

They should, whenever possible. “Just-in-time” for agents usually means:

  • Access tokens are minutes-lived, not hours/days.

  • Refresh capabilities (if needed) are rotated and/or sender-constrained to reduce replay risk.

  • The agent requests credentials only when it is about to act, and discards them immediately after.

This aligns with modern OAuth BCP guidance: reduce token scope and lifetime, and use rotation/sender-constraining as additional defenses.

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Q2: How do we manage "secrets" for thousands of dynamic agents?

The scalable standard is: don’t distribute secrets to agents distribute identity proof and let a trusted issuer mint short-lived creds.

  • Use workload identity (SPIFFE/SPIRE) so agents can get short-lived SVIDs/certs via an attested Workload API, at runtime.

  • Centralize issuance in an authorization server (OAuth) that mints scoped, time-boxed tokens; agents authenticate using stronger methods (mTLS/attestation/PoP) rather than static client secrets.

  • Enforce inventory + ownership: every agent has an identity, policies, and audit trail even if the instance is ephemeral.

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Q3: Can we implement "secretless" access for agents?

Yes “secretless” usually means no long-lived shared secrets embedded in code or prompts.

Two common approaches:

  • SPIFFE/SPIRE-based: agents prove identity via attested SVIDs (short-lived certs) and use mTLS to services.

  • OAuth PoP-based: agents use proof-of-possession (DPoP) or certificate-bound tokens (mTLS) so access is tied to keys/certs rather than reusable bearer secrets.

You may still have some secrets in the system (e.g., root keys in HSM/KMS), but agents themselves stop carrying fragile long-lived secrets.

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Q4: How do we rotate agent credentials automatically?

Design rotation as a default property of your credential types:

  • SPIFFE/SPIRE: rotation is built-in; workloads receive short-lived keys/certs and renew automatically.

  • OAuth tokens: rotate by using short access-token TTLs plus refresh token rotation (and revoke on anomaly).

Operationally, you want: automated renewal + centralized revocation + monitoring for replay/abuse.

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