OWASP NHI Top 10 – Insecure Authentication
Overview
Insecure Authentication refers to the use of deprecated, misconfigured, or weak authentication methods to grant access to non-human identities (NHIs) such as service accounts, API keys, or third-party integrations. These outdated flows expose credentials to interception, privilege escalation, and misuse—making them a common and severe security gap in SaaS environments.
What Is Insecure Authentication?
As organizations integrate internal and third-party services into their cloud and SaaS ecosystems, they often rely on NHIs for automated access. However, when these identities authenticate using outdated protocols—like implicit OAuth flows or static credentials—they undermine the broader security posture.
Common insecure methods include long-lived access keys, non-standard OAuth implementations, and app-specific passwords that bypass multi-factor authentication (MFA). These authentication weaknesses are often seen in legacy systems or unvetted third-party NHIs. Using such mechanisms increases the risk of account takeover and unauthorized access, particularly when secrets are hardcoded or leaked.
How Does Insecure Authentication Work?
Insecure authentication occurs through:
- Deprecated OAuth flows (e.g., Implicit Flow, Code Flow without PKCE)
- App-specific passwords that bypass MFA
- Hardcoded credentials and long-lived API keys
- Custom or non-standard OAuth practices
- Legacy protocols transmitting usernames and passwords directly
These approaches are often easy for attackers to exploit with standard tools, making detection and response even more critical.
Why Does Insecure Authentication Matter?
When authentication is insecure, even a robust secrets governance strategy can be undermined. According to the CSA NHI Report, 22% of organizations cited deprecated access methods as one of their top NHI concerns. Attacks such as the CircleCI, Snowflake, and Uber breaches demonstrate how improperly secured identities open the door to widespread compromise.
This issue overlaps with risks identified across other OWASP NHI Top 10 threats—especially secret leakage, improper offboarding, and vulnerable third-party NHIs.
Astrix’s Solution for Insecure Authentication
Astrix addresses insecure authentication by automating identity discovery and enforcing secure access standards:
- Discover Non-Human Identities to surface NHIs using outdated authentication
- Detect Suspicious Non-Human Activity that may indicate credential misuse
Through continuous monitoring and policy enforcement, Astrix minimizes exposure from insecure NHI authentication paths.
Don’t let outdated authentication be your weakest link. Explore Astrix’s platform to detect, govern, and replace insecure NHIs—before attackers exploit them.
Learn more about the OWASP NHI Top 10 framework in Astrix’s introduction to the standard → Introducing the OWASP NHI Top 10.