Home › Identity Security Encyclopedia › Access Key

Access Key

An access key is a unique string of characters used to authenticate and authorize access to a system, service, or resource — commonly used by non-human identities like applications and scripts to access cloud APIs.

Cloud NHI AWS Credentials

❓ What is Access Key?

An access key is a unique string of characters used to authenticate and authorize access to a system, service, or resource — commonly used by non-human identities like applications and scripts to access cloud APIs.

⚙️ How Does It Work?

Access keys consist of an Access Key ID and a Secret Access Key. The calling application presents both to the cloud API, which validates them against IAM policies to grant or deny the request.

📍 Where Is It Used?

AWS IAM, Azure, GCP — any cloud platform where applications or scripts need programmatic access to resources.

💡 Real-World Example

A developer hardcodes an AWS access key in a Lambda function to read from S3. The key is accidentally pushed to a public GitHub repo and scraped by a bot within minutes, leading to a cloud breach. Best practice: use IAM roles and short-lived credentials instead.

🔗 Related Terms

AWS IAM Non-Human Identity Secrets Management Service Account Least Privilege
← Zero Standing PrivilegeAccess Management →

Stay Ahead in Identity Security

Get weekly IAM, PAM & IGA insights delivered to your inbox via Identity Pulse.

Subscribe to Identity Pulse →
Scroll to top