What is a Password Vault?
A Password Vault is a secure, encrypted repository used to store and manage credentials such as usernames, passwords, SSH keys, and API tokens, centralizing control over privileged account access. Often part of a Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution, password vaults restrict direct access to sensitive credentials by storing them in an isolated system and enabling secure retrieval or automated injection into systems and applications. Password vaults reduce the risk of password exposure, reuse, and misuse by enforcing access policies, logging activity, and rotating credentials as needed.
Why is a Password Vault Important?
Privileged accounts such as those used by administrators, applications, or vendors, are high-value targets for attackers. Without centralized credential management, organizations face elevated risks of credential theft, lateral movement, and unauthorized access. Password vaults mitigate these risks by protecting sensitive credentials in a hardened environment and controlling how, when, and by whom they are used.
In critical infrastructure environments, where operators often manage legacy systems, remote users, and third-party vendors, password vaulting becomes essential. Manual credential distribution or hardcoded passwords can lead to audit failures or catastrophic security breaches. Vaults help enforce least privilege, provide audit trails, and support regulatory requirements such as NERC CIP, IEC 62443, and TSA SD02E.
Password vaults also enable operational flexibility by integrating with access management workflows eliminating the need to share or expose passwords during remote sessions, which is particularly important for securing OT and ICS assets.
How Does Xona Help with Password Vaults?
Xona integrates seamlessly with enterprise-grade password vaults and/or provides built-in password vaulting to enable secure, credential-injected access. This allows users to reach authorized systems without ever seeing or handling the credentials, preventing password theft, sharing, and misuse, while supporting Zero Trust and Just-in-Time access strategies.
As a secure access gateway, Xona brokers each session and retrieves credentials either from a connected external vault (such as CyberArk, BeyondTrust, or a custom vault) or from Xona’s internal vault at the moment of session initiation. Credentials are injected directly into RDP, SSH, or browser-based sessions, without exposing them to the user or their device.
This architecture eliminates standing privileges, enhances session-level auditability, and ensures consistent enforcement of identity and access policies across both IT and OT systems. Combined with Xona’s role- and time-based controls, session isolation, and real-time monitoring, password vaulting becomes a powerful control point for securing privileged access at scale.
Frequently Asked Questions
What types of credentials are typically stored in a password vault?
Password vaults securely store privileged credentials such as administrator passwords, SSH keys, service accounts, and API tokens.
How does a password vault improve security over manual credential management?
It centralizes credential storage, enforces access controls, enables audit logging, and prevents exposure or reuse of sensitive passwords.
Is a password vault required for regulatory compliance in critical infrastructure?
Can password vaults be integrated with automated access control systems?
What is credential injection, and how does it relate to password vaults?
How does Xona utilize password vaults in its secure access platform?
Xona retrieves credentials from internal or external vaults and injects them into remote sessions, ensuring users never see passwords while maintaining full control and auditability over privileged access.
