As your organization expands its use of cloud platforms, DevOps pipelines, and machine-to-machine communication, the number of cryptographic keys (particularly SSH keys) can grow uncontrollably. This phenomenon, known as SSH key sprawl, introduces serious challenges:
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Lack of visibility into which keys are in use
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Vulnerable or orphaned keys that may go undetected
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Compliance difficulties with security and regulatory standards
Manual SSH key management does not scale. To solve this challenge, you need a strategic, automated approach built on Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) best practices. Automation will help you simplify management, strengthen compliance, and improve operational efficiency.
In this article, you will learn:
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What SSH key sprawl is and why it’s a growing problem
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The risks and compliance issues tied to unmanaged SSH keys
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Why manual key management fails in modern environments
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How automation and PKI-based strategies can eliminate key sprawl
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Best practices for building a scalable, sustainable key management process
Understand the Scope of Key Sprawl
In a typical enterprise, thousands or even millions of unmanaged SSH keys and digital certificates may exist without centralized oversight. Organizations could be vulnerable to threats without even realizing it.
The problem extends across traditional PKI assets like X.509 certificates, as well as less-governed key types like SSH key pairs used for access control. Sprawl is exacerbated by manual provisioning, shadow IT, and short-lived certificate lifespans with high renewal frequency.
Unmanaged Keys: A Major Security Risk
There are several reasons unmanaged keys present a major security risk to organizations:
- Untracked SSH keys can provide persistent, privileged access long after their owners leave the organization
- Forgotten or expired certifications cause unplanned outages, break integrations, and violate compliance requirements
- Many organizations lack visibility into which keys are actively in use, who owns them, and when they expire. Key sprawl creates fragmented trust (multiple root CAs, orphaned certifications, conflicting SSH trust models) that undermines cryptographic hygiene
Managing Key Sprawl When Existing Tools Fall Short
Legacy tools aren’t up to the job. In fact, the gap between modern requirements and legacy capabilities is only widening. Existing tools don’t leverage automation. Without automation, key rotation and revocation are too slow and error-prone to scale.
Native tools such as open SSH key scanners or browser-based certification managers provide narrow, fragmented views of key usage. Traditional identity access management and privileged access management tools often overlook SSH key trust relationships or treat PKI certificates as static attributes instead of dynamic assets.
Even large security teams struggle to maintain up-to-date inventories across infrastructure, containers, IoT devices, and user endpoints.
Taking a Systemic Approach to Solving Key Sprawl
You can solve the problem of SSH keys sprawling across the IT landscape by unifying key and certificate discovery under a single model grounded in PKI principles.
A modern approach to bring key sprawl under control uses certificate lifecycle automation to continuously monitor, renew, and revoke digital certificates across environments. It also replaces unmanaged pairs of SSH keys with SSH certificates, issued and validated by a centralized authority.
Additionally, an approach grounded in PKI establishes governance policies that define ownership, usage boundaries, and expiration timelines for all key types. It integrates certificate and SSH key management with DevOps pipelines, cloud environments, and identity systems to enforce least privilege principles.
4 Traits: What Good SSH Key Management Looks Like
Organizations with good SSH key governance and strong PKI exhibit these four traits:
- Full visibility
- Automation-first operations
- Policy enforcement and alerts
- Unified reporting and auditability
#1 – Full Visibility
Full visibility into every cryptographic entity across the enterprise is essential. You can’t manage what you can’t see. Visibility allows you to assess risks in real time to prioritize what needs to be fixed or replaced.
#2 – Automation-First Operations
Manual SSH key management is no longer viable today. Automation can catch risky items better than humans and for less cost.
Automation-first operations eliminate human error by removing that link from the process. Moreover, they are significantly quicker than humans, so you don’t need to worry that your organization isn’t protected due to a vulnerable key.
#3 – Policy Enforcement and Alerts
One of the benefits of automation is policy enforcement at scale and alerts. Those are factors of good governance that reduce the chances of threats remaining in the wild. Organizations with strong SSH key management have automated policy enforcement and alerts in place. No one can violate policies because automation stops them. Additionally, automated alerts let you know when a certificate expires so it can be taken care of immediately.
#4 – Unified Reporting and Auditability
ISO 27001 and PCI-DSS, as well as other regulations set by NIST and FedRAMP, require strong cryptographic standards. Manual management could lead to violating these standards, and if audited, you might not meet compliance.
Automated SSH key management enables unified reporting and auditability. You can run reports about regulatory compliance as well as offer an audit trail to auditors. Reporting reduces the cost of preparing for audits and reduces the likelihood of compliance failures. Manual key management doesn’t give you the visibility you need to run reports or provide an audit trail.
Keyfactor Command for Eliminating Key Sprawl
Keyfactor Command automates the SSH key management process. Here are some of the top benefits:
Automated Key Discovery
You gain real-time visibility into keys across the organization. View keys from a single console, minimizing complexity and saving time.
Enforce Regular Key Rotation and Expiration
With Keyfactor Command, you can identify and remove unused or unauthorized keys in your network so you can enforce automated key expiration and rotation. Define key lifespans and schedule key rotation for hassle-free compliance.
Self-Service Key Generation and Automated Provisioning
Users can generate the keys they need with self-service. Automated deployment to server and cloud workloads minimizes time and effort for IT staff while reducing security risks.
Continuous Compliance
Keyfactor Command ensures private keys are generated and stored securely with on-device key generation. It also integrates with popular hardware security modules (HSMs) and key vaults.
Reporting and Alerts
You can generate custom or out-of-the-box reports for insights into keys across the organization. Additionally, you can set alerts via email or chat tools.
Road Ahead: Modern Key and Certificate Management
Key sprawl isn’t going away. PKI teams must take a proactive role to modernize their approach to key and certificate management. Otherwise, machines, APIs, and ephemeral workloads will continue to proliferate unchecked, and you’ll be vulnerable to risks from vulnerable keys.
Keyfactor Command automates key and certificate management so you can take a PKI-centric approach that protects your organization efficiently and effectively. Explore how Keyfactor Command delivers centralized visibility and control across your cryptographic landscape from X.509 certificates to SSH keys.
Have questions? Contact Keyfactor to request a demo and transform your PKI strategy.
