Privileged accounts are the proverbial keys to the kingdom, and that kingdom is your organization.

These “keys” configure infrastructure, move data, unlock applications, and, in the wrong hands, can quietly dismantle security controls from the inside. Because these accounts often control sensitive data, systems, and user privileges, they are prime targets for attackers and a critical focus area for any privileged access management (PAM) strategy.

Privileged access isn’t limited to IT functions. Legal, finance, and line-of-business owners increasingly hold powerful accounts tied to mission-critical platforms. For IT and PAM administrators, SecOps, and business stakeholders, it’s essential to recognize where these privileges reside, how they are used, and how they should be governed.

This article highlights six categories of accounts that should almost always be treated as privileged and brought under the umbrella of a PAM solution, such as Devolutions PAM.

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What makes an account “privileged”?

An account is typically considered privileged when it can do one or more of the following:

• Change security controls, configurations, or policies for systems or users;
• Access sensitive or regulated data at scale (financial records, legal documents, personal data, intellectual property, etc.);
• Bypass normal approval, oversight, or workflow mechanisms;
• Perform actions that affect many users, systems, or business units at once.

Whether those capabilities belong to an IT admin, infrastructure engineer, finance manager, or automated background service, the risk profile is similar. These accounts deserve strong governance, monitoring, and control under a PAM program.

Six categories of privileged accounts

1. Application and service accounts

Application and service accounts are often the “silent majority” of privileged identities.

Application accounts are used by software to interact with databases, APIs, file shares, or other systems, usually without direct human interaction. Service accounts run background services, scheduled jobs, and other system processes that require ongoing access.

Because they are non-human, these accounts are easy to overlook. They commonly have long-lived credentials, broad access “just in case,” and even hard-coded secrets in scripts or configuration files. If compromised, they can provide a stealthy path into critical data stores and systems, often without triggering obvious user-behavior anomalies.

2. Domain administrator accounts

In an Active Directory environment, domain administrators can create, modify, and delete user and computer accounts; change group memberships; edit Group Policy Objects (GPOs); and influence authentication and authorization across the domain. A compromised domain admin account gives an attacker the ability to move laterally, weaken or disable security controls, exfiltrate data at scale, and create backup accounts and assign them high privileges with the intent of causing damage.

Because of their reach and impact, domain administrator accounts should always be treated as high-risk privileged identities.

3. Emergency accounts

Emergency, “break-glass,” or firecall accounts provide last-resort access in critical situations: for example, when administrators are locked out or primary identity providers are unavailable.

These accounts often hold broad privileges and operate outside normal authentication and SSO flows by design. They are intended for rare, documented use, yet their credentials may sit unused and untested for long periods. Ownership can drift, documentation can become outdated, and what begins as a safety net can become an under-governed backdoor.

If attackers discover an emergency account with wide-reaching privileges, they gain a powerful way to bypass standard controls and move through the environment with minimal oversight.

4. Root and local administrator accounts

On Linux and Unix, root accounts provide near-total control over the system by installing and configuring software, changing file permissions, and modifying security settings. On Windows, local administrator accounts manage software installation, local configuration, and local security controls, even when the device belongs to an Active Directory domain.

When breached, shared or unmanaged local admin passwords make it simple for adversaries to pivot between endpoints, disable security tools, alter logs, and maintain persistence even when higher-level controls are strong.

5. Cloud console admin accounts

As infrastructure, applications, and data move to the cloud, console admin accounts in Azure, AWS, GCP, VMware, and other platforms have become central to security.

Cloud console administrators can create and destroy resources, modify IAM policies, adjust security groups, manage keys and identities, and configure or disable logging and monitoring. In many organizations, a small number of cloud admin accounts effectively control a large portion of the infrastructure footprint, making these accounts extremely valuable targets. A compromised cloud admin can deploy rogue resources, exfiltrate data, or weaken controls across multiple regions, accounts, or tenants in a very short time.

6. Mission-critical application admin accounts

Some of the most sensitive privileges sit inside mission-critical business applications, often owned by finance, legal, HR, or operations rather than IT.

Administrators of platforms like CRMs, ERP systems, HR or accounting suites, and legal matter-management tools can typically manage roles and permissions, alter workflows and approval chains, and access or export large volumes of sensitive business data. They may also configure integrations that connect the application to other internal or third-party systems.

These accounts blend technical reach with direct business and compliance implications. A compromised CRM admin can tamper with sales data and customer records; a finance admin can influence invoices, payment flows, and reporting; a legal system admin can access confidential contracts and privileged communications. Even when they are not part of IT, they clearly behave like privileged accounts and should be governed accordingly.

Bringing it together with Devolutions PAM

For small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs), the problem is rarely recognizing that these accounts are sensitive. The real challenge is governing them without the excessive complexity, long roll-outs, or prohibitive costs of legacy PAM solutions.

Devolutions PAM is an accessible, IT-led privileged access management solution designed for organizations that need governance, visibility, and control without lengthy, complex implementations. It combines vaulting, approvals, just-in-time access, and session recording in a consolidated package that is affordable, easy for IT teams both big and small to operate, and integrates seamlessly with Remote Desktop Manager and Devolutions Gateway.

Devolutions PAM helps organizations apply essential protection patterns consistently:

• Centralized vaulting and access control for human and non-human privileged credentials, from application and service accounts to cloud, local, domain, emergency, and SaaS/application admins.
• Stronger credential hygiene by limiting shared passwords, automating rotation, and equipping IT teams with tools for removing hard-coded secrets from scripts and configuration files.
• Least privilege and just-in-time elevation so powerful rights are granted only when needed, often with approvals for high-risk actions.
• Comprehensive monitoring and auditing through session recording and clear traceability of who did what, where, and when.
• Governed emergency access with sealed, auditable “break-glass” workflows.

By onboarding the six categories of privileged accounts into Devolutions PAM under these IT-led controls, organizations gain a unified, practical way to reduce risk, improve visibility, and strengthen their overall security posture.

To start reducing risk around your “keys to the kingdom” and see these controls in practice, begin with a hands-on evaluation. Start a Devolutions PAM trial.