CyberArk

Primary DomainPrivileged Access Management (PAM)

HeadquartersNewton, Massachusetts, USA & Petah Tikva, Israel

Founded1999

DeploymentPrivileged Access SaaS (Privilege Cloud), Self-Hosted Enterprise Vault, Endpoint Privilege Manager

Vendor & Platform Overview

CyberArk is the global benchmark in Privileged Access Management (PAM) and identity security. Designed to stop lateral movement and credential abuse by advanced persistent threats (APTs) and ransomware syndicates, CyberArk isolates, monitors, and automatically rotates the most sensitive administrative credentials across IT infrastructure, cloud consoles, and DevOps CI/CD pipelines.

Architecture & Detection Telemetry

CyberArk's core architecture utilizes a hardened Digital Vault protected by multiple encryption layers and zero-knowledge isolation. The platform isolates privileged sessions via the Privileged Session Manager (PSM), ensuring administrators never touch or know raw credentials. CyberArk Endpoint Privilege Manager (EPM) removes local administrator privileges from workstations, enforcing Just-In-Time (JIT) elevation and application greylisting to block unapproved binaries.

Mitigated Threat Types & Incident Playbooks

Targeted malware classifications and primary attack vectors defended by CyberArk's security stack:

Lateral Movement & Pass-the-Hash Attacks →Privileged Credential Theft (LSASS Injection) →Enterprise Ransomware Domain Takeover →Living-off-the-Land Administrator Misuse →

SOC Incident Response & Containment Workflow

Recommended operational sequence for security operations teams triaging alerts generated by CyberArk:

Upon detection of anomalous privilege usage, SOC analysts invoke CyberArk Identity Security Intelligence (ISI) to immediately terminate active administrative sessions, isolate the jumping bastion, and trigger an automated, emergency password and SSH-key rotation across domain controllers, cloud IAM roles, and database roots, trapping the adversary in a dead privilege domain.

Enterprise Security Products

CyberArk Identity Security Platform
Endpoint Privilege Manager
Venafi Machine Identity
Zilla Security (Identity Governance)

Other Products & Solutions

Non-catalog offerings, enterprise IT platforms, and consumer productivity solutions provided by CyberArk:

CyberArk Workforce Identity (Single Sign-On SSO and adaptive multi-factor authentication)
CyberArk Secrets Manager (DevOps pipeline secrets management via Conjur)
CyberArk Customer Identity / CIAM (Consumer authentication, user registration, and OAuth APIs)
CyberArk Secure Web Sessions (Browser session recording, keystroke auditing, and click tracking for SaaS apps)

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is Privileged Access Management (PAM) critical for stopping ransomware?

Ransomware operators rely on harvesting Domain Admin or root credentials to distribute encrypters via Group Policy Objects (GPO) or PsExec. CyberArk vaults and rotates these credentials continuously, denying attackers the elevated access required for enterprise-wide encryption.

How does CyberArk Endpoint Privilege Manager (EPM) stop malware execution?

CyberArk EPM strips local admin rights from standard users and applies application greylisting. If an unrecognized executable or script attempts to run, EPM restricts its privileges, preventing it from accessing LSASS memory or modifying system files.

Can CyberArk record and audit live administrative sessions?

Yes. CyberArk PSM records full video and keystroke logs of all privileged sessions across RDP, SSH, and cloud consoles, providing searchable audit trails and automated termination of risky command execution.