Linux Identity Security: know who can do what, right now
Years of sudo rules, SSH keys and service accounts have built paths to root across your Linux estate. They are hard to see from any single tool. Automation and AI agents now find and use them faster than any review. LinuxGuard maps every one and flags every change as it happens.
Built by practitioners with 20+ years inside Mastercard, EY, UBS, Lonza, and UK Government agencies. We worked on this problem from the inside, and built the tool we wished we'd had.
The unmapped Linux identity layer
Linux is the foundation of the modern enterprise. Your Windows, cloud and SaaS identities are governed and reviewed. Are the sudo rules and SSH keys on your Linux hosts held to the same standard? Here is what one design partner deployment found.
247
orphaned accounts discovered in a 412-server estate
Access builds up over years
Orphaned accounts, NOPASSWD sudo rules and shared SSH keys are what years of deployments, migrations and emergency fixes leave behind. None of it was created by an attacker or an agent. The teams that catch this privilege creep early detect it continuously, rather than finding out when something goes wrong.
LinuxGuard design partner deployment, global payments firm, Q4 2025
79%
of modern enterprise attacks use no malware
It sits outside what SIEM, EDR and cloud IAM inspect
Attackers don't need malware on Linux — they use valid credentials that should have been revoked. Linux-native identity artefacts sit outside what SIEM, EDR and CSPM were designed to inspect.
CrowdStrike 2025 Global Threat Report
83
NOPASSWD sudo rules removed after first LinuxGuard privilege map
Agents use the same paths, faster
In July 2026, autonomous AI agents got code execution inside production Kubernetes pods and used what they found — service-account tokens, privileged pods for node-level root, static database credentials. None of the techniques was new. Every path existed before the AI agents arrived; they were simply chained faster. Sources: Cloud Security Alliance research note and OpenAI's incident post, both 2026. Our own account: what the incident means for Linux identity.
Do any of your CI/CD pipelines, vendor tools or developer workflows run AI agents?
LinuxGuard design partner deployment, global payments firm, Q4 2025
The same map is your NIS2 and DORA evidence — LinuxGuard generates it continuously.
How it works: from first discovery to continuous assurance
LinuxGuard holds the full picture and the smallest detail at once. Your team sees what to fix first, and nothing in your Linux estate is left unaccounted for.
- 1
Discovery
Fast scan of every user, group, SSH key, sudo rule, PAM config, and service account across your Linux fleet.
- 2
Identity Inventory
A complete, structured identity map — every account, every privilege path, every access relationship — built automatically.
- 3
Risk Prioritisation
Findings scored and ranked so your team knows exactly which gaps to close first — no alert fatigue, no guesswork.
- 4
Continuous Assurance
Drift detection runs continuously — every new account, changed permission, or SSH key addition is flagged before it becomes a risk.
- 5
Time-Boxed Access
Access that is time-boxed and cleaned up at expiry — no standing credentials left behind.
The Numbers Behind Identity Risk
56%
can't enforce least privilege for service accounts, on-premises included. Only 15% count a machine identity with sensitive access as privileged
Palo Alto Networks, 2026 Identity Security Landscape~4×
the share of endpoint alerts that are privilege escalation on Linux, against Windows (9.87% vs 2.56%)
Elastic Global Threat Report 2025109:1
machine identities, including AI agents, for every human identity
Palo Alto Networks, 2026 Identity Security Landscape241 days
mean time to identify and contain credential-based breaches
IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report 2025The privilege-escalation figure is Linux and Windows endpoint telemetry; the others are cross-industry and cloud.
What LinuxGuard Delivers
Identity Intelligence
Complete visibility into every identity, privilege path and access relationship across your Linux estate. Agent runtimes and MCP servers are discovered as identities too, each with a reach score and a place in the access graph.
Risk Scoring
Prioritised findings so your team knows exactly which gaps to close first.
Compliance & Audit
Continuous compliance evidence for SOC 2, NIS2, DORA, and CIS controls — ready when auditors ask.
Automated Response
Lock an account or revoke sudo behind an approval gate, with automatic rollback and a tamper-evident audit trail. Terminate a session that breaks file or egress policy in under a second. Agent credentials are revoked on the host within 90 seconds.
Just-in-Time Access
Agents get approval-gated, time-boxed access instead of standing credentials.
Built for the Distributions You Run
LinuxGuard is certified with Red Hat and SUSE and validated with Ubuntu — so you know it works in your environment before you deploy.
LinuxGuard is certified SUSE Ready, validated for compatibility with SUSE Linux Enterprise.
View CertificationLinuxGuard is certified as a Red Hat Certified Technology, validated for compatibility with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS Stream, and Fedora.
View CertificationLinuxGuard is Validated with Ubuntu under Canonical's Software Partner Programme.
Why LinuxGuard
Built for the layer beneath SIEM, EDR and cloud IAM
Generalist security platforms watch the network, the endpoint, and the cloud — but not the artefacts that decide who can actually do what on a Linux host. Sudo rules, SSH keys, PAM chains and orphaned service accounts sit below the layer SIEM, EDR and CSPM tools inspect. That is where privilege drift accumulates, and where attackers move once they have valid credentials.
LinuxGuard was built for that layer from the ground up, not adapted from a Windows-first agent or cloud-first scanner. It maps every privilege path from the filesystem, audit logs, and PAM configuration on each host, then flags drift the moment it appears.
Network traffic, endpoint processes, and cloud configuration — the perimeter and the workload, but not the identity artefacts on the Linux host itself.
NOPASSWD sudo entries, shared and stale SSH keys, PAM chain changes, and service accounts that outlived the workload they were created for.
A continuous, host-level identity map — every privilege path enumerated, every drift event flagged, every account accounted for across your estate.
Who can do what on your Linux estate, right now?
Every identity, every privilege, every connection — known, governed, and continuously assured. Request a Founding Pilot, or explore the platform first.