Use PAM to answer SOC 2 questions about privileged access
SOC 2 Type II reviews spend real time on logical access, provisioning, review, and monitoring. Gateway-based PAM turns those controls into records your assessor can sample — sessions, approvals, and exports — instead of a ticket-and-syslog scavenger hunt.
What assessors ask
Privileged access is where CC6 and CC7 reviews get concrete
This page is for your SOC 2 program — how PAM helps you demonstrate controls over production access. It is not a statement about Ixiea’s own certification status.
Who can reach production, and how do you prove it stayed least-privilege?
SOC 2 reviewers expect logical access controls — not shared break-glass accounts and not VPN paths that bypass policy. PAM routes privileged sessions through a gateway where entitlements are identity-bound and enforced before connect.
How do you provision, review, and remove privileged access?
CC6.2 and CC6.3 require documented provisioning, periodic review, and timely removal. JIT requests with named approvers, certification exports, and gateway-side revocation give assessors a straight line from request to session — without spreadsheet reconstruction.
What do you monitor, and what do you retain for incidents?
CC7.2 and CC7.3 expect security-relevant events and evidence you can use in response. Session metadata, command logs, and recording artifacts tied to identity and policy version answer “who did what, when, and under which policy.”
CC6 and CC7 mapping
One PAM implementation — gateway-brokered, identity-bound, recorded sessions — supports multiple Trust Services Criteria in the logical access and monitoring families.
Gateway policy enforces least privilege on SSH, RDP, database, and Kubernetes sessions. Entitlements follow IdP roles — no standing shared accounts on production targets.
JIT access with named approvers and time windows. Revocation takes effect at the gateway immediately — access stops working, not just on paper.
Periodic access certification exports and review queues support quarterly attestation: who held privileged entitlements, who approved them, and what they used.
The gateway is the control boundary for privileged protocols. Operators do not receive direct network reachability to production — sessions are brokered and recorded at the choke point.
Session metadata, command logs, and login events stream to your SIEM. Privileged activity is observable in real time, not inferred from target-side logs days later.
Full-fidelity session playback, command history, and approval chains give investigators and assessors one record to follow — identity, target, policy version, and activity.
Auditor sample
Artifacts to have ready for privileged-access testing
- Sample of approved JIT requests with reviewer identity and validity window
- Session metadata export for production access in the audit period
- Command or query log excerpts for high-risk targets
- Recording or playback pointer for a sampled privileged session
- Access review attestation showing entitlement certification
- Policy change history for rules governing privileged connect
See Audit & Evidence for how Ixiea captures and exports these record types in production.
Continuous workflow
Run the control loop every day
The fastest path through SOC 2 fieldwork is evidence that was collected during normal operations — not rebuilt the week before the auditor arrives.
- Request and approve. Access requests route to named approvers with context — who, which target, why, and for how long. Decisions are stored with reviewer identity and timestamp.
- Enforce at the gateway. Only approved, in-window sessions connect. Policy changes apply to new sessions immediately so revoked access actually stops.
- Capture while it happens. Sessions are recorded at the gateway: metadata, commands, and optional playback. Evidence does not depend on target-side agents or tamperable shell history.
- Export for the sample. Pull bundles by user, system, or time range for the auditor’s sample period. Forward the same records to SIEM or GRC tools for continuous monitoring.
Preparing for fieldwork?
Map PAM evidence to your CC6 and CC7 narrative
We will walk through your production access paths, the artifacts your assessor is likely to sample, and how gateway recording fits your existing GRC workflow.