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Shweta Sharma
Senior Writer

Teleport bridges human and machine access management with Machine ID

News
Apr 05, 20222 mins
Identity and Access Management

As part of version 9 of its open source access management platform, Teleport is looking to treat human and machine access in the same way to create more secure infrastructure and applications.

Identity access management  >  abstract network connections and circuits reflected in eye
Credit: Natali Mis / Getty Images

Teleport, an open-source platform designed to provide zero trust access management for servers and cloud applications, has announced the availability of Teleport 9, the latest version of its unified access plane.  

The latest version features a new feature, called Machine ID, which delivers identity-based access and audit for infrastructure resources like servers and databases, CI/CD automation, service accounts, and custom code in microservices-based applications. 

With Machine ID, Teleport aims to consolidate identity-based credentials for engineers and their applications, closing the sort of security loopholes that can compromise key infrastructure and code. 

“Just as a contract developer should not be able to access production environments using a shared credential that masks their identity, neither should a CI/CD worker or a microservice have access to more than the minimum set of resources needed,” said Ev Kontsevoy, CEO and cofounder of Teleport. “By providing a unified identity-aware access solution that both humans and machines can use, Teleport Machine ID enables organizations to easily implement security and compliance without worrying about backdoors that outmoded solutions encourage.”

Teleport is aiming to help organizations move beyond perimeter security approaches to machine-to-machine access using hardcoded shared credentials like passwords and API keys. Instead, it looks to automate Certificate Authority (CA), to programmatically issue and renew SSH and X.509 short-lived certificates. 

Machine ID “vastly simplifies certificate management for IT infrastructure, just as Let’s Encrypt simplified website certificates,” Kontsevoy said.

Teleport 9 adds Desktop Access and new database access features

Teleport combines Secure Shell Protocol (SSH), Kubernetes, and HTTPs technology to provide secure access to servers, Kubernetes clusters, applications, and databases, complete with an audit log. The events collected include authentication attempts, file transfers, network connections, and file system changes made during an SSH session.

In addition to Machine ID, Teleport 9 includes a Desktop Access option, allowing users to access and audit Windows servers and desktops, including Windows session recordings, Clipboard copy-and-paste, and multi-factor authentication. 

Teleport 9 now also supports database access for Redis, MariaDB, and Microsoft SQL Server, as well as an auto-discovery capability for Amazon Redshift clusters to onboard new Redshift instances without manual registration. 

“Teleport has significantly upgraded their flagship product,” says Gary McAlum, senior analyst at TAG Cyber. “Machine ID simplifies and automates a scalable approach to access digital certificate management. Additionally, improved compliance reporting for the Windows environment should also be well-received by the audit teams.”