Service accounts are a particular type of non-human privileged account used to execute applications and run automated services, virtual machine instances, and other processes. These accounts can be privileged local or domain accounts, and in some cases, they may have domain administrative privileges. This high level of privilege facilitates the smooth operation of many IT workflows, but a single service account can easily be referenced in many applications or processes. This interconnection, along with the critical nature of their usage, makes them very difficult to manage.
